With the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament just days away, pressure is mounting around the Iowa women’s basketball team to replicate its deep run to the Final Four last year. But this time around, the Hawkeyes can go further.
The team’s biggest concern just two months ago was having enough firepower to support Caitlin Clark in putting the ball in the basket.
Sure, Clark averaged a massive 27.8 points per game last season, but Monika Czinano averaged 17.1 while McKenna Warnock averaged 10.9 — and those were the “big three” for Iowa that permitted that historic postseason performance.
This season’s issue filled the void Czinano and Warnock left.
Does Hannah Stuelke have enough to be a dominant center in the paint? Could a third player step up into Warnock’s role? Both issues that threatened this team’s quest for a National Championship just weeks ago.
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But after the Hawkeyes’ three-peat as Big Ten Tournament Champions on March 10, the answer is much clearer.
Clark is up to an average of 31.9 per game this season. Although she did struggle to score over the course of the weekend — although 24, 28, and 34 points are somehow off nights for the Big Ten Player of the Year — the wins indicate this team can scrape through to success when she’s off but go up big when she’s on.
That’s because her “supporting cast” is also on fire.
While it certainly helps that Clark dished out seven, 15, and 12 assists over the weekend, Stuelke, Gabbie Marshall, and Sydney Affolter are each molding into threats at multiple levels of the floor for the Iowa offense at the perfect time.
Stuelke is as confident and physical right now as she’s ever been in the post, averaging 14.6 points per game and pouring in 25 points in the Big Ten Tournament Championship as a frequent go-to despite the power of a top center in Cornhusker Alexis Markowski against her.
And, although her outside shot has been a weakness throughout her career, she drilled two free throws to seal the win for the Hawkeyes in overtime.
Marshall has been on a shooting tear over the last five games of the season, in which she’s shot a confident combined 16-of-32 from deep.
But it’s her defense that really adds depth to Iowa’s threat, experienced and unafraid to match up with the opponent’s best player — and even come up with scrappy stops and steals in crunch time.
Affolter, though, has made the biggest breakthrough, serving as the jack of all trades en route to All-Big Ten Tournament honors, with statlines of:
- 18 points, five assists, and nine rebounds
- 12 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds
- 11 points, three assists, and 11 rebounds
And Kate Martin has even been just slightly off like Clark — yet she’s scored 11 and 13 twice, respectively, in Iowa’s last four games.
And when the corner three was there to keep the Hawkeyes in sight of the Big Ten title against Nebraska, Martin rose to the occasion and nailed two of them. Mix in her postseason experience as a leader of this program and it’s clear Martin is able to come up big again.
The Hawkeyes are finally relying on more than Caitlin Clark to win games.
The tight win over Nebraska in overtime for the Big Ten Championship may look concerning, but let’s give credit to the Cornhuskers — a 1 seed in the tournament this year with as much threat to win big games as any team in Iowa’s region.
And while one might argue it’s going to be tough to beat the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks, everyone said the same thing last season. But the Hawkeyes won.
The fact of the matter is that anything is possible in March. And when the lights are brightest, this team has proved pressure can make diamonds in three weeks.
