I'm approaching 20 years since my undergrad, but I have to disagree with both of you and say that Carver is not in a good location.
I lived in the west side dorms for two years. I walked to CHA for every game, which means winter, and was able to cut through the hospital to shorten the walk a bit. But to get from Rienow to the nearest door of CHA it was a half mile walk each direction. Then they started trying to prevent people from walking through the hospital which would have massively increased the walking distance, not sure if that is happening today though. From the nearest east side dorm you're talking over a mile of walking.
Riding the bus to the arena back in the early 2000s, back when we were sold out regularly and had the largest student section in the country, sucked because the busses were packed, always late, and were stuck in post-game traffic. So you might as well have walked unless it was a blizzard outside.
Basketball games also don't have tailgating, usually aren't on Saturdays, and usually aren't during the middle of the day. With the advent of the BTN it has gotten worse where most weeknight games start at 8:00 now instead of 7:00 like they used to. This means you're expecting students to walk home, in the winter, in the dark when the game gets over well after 10:00.
The hardcore student fans will overcome those issues. But CHA won't be a social gathering like Kinnick is for many of those reasons. Basketball games aren't big parties like Football games are.
