Iowa women’s basketball head coach Lisa Bluder said on Saturday that she was hoping to play Colorado in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Instead, Iowa is facing 10th-seeded Creighton at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday at noon for a trip to the Sweet 16. The game will be aired on ABC.

“I thought we matched up with Colorado a little bit better, because with Creighton playing a five-guard offense, basically, it’s harder for us to defend them,” Bluder said Saturday. “So, I was kind of hoping to play Colorado.”

The Bluejays primarily run a small-ball offense, relying on the 3-point shot. Creighton is 10th in the nation with a 36.9 shooting percentage beyond the arc.

Creighton, a BIG EAST conference team, does not have a dedicated center. The Bluejays’ ‘5’, Emma Ronsiek, stands at 6-foot-1. She will match up with Iowa’s 6-foot-3 center Monika Czinano on Sunday.

The BIG EAST is more of a “positionless” league, Ronsiek said. It is more common for BIG EAST teams to run small ball offenses without a dedicated center.

“When it comes to guarding a player like Monika, I am undersized for a 5,” Ronsiek said. “… But I think it’s just really paying attention to detail for me, doing what my coaches want me to do, listening to scout, just being prepared.”

While the Hawkeyes aren’t used to playing against a small-ball lineup in the Big Ten, sophomore Caitlin Clark thinks Czinano’s stature will help Iowa’s performance in the paint.

Czinano went 6-of-6 from the field in the second-seeded Hawkeyes’ NCAA first round game against 15th-seeded Illinois State on Friday afternoon. She leads the nation with a 68.3 field goal percentage in 2021-22.

“Obviously, [small ball is] not something you really see in the Big Ten,” Clark said. “That will be a little bit of adjustment.

“I think we should get Monika the ball, no matter who is guarding her, a big or small, no matter what. Obviously, only six shots [Friday] … But I think we’ll have an advantage inside. I think that every single game because Monika is the best post in the country.”

Iowa State scrapes past UT-Arlington, advances to second round

The third-seeded Cyclones were nearly ousted on their home court at Hilton Coliseum on Friday night. 

Iowa State fell behind 14th-seeded UT Arlington, 22-14, in the first quarter, and went into halftime with a six-point deficit.

“I told them at halftime, ‘you just played maybe the worst 20 minutes we’ve played all season. The great news, is there’s 20 minutes to go.’” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said Friday night. 

But the Cyclones turned the game around in the second half to beat the Mavericks, 78-71, to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The game had 10 lead changes and two ties. Cyclone senior Ashley Joens finished with 36 points — an Iowa State program record in a tournament game — and 15 rebounds for a double-double.

“You’ve just got to keep fighting,” Joens said. “Every team is going to give you their best shots, so you’ve just got to keep battling, and our team stuck together and stayed calm, and we were able to make some plays down the road.”

Iowa State will now play sixth-seeded Georgia on Sunday night at 7 p.m. The winner will head to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the Sweet 16, and play the victor of Iowa-Creighton.

“They call it sweet for a reason,” Fennelly said. “And I mean this sincerely: if we make it to the Sweet 16 or not, it’s not going to take away from what this team has accomplished to me.”