By Michael McCurdy |[email protected]
W
ith four games left before the seedings of the Big Ten Tournament, the Iowa women’s basketball team is in the driver’s seat of how the rest of its season is going to play out.
Sitting with an overall record of 15-10 and tied for sixth place in the Big Ten standings at 6-6, Iowa has the ability to control where it ends up in March; it starts today, when the Hawkeyes will host 17-8 Northwestern at 7 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye.
The contest is a special one in that all fans are recommended to wear pink in support of breast-cancer awareness.
Northwestern is tied with Iowa in the Big Ten standings, so this would be a huge win for the Hawkeyes in conference tournament seedings. The Wildcats are on a three-game losing streak, a stat that does not faze Bluder’s mentality about the mature Wildcat unit.
“They have one of the most experienced teams in the conference,” Bluder said in a press conference. “When you think of how young we are and then you look at five seniors and the talent they have, that’s what has my attention right now.”
Experience isn’t the only attribute the Wildcats possess; they also are a talented bunch led by forward Nia Coffey, who’s averaging 19.2 points per game to go along with 11 rebounds per game. The starting guards, seniors Christen Inman and Ashley Deary, each average double figures in points per game.
While the Hawkeyes will have their hands full with the Wildcats, they also are still adjusting to the loss of sophomore starting point guard Tania Davis. Freshman guard Kathleen Doyle looks like she’ll get her third game in a row managing the offense, which should make for an interesting matchup between her youth and the Wildcats’ experience.
In order for the Hawkeyes to come away victorious, they’ll rely on senior Ally Disterhoft to affect the game both on offense and defense. This isn’t news to her; she understands her team needs her now more than ever in a time where she also recognizes her basketball life in Iowa City is coming to a close.
“I’m starting to realize my opportunities to wear an Iowa jersey are coming to a close. I don’t have a lot of games left,” Disterhoft said in a press conference. “I’m trying to make the most out of the time I have left on the floor and giving it my all. I don’t want to walk away with any regrets, so I’m going to continue to be aggressive and do whatever the team needs me to do to win.”
This late in the season, it’s easy for teams to look ahead and map what their season would look like if they came away with a win here and a loss there.
For the Hawkeyes, though, sophomore Megan Gustafson wants to instill a mentality in her team that focuses on taking it day-to-day because that’s the best course if she and the Hawkeyes want to be dancing in March.
“We have to treat each game as if that is going to decide if we’re going to be in the NCAA Tournament or not,” she said in a press conference. “Taking it game-by-game and knowing how important each game is will help us a lot.”