By Michael McCurdy
There are many adjectives to describe the Iowa women’s basketball team’s loss on Feb. 19 at Purdue; embarrassing, disappointing, and lopsided would all work.
The Hawkeyes were outscored 47-17 in the second half.
Instead of analyzing the film, Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder mirrored the activity of the Empire’s Death Star in Star Wars by having her team destroy copies of the game film.
“It was probably dangerous looking back on it,” Bluder said. “I had junior Chase Coley break the game tape, and little pieces of DVD went flying all over the place. It flew all over the locker room; it probably wasn’t the smartest thing I have ever done, but I didn’t think about getting the old science goggles out beforehand.”
Bluder wants her team to forget easily as it travels to Bloomington, Indiana to take on the Hoosiers at 6 p.m. today.
This is a game of great magnitude; the Hoosiers are 8-6 in the Big Ten standings, and Iowa sits at 7-7.
With a win, the Hawkeyes could improve their seeding in next week’s Big Ten Tournament.
In good news for the Hawkeyes, freshman Bre Cera might be back in action after being out the last two games. She’s started 14 games this season, helping Iowa with defense, rebounding, and her return will be key in adding depth to a depleted roster.
“I know she can contribute defensive intensity,” Bluder said. “We missed that at Purdue, just that extra body. At the end, we looked like we were tired, with people playing a lot more minutes than they are used to playing.”
The Hoosiers are 18-9 overall with an 11-2 record at Assembly Hall. They’ve defeated some upper-echelon Big Ten teams at home, including Purdue and Michigan, but they also lost in Bloomington to Maryland, 92-56.
One thing the Hawkeyes will have to tidy up in order to win is shooting.
Against Purdue, Iowa blew a 10-point halftime lead by shooting 15.6 percent from the field. Key players, such as senior leader Ally Disterhoft, left the contest in dismay after scoring only 9 points on a 3-of-13 shooting performance.
“We haven’t played that poorly since the second half at Penn State on Jan. 3, and that has been a long time,” Bluder said. “I told the team it is going to be a long time before we play that poorly again. It is an anomaly, and we’re going to move on and focus on getting two wins this week.”
A win against Indiana would not only bode well for Big Ten Tournament, but also the NCAA Tournament if the Hawkeyes can improve their résumé.
At 16-11 overall, Iowa is 47th in the nation in RPI, a number that puts the Hawkeyes right on the bubble with two conference games left and a conference tournament next week.
“We’re not a shoo-in [for the NCAA Tournament], we’re not a shoo-out, but beating Indiana sure helps our cause,” Bluder said.