After a difficult Big Ten Tournament that saw Iowa get bounced early at the hands of Ohio State, the Hawkeyes will be biting their nails March 16 when the 2020 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament field is revealed.

Following a strong 23-7 season, Iowa is not worried about missing out on the tournament. Rather, the concern lies in the seeding. A top-four seed would give the Hawkeyes two more games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Last season, Iowa earned a number two seed in the NCAA Tournament and played out two close games in front of the Carver-Hawkeye faithful. The fans set an NCAA record for most fans at first and second round games, combined with 23,096 showing up to support the Hawkeyes.

All season long, head coach Lisa Bluder and her players have harped on how big an impact the home crowd can make. The Hawkeyes would love a chance to play in front of the home faithful one more time.

“That’d be really special to be able to play host again and play in the NCAA Tournament in front of our fans again. That was really special last year, so it’s nice to have that possibility,” Iowa guard Kathleen Doyle said.

Last week’s NCAA Tournament Top 16 reveal had the Hawkeyes at No. 13 overall after a loss to Rutgers. After the Big Ten Tournament, Iowa has certainly dropped down to the cut line with several other team’s around them having solid conference tournament showings.

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Most teams have their spot as a host venue locked up by now, meaning there are few teams vying for a select few slots. With Oregon State, Arizona, and DePaul all doing moderately well in their respective conference tournaments, it would seem harsh to bump any of those teams out of the top 16.

This leaves Iowa competing with Indiana and Florida State for the last spot. Thankfully for Iowa, the Seminoles could not defeat No. 10 NC State in the ACC Tournament Championship; however, FSU did secure a major win over No. 4 Louisville. The win was Florida State’s sixth win over a ranked opponent.

One thing that could hurt the Seminoles is their low RPI rating, which currently sits at 31 — way behind Indiana (14) and Iowa (15).

Indiana also boasts a decent resume. The Hoosiers handed top-ranked South Carolina its only defeat of the season. However, several Big Ten home losses tarnish Indiana’s dossier.

“I hope they look at the body of work, because we have I think five top-25 RPI wins,” Bluder said after the loss to Ohio State. “No, we didn’t play as well as we could tonight, as well as we should have tonight, but again, I hope we’re not resting this on one game but instead on the 29 games that led up to this.”

The selection show takes place at 7 p.m. March 16 on ESPN. First round action of the 2020 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament will begin on March 20.