Caitlin Clark and the Iowa women’s basketball team are just over a week away from the beginning of the 2023-24 season.

The season will kick off with the highly anticipated Crossover at Kinnick event on Oct. 15, in which the Hawkeyes will welcome the DePaul Blue Demons for an exhibition matchup inside of Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. The event has sold 47,000 tickets so far.

This season picks up after a bittersweet conclusion to the last, Iowa having fallen to LSU, 102-85, in the NCAA Tournament Championship.

But the Hawkeyes won a school-record 31 games last year, and senior guard Caitlin Clark earned AP Player of the Year honors in addition to the Wooden Award and Naismith College Player of the Year award.

Although Clark has spent the offseason working on her set half court offense and shooting off of screens, not much will change for the Des Moines, Iowa, native. She said she hopes to be the same player she was last season, albeit a bigger leader.

“[I want to be] able to lead, to speak up and be … somebody that younger girls can lean on because I’ve been through it,” Clark said. “I think that’s the biggest area that I can grow in and continue to just lead and help this team get better in that area.”

Still, Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder chooses not to compare past teams to the current ones.

“If I had to get up in the morning and think, ‘Golly, are we going to make it back to the Final Four this year?’ that would be tough to get out of bed,” Bluder said. “I just want this team to be the best team they can be.”

Returning rotation

Clark will return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena this season alongside a handful of mainstays in last year’s rotation, including fifth-year senior Gabbie Marshall and graduate student guard Kate Martin — a returner Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder has been impressed with so far.

“Kate is honestly one of the strongest leaders I’ve ever been around; she’s a culture builder,” Bluder said. “She’s playing like a pro right now. She really is. She’s knocking down threes; she’s physically defending hard [and] rebounding. I think you’re going to see Kate just jump off the stat sheet this year.”

But in her final year of eligibility, Martin wants to fill whatever role the team needs her in this season, whether that be scoring or playing a forward position.

“I’m just taking it every single day, not taking it for granted, and just making the most of every single day [by] going hard every single rep, every drill, every practice,” she said. “I think that’s just super important for me.”

Marshall was a big piece of last season’s Iowa offensive powerhouse — an offense that led the country in field goal percentage with 51 percent, scoring offense with 87 points per game, and assists per game with nearly 30.

Within that offense, Marshall averaged 6.2 points per game on 38 percent from deep, including a hot stretch from three at the end of the season that boosted the Hawkeyes through their postseason run.

But the Cincinnati, Ohio, native — who was voted a team captain this season — plays even stronger on the other end of the floor, picking up the opposing team’s best guard and leading the Hawkeyes in steals last season with 62.

Now in her final season with the Black and Gold, Marshall wants the defensive effort this year to stick out the most.

“Yeah, I bring shooting to the team, but I think I want people to focus on the defense that I bring in,” Marshall said. “[I want] to be that leader on the defensive end and bring people up with me, wanting to play defense … I think that’s really what I want to be remembered for is just how much I worked hard on that end.”

The Iowa offense will need Marshall and Martin to step up and fill the scoring voids left by the graduation of Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock — the team’s two leading scorers behind Clark last season.

Another big return will be junior guard Kylie Feuerbach, who missed last season due to injury but is back in full form. She will add even more depth to the Iowa guards who include fifth-year senior Molly Davis and sophomore Taylor McCabe.

New bigs

While sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke, who served as backup center to Monika Czinano last season, will return this year, it will be in a slightly different capacity.

Stuelke has spent the offseason shifting to the power forward position, although she can fill in at the center to allow the team to run faster. 

“I think everyone saw last year how good, how athletic, and how fast Hannah Stuelke was,” Bluder said. “But this year, I think over the summer she became a better basketball player … and I think now she understands the game better. Her shot is better.”

Junior center Addison O’Grady — who played big minutes for the Hawkeyes down low in last season’s postseason run — will fill Czinano’s role at the five.

But Bluder hopes for no comparisons of O’Grady to her predecessor, allowing for the former to create her own role down low.

“She gives us a greater defensive presence in the middle,” Bluder said of O’Grady. “Addie is a good basketball player. She’s a darned good basketball player, just like Megan [Gustafson] was, just like Monika was. But comparisons don’t do anybody any good, so just give her a little bit of time.”

As the starting point guard and leading facilitator in the Iowa offense, Clark’s goal is to build her bigs’ confidence.

“They bring a lot of really good things to this team,” Clark said. “If they make a mistake, if they turn it over … continue to give them the ball because we need our posts to be really successful.”

Intense attention

Since the postseason run last year, all eyes have been on Iowa women’s basketball.

The team is a frequent topic of conversation on social media, and players are often stopped in public and asked about the season.

“It’s cool to see the amount of attention you brought to women’s basketball and our team brought to women’s basketball,” Clark said. “Going into this year, I hope to continue to do that and show people this is something you should continue to watch.”

Through it all, Bluder repeats a quote from tennis legend Billie Jean King: Pressure is privilege.

“I think we have to remember that — that we’re in this situation of facing pressure because we’ve done well,” Bluder said. “Let’s enjoy that. Let’s rejoice about that. Try to enjoy it and not think about the overall picture but just enjoy every single day.”

Clark said the majority of the pressure came last season. This time around, playing in front of a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena, she believes the team will have a handful of learning experiences — and that will require her leadership.

She said the team wants to be ranked highly, to play in front of a supportive home crowd and hear the boos from opposing fans. 

“Don’t be afraid of it. Don’t run away from it,” Clark said. “Just enjoy it and soak it in because no other Iowa women’s basketball team in history has had an opportunity to be in an environment like this.

“I’m just going to try to enjoy it, and if we lose a game we should have won, I know our world is not going to be broken,” she added. “You come back the next day and get better and hopefully lead this team to a lot of success at the end of the year.”

And, of course, Clark’s rise to prominence in athletics has shined a spotlight on the team, but Bluder is not concerned with any turmoil arising from her superstar status.

“I think it speaks volumes that Gabbie and Kate elected to come back and wanted to play with her; that shows you what kind of teammate she is,” Bluder said. “Caitlin has a little bit more attention, but when her light shines, it shines on everybody in that locker room, so let’s all enjoy it.”

But Bluder doesn’t find that superstar status detracts from Clark’s game — she’ll play with the same energy and emotion as she always does.

“Somebody told me, ‘Don’t say ‘whoa’ to a racehorse,’” Bluder said. “I’m never going to do that to her.”