After months of uncertainty brought on by COVID-19, Iowa women’s basketball opens its season tonight against Northern Iowa.

The Hawkeyes went 23-7 overall and 14-4 in Big Ten play last season. Iowa’s final game of 2019-20 resulted in an upset loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Big Ten Tournament.

The Hawkeyes were projected to play in the NCAA tournament before it was canceled because of COVID-19.

Iowa enters the 2020-21 season down three starters from the previous year – point guard Kathleen Doyle, guard Makenzie Meyer, and forward Amanda Ollinger.

Of the three, Doyle may be the most critical loss. Last year, she was named 2020 Big Ten Player of the Year before the Indiana Fever selected her with the 14^th overall pick in the WNBA Draft.

Attempting to fill the void Doyle left is freshman Caitlin Clark. Clark was the fourth-ranked women’s basketball prospect in the country while she was in high school. Clark chose Iowa over a number of Division I schools that offered her a roster spot. The five-star recruit averaged 33.7 points per game during her final high school season.

“We’ve had many point guards come in and they’re unbelievable by the time their senior year rolls around because of that experience.” Bluder said.  “But have they had lumps early? Yeah, I mean certainly, it’s a really difficult position to play and then you’re putting somebody with not any experience in that position.”

“I think the team though really, I mean they know how good Caitlin is, they know how good she can be,” Bluder said. “The team respects her, I think she has their respect already. She’s going to have to learn how to use her voice a little bit better… but she’ll get there, there’s no doubt that she’s going to be one of the very best point guards coming out of the University of Iowa.”

Clark’s high school accolades will not protect her from the challenges that lie ahead this evening. Northern Iowa’s veteran guard Karli Rucker may test Clark from the opening tap.

Clark is part of Bluder’s projected starting lineup, which includes the likes of junior center Monika Czinano and sophomore guards Kate Martin, McKenna Warnock, and Gabbie Marshall.

Warnock joins the starting lineup this year after a solid freshman campaign in 2019-20. Warnock averaged eight points, 2.4 assists, and 4.5 rebounds per game, leading to a 2020 All-Big Ten Freshman Team selection.

Martin – a 2020 team captain – did not start last year. But she did tab 193 minutes in 24 games.

Marshall started one game last season and appeared in 30, logging about 16.7 minutes per game. She shot 39.2 percent from the field, posting a five points per game average.

Perhaps the most critical of Iowa’s starting pieces is Czinano. The Watertown, Minnesota, native had a breakout 2019-2020 campaign.

Czinano took over Iowa’s starting center position last year following the departure of 2018-19 National Player of the Year Megan Gustafson. Czinano’s production did not eclipse Gustafson’s, but it was still impressive. Czinano led the Big Ten in shooting percentage at 67.9 percent – good for second in nation.

This season, Czinano was named to the Preseason All-Big Ten First Team by the coaches and the media.

Despite the dossier Iowa’s starting lineup carries, the Hawkeyes’ talent doesn’t begin or end with their five starters.

“I think that we are very deep this year,” Bluder said. “Last year, we didn’t have a true backup at the five, and this year we do with Sharon Goodman, so that’s exciting. I love how well we can shoot the ball. I mean, we have good two-point and three-point weapons, and I really love the balance that we have. We have so many weapons we can go to, I don’t know how you’d help off of anybody.”

During a season in which COVID-19 has cut down the number of nonconference games Iowa can play, Bluder plans to leverage every asset she has on her roster – especially considering that a positive COVID-19 test could knock a player out for 21 days per Big Ten Conference protocol.

“Sometimes you have those exhibition games, or early season games to get all those things worked out,” Bluder said. “But without those opportunities this year, it’s going to be on-the-fly a little bit more. So, I would definitely see us going [to the bench] earlier. Like I say, I think we’ll have 10 on Wednesday.”

The young and inexperienced Hawkeyes will have their hands full tonight against a Northern Iowa team that is returning all of its 2019-20 starters in 2020-21. Overall, the Panthers went 18-11 in 2019-20. One of Northern Iowa’s 18 wins came against Iowa in Cedar Falls, 88-66.

Rucker is Northern Iowa’s primary weapon. Last season, she averaged 13.7 points per game.

“[Rucker] is a tremendous player,” Bluder said. “She has been there since day one, very confident. She’s a quick player. She can score at all three areas of the floor… She’s somebody we definitely have circled on the scouting report.”

The Hawkeyes will not have any fan support at Carver-Hawkeye Arena to help them pass the test the Panthers will give them. On Nov. 23, the University of Iowa announced that no fans will be allowed to cheer on the Hawkeyes in-person this season.

Thanks to an average attendance of 7,102 per game – good for 10^th-best in the nation – Iowa is riding a 36-game home win streak that spans over two years. Baylor is the only team that has a longer active home win streak than Iowa’s.

“We’re going to have family there and that’s that,” senior Alexis Sevillian said. “But we’re going to have to bring our own energy, and I think it starts in practice for us. We’re there to hype each other up, to bring our own energy and I think that’s something that we’re going to have to kind of master this year, because we don’t have those thousands of fans that we typically have.”