By Blake Dowson
The path toward getting back to the NCAA Tournament just got a little clearer for the Iowa women’s basketball team with the release of its Big Ten schedule.
The Big Ten announced on Monday the home-and-away series, as well as the single-game home and away series for every Big Ten school.
The Hawkeye women will play home-and-away series versus Illinois, Maryland, and Rutgers. It is never a great draw when a team has to play twice against a team such as Maryland, which has dominated the Big Ten since it joined the league. The Terrapins have won the regular-season league title the past two seasons, as well as the tournament title both seasons.
Rutgers has also been a force in the Big Ten since it joined the league, and the four games against the Scarlet Knights and Terrapins could have huge implications on the Hawkeyes’ postseason hopes.
The Hawks will play home games against Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Wisconsin.
Michigan State will be in the discussion for the team to beat in the conference. Senior Aerial Powers returns and will no doubt be a preseason all-conference selection; she could be named a preseason All-American. She is the leading candidate for Big Ten Player of the Year.
The Gophers were a tough out last year, but after the loss of Rachel Banham to graduation, 2016-17 will turn into a rebuilding year for Minnesota. Banham ended her Gopher career with more than 3,000 career points, and she tied the single game NCAA record with 60 points against Northwestern last season. She averaged 28.6 points per game in 2015-16.
One interesting story line heading into the Hawkeyes home contest versus Nebraska will be the play of incoming freshman Kathleen Doyle. Doyle, Miss Basketball from the state of Illinois, originally committed to play at Nebraska before backing off of that commitment when a coaching change was made. After she reopened her recruitment, Iowa swooped in and added her to a top-10 recruiting class.
Iowa will go on the road this season to face Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Purdue.
Ohio State is another team that will be in the Big Ten title discussion; the Buckeyes will get one more year out of Kelsey Mitchell before she heads off to the WNBA.
Mitchell has been a first-team All-Big Ten selection her first two years on campus, as well as Big Ten Player of the Year honors her freshman year, in 2015. She was a first-team All-American this past season.
Iowa will travel to the state of Indiana twice to take on the Hoosiers and Boilermakers, and both of those games will be of the über-important variety.
Both teams finished ahead of the Hawkeyes in the Big Ten standings a year ago, and both teams split a pair of games with Iowa.
Although the full nonconference schedule has not been announced yet, the release of the Big Ten slate gives the team and the coaching staff something to ponder to during the off-season.