IOWA CITY—On November 29, 2017, the Iowa women’s basketball team faced #13 Florida State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It was one of the marquee matchups of the Hawkeyes' non-conference season. The official attendance that night was 4,202.

On Friday—five and a half years later—a crowd at least twice as large packed the Pentacrest in downtown Iowa City to celebrate a team that everyone agreed had captured the hearts of fans all over the state and country.

“We probably have an official estimate,” Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said of the crowd. “But I’m just going to call it 10,000.”

The seeds of this moment were planted before many of the players on this year’s team were even part of Iowa’s program. On January 26, 2020, a crowd of 13,420 showed up to Iowa’s conference matchup against Michigan State. They came to honor Megan Gustafson, the best player in program history (to that point, as it turns out), as she was having her jersey retired. Gustafson and her 2018-19 Hawkeye teammates had captured the hearts of many fans with a run to the Elite Eight.

Iowa’s attendance on that late January day — a threefold increase over that FSU game in 2017 — showed the potential of women’s basketball in Iowa. It also did enough to convince a high school recruit named Sydney Affolter to commit to Iowa at the end of her visit.

The rest of 2020 and early 2021 brought with it lockdowns that kept fans away from Carver-Hawkeye Arena. But 2020 also brought hope for the program in the form of a 6’0" guard from West Des Moines who played the game differently than anyone before her.

More and more fans came to watch Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes in 2021-2022. That support fueled a February surge up the Big Ten standings, culminating in a winner-take-all game against Michigan to end the regular season. That game was a sellout, the first for Iowa women's basketball at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in decades. Iowa thrashed the Wolverines, led by 38 points from Clark, and the fans came back to sell out the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament as well.

Iowa's quick exit from the 2022 NCAA Tournament didn't damper fan interest; if anything, it galvanized the Hawkeye fanbase. Suddenly five-figure home crowds were the norm. Many road opponents saw record attendance for their games when the Hawkeyes came to town with Clark in tow, fully embracing her role as a sharpshooting magnet for attention.

Anywhere the Hawkeyes went, fans followed en masse. Minneapolis in the Big Ten Tournament became Carver North. Seattle in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight became Carver West. And Dallas in the Final Four became Carver South.

Lisa Bluder just finished her 23rd season as head coach of the Iowa women’s basketball team. She's been coaching basketball at schools and points of history where the support was a minuscule fraction of what the Hawkeyes enjoyed Friday — and during the whole magical season. Sometimes she takes just a moment to appreciate the magnitude of what she and her staff have built.

“I got off the bus and I had tears in my eyes.” Bluder said of the moment in which she saw just how many had come to celebrate the Hawkeyes on Friday night.

The reasons people come to support this team are as diverse as the people themselves.

Iowa City mayor Bruce Teague came to share with the team how much they did for Iowa City. University of Iowa president Barbara Wilson celebrated how the team's run built pride in the university.

Kids of all ages came for stars like Clark and recent WNBA draftee Monika Czinano. They chanted along happily as Clark led the crowd in a cheer for Czinano’s Los Angeles Sparks.

Some came to show support for the entertainment the team has provided. “I think we’ve got the best show on hardwood,” Clark said during her time with the mic. Based on the record television audience Iowa drew during its NCAA Tournament run, millions of Americans seem to agree with her.

Others support the team just for a happy distraction from the hardship life sometimes brings. As the event began, the PA announcer mentioned that he had a friend going through a hard time with his family. The friend said that Iowa games helped them take their mind off those tough times for a while.

Still others support the team for the camaraderie they display. Many teams say they are a family. When Iowa players and coaches say it, you believe them.

You saw it in the way Clark and Czinano jumped up in overenthusiastic celebration when Mayor Teague proclaimed it Iowa Women’s Basketball Day in Iowa City. You saw it in the way the team teased AJ Ediger and Addison O’Grady when they were announced as guards instead of posts. And you saw it in the way Clark led a "Happy Birthday" singalong for Affolter and Bluder, getting the whole crowd to join.

The final testament to the enormous surge in fan support that this season has showcased was the celebration itself.

There was no game to watch. The season had ended with Iowa as national runners-up, in a game many found unsatisfying. Most of the crowd wouldn’t get particularly close to the players. The weather was nice enough for locals to do anything — but thousands upon thousands still descended on downtown Iowa City to celebrate this team one final time before the long offseason.

“Someone told me they were expecting 1,000 people [at the celebration],” Clark said to the crowd. “I told them they were wrong. I’m glad you proved them wrong.”

The fans did more than prove that meager projection wrong. They provided one last display of the record-setting support that they've shown Iowa women’s basketball all season.