Megan Gustafson will be one of the best college basketball players this year. There’s no question about that.

But if the Hawkeyes are going to make the giant leap to be contenders come March, they’re going to need junior point guard Kathleen Doyle to take one small step this year.

She’s been named to the Preseason All-Big Ten team this year and is coming off a solid sophomore campaign.

Last season, she put up 11.1 points per game and 6.6 assists per game to go along with 3.7 rebounds per game. All those numbers were significant steps up from Doyle’s freshman year.

One area that Iowa will need to see improvement from in Doyle this season is her 3-point shooting.

She managed to shoot 34.7 percent from deep last season, which is a respectable number and a considerable step up from the 23.4 percent her freshman year on the same number of shots.

However, there were games last season where Doyle struggled to make 3s; she was often a streaky shooter.

Lisa Bluder and Company will need her to be a consistent 3-point threat all year long in order to take some of the pressure off Gustafson.

Gustafson was often put up against double and triple teams in the paint, and much of that was because of Iowa’s inconsistency behind the 3-point arc.

This season, Doyle should be more dangerous behind the 3-point line, which will help make more room for Gustafson in the paint this year.