By James Kay
The Hawkeye women’s basketball team has started with a flourish, reeling off a 5-2 record in the young season.
It has so far silenced its critics who thought the team’s youth would hinder its chances of being successful.
The Hawkeyes’ margin of victory is currently 15.6 points while beating their opponents by 30 on two separate occasions. The following is how Iowa has been able to dominate its foes.
Iowa is shooting 47.7 percent from the field
The Hawkeyes rank third in the conference in field-goal percentage behind Maryland (52.1 percent) and Michigan (51.8 percent).
What makes this statistic impressive is that the Hawkeyes only shoot 29.7 percent from behind the arc, meaning they have been highly efficient with their mid-range and post game.
The biggest reason has been the strong play of sophomore Megan Gustafson. She is averaging 17.6 points and 9.3 rebounds per game and has been one of the anchors on Iowa’s offense. Gustafson leads the team with a .688 field-goal percentage and three double-doubles.
Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder has made a point to get the ball to Gustafson, who has averaged 11 shots per game. It has certainly paid off, and Iowa will need her production in the paint if the Hawkeyes want to continue their success.
Iowa is only allowing its opponents to shoot 33.8 percent
Despite being in the middle of the pack in the conference in blocked shots (seventh), defensive rebounds (eighth), and turnover margin (10th), the Hawkeyes are not allowing their opponents to get good looks.
A part of Iowa’s tenacity on defense can be attributed to Bluder, who has shown opposing offenses different schemes. When asked about her different defensive formations after an 84-51 victory over Hampton, Bluder responded, “We’ve got stuff up our sleeve. We got stuff up our sleeve that we’re not going to spread the news about.”
The rest of the Big Ten will have to keep an eye on what Bluder decides to draw up on any given play.
From the players’ perspective, Iowa is also doing a good job stopping its opponents at the 3-point line, holding teams to 27.5 percent from 3-point territory while only allowing 5 3s per game.
While the Hawkeyes themselves have struggled to shoot 3s, they are at least preventing their opponents from looking like the Golden State Warriors from behind the arc.
Hawkeyes average 19 free throws per game
Not only are the Hawkeyes getting to the line, but they are making their free throws. They shoot 71 percent from the free-throw line, fourth in the Big Ten.
Senior captain Ally Disterhoft has gone to the line 46 times, averaging 6.5 free-throw attempts per game. While she only shoots 65 percent from the line, she is lethal around the rim and knows how to draw fouls when driving the lane.
Gustafson has also had success from the line and has made 17 of her 19 attempts.
If they continue to draw fouls at the rate that they have, the Hawkeyes will have no problem finding their way back to the NCAA Tournament.
