The Hawkeye women’sbasketball team is off to an 8-1 start to the new season and a newly earned ranking of No. 25 in the national polls, thanks to a close loss to Colorado and a defeat of the Dayton Flyers, who were ranked when they visited Carver-Hawkeye in the Hawkeye Challenge. The Hawkeyes are fresh off a Cancún Challenge crown, in which they defeated USC, Boston College, and North Carolina-Wilmington on three-consecutive nights.
Assists per game — 19.4: No. 1 in Big Ten, 14th in NCAA
The Hawkeyes have assisted on 172 field goals out of 254 made field goals so far in the 2013-14 season. That’s 68 percent of the field goals that the Hawkeyes make. Iowa has a pass-first mentality, and that starts with point guard Sam Logic. But the mentality is something that goes throughout the whole team. The Hawkeyes are looking for the best possible shots available, and it seems to be working — the Hawkeyes are also one of the highest scoring offenses in the Big Ten.
Scoring offense — 81.4 points per game 2nd in Big Ten, 31st in NCAA
Head coach Lisa Bluder said from the beginning of the season that she wanted the Hawkeyes to be a high-speed, high-scoring offense, and nine games into the season, the Hawkeyes are averaging 81 points per game, behind only Michigan State.
The win over Wilmington was the first time the team has broken into triple-digits, but the Hawkeyes came close against Dayton, when they scored 97, and Colorado, when they scored 87. The lowest margin of victory for the Hawkeyes was 7 against Northern Iowa, and their highest was 38 against Stony Brook.
Melissa Dixon — seven 3-pointers against UNC-Wilmington
Guard Melissa Dixon found herself in a shooting slump of sorts to start off the season after being named Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year in 2012-13.
All it took was a trip to Mexico to break her out of the funk.
Dixon scored in double figures in each of the team’s three games in Cancún, with 18, 17 and a personal best 32 against Wilmington. Her seven 3-pointers tied a single-game school record.
Assist to turnover ratio — 1.25, 1st in Big Ten, 14th in NCAA
A large number of turnovers can normally accompany a high-speed offense such as the Hawkeyes. While the Hawkeyes have had their fair share of turnovers, their 1.25 assist to turnover ratio is one of the highest in the nation.
Although the entire team has handled the ball well, this statistic starts and ends with Logic and freshman Alexa Kastanek. Logic is the team’s dignified floor general, and the team’s offense flows through her hands whenever she’s on the court.
The junior isn’t regarded as highly for her ball-handling. Logic herself has a 1.8 assist to turnover ratio, with 65 assists and 35 turnovers. Many of the players above Logic have either played in fewer games or have a low number of assists — mostly below 50. Her turnover number per game has decreased as the season has progressed as well. Should Logic continue to run the show, the Hawkeyes will continue to keep the ball in their hands and scoring on assisted baskets.
