After a ‘Fabulous February,’ Iowa wants to make March marvelous.
By: Jordan Zuniga
It’s March, and that means playoff basketball.
This is the month the Iowa women’s team has been waiting for; it’s the culmination of a hard-fought regular season in which the Hawkeyes managed an impressive 23-6 record.
However, records get thrown out the window in the madness of March, but luckily for Iowa, momentum keeps rolling until something stops it.
Momentum and confidence are certainly two things that Iowa has after its February, during which it went on a tear, winning all seven of its games.
The Hawkeyes aren’t worried that the flip of the calendar will affect their momentum, and they seek to make it bleed into March.
“We’re going to take it from fabulous February to marvelous March,” head coach Lisa Bluder said.
Big Ten Player of the Year Megan Gustafson echoed her coach.
“February was a great month for us,” she said. “We’ve done some really great things, I think that gives us a lot of momentum going into the Big Ten Tournament. I think that’s really important to have momentum.”
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Momentum could prove to be a decisive factor in the grueling tournament, because the style of the bracket doesn’t leave much time to rest or prepare in between games.
As the No. 5 seed, Iowa will take on Northwestern — which Iowa beat, 70-61, in Evanston earlier this season. Because the Hawkeyes didn’t know which team they were going to play for a while, they had to prepare for two teams.
“The coaches prepare one scout, but they’ve got the other one ready to go,” sophomore guard Kathleen Doyle said. “Once we find out who wins, we will prepare even more for that team. We just prepare for both just to be ready for both.”
A big key for Iowa in the first game is making sure to preserve energy for what could be four games in four days.
All season long, the Hawkeyes have battled with a small rotation, often only going eight deep. In a tournament this rigorous, they’re going to need to preserve as much energy as possible.
One way Iowa can do that is continuing to do what it has done during their seven-game winning streak: get off to a fast start.
“We’ve been coming out this whole month and establishing ourselves early,” Bluder said. “I think I’d be nice [to have] a fast start and get Zion [Sanders] in early and to get us some rest because of having to potentially play four games in four days.”
This tournament might be daunting for most teams that only have 10 active players, but the Hawkeyes have dealt with it all season and are rolling into March. Nothing scares these Hawkeyes.
“We’re really confident against anyone we play right now,” Doyle said. “We’re on a roll, and we’re having fun and we’re going to keep it rolling.”
Iowa begins the tournament against Northwestern this afternoon after the conclusion of the Rutgers and Purdue game.
If the Hawkeyes take care of Northwestern, they will play No. 4 seed Minnesota; they split the regular-season series with the Gophers.