ALBANY, N.Y. —In the Sweet 16 of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, the Iowa women’s basketball team defeated Colorado 87-77 to advance to the Elite Eight for just the second time in over 20 years.
Now, about a year later, Iowa is back in the Sweet 16 as the No. 1 seed in Albany Regional 2 and will be running it back against No. 5 Colorado — and the Buffaloes are eager to enact revenge.
“I’ve been hearing that they are pretty excited to play against us,” guard Syndey Affolter told reporters from inside Iowa’s locker room in MVP Arena in Albany. “It’s going to be a super competitive game.”
The Buffaloes come into Saturday’s matchup, which is set for 2:30 p.m. CT, with a 23-9 record on the season. Colorado won both of its first and second-round tournament games against No. 12 Drake and No. 4 Kansas State by an average of 13.5 points.
Heading into this second matchup against Iowa, Colorado guard Frida Formann said her team is “just very confident where we’re at right now.” Head coach JR Payne said against the Hawkeyes, the Buffaloes will use their experience from competing against tough Pac-12 teams all season. She says the conference this year is the best it’s ever been. Colorado went 1-1 in regular season matchups against No. 5 Utah and No. 1 USC.
“We play such great teams in our conference, and most of them we play twice every year, so in some ways, it feels similar [to that],” Payne said during Friday’s press conference. “[Iowa’s] another great team — very similar to who they were [last season] but also have added some new things as well.”
Iowa returns three starters — Caitlin Clark, Kate Martin, and Gabbie Marshall — from last year’s matchup. Second-year forward Hannah Stuelke and third-year guard Sydney Affolter will suit up for the Black and Gold on Saturday in place of forwards Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock.
Last year’s matchup was closely contested during the first two quarters, with Iowa trailing by one point at halftime. In the third quarter, however, Iowa dominated, embarking on a 13-0 run and out-scoring Colorado 25-13, which ultimately brought them the win.
Clark was Iowa’s top scorer during the game with 31 points, and Czinano and Martin finished with 15 and 16 points, respectively.
To be victorious in this game, Colorado must limit Iowa’s 3-point shooting, something they have struggled with this season as the Buffaloes rank 311th out of 349 teams in 3-point percentage defense.
“You have to give them looks that they’re not as comfortable with, and you can’t give them wide-open threes because they’re just too good at making those,” Formann said. “I think we have everything we need to go toe to toe with them, but obviously, if it’s a shootout, I think it’s to [Iowa’s] advantage.”
In preparation for this game, Formann and other players said the team has relied on the film from Iowa’s previous round game versus West Virginia, where the Hawkeyes won 64-54.
West Virginia was able to hold the No. 1 scoring offense in the country to nearly 30 points lower than their season average of 92.8 points. The Mountaineers frustrated Iowa by setting up a full-court press throughout the game and forced 25 turnovers.
“With a good player like Caitlin Clark, you have to be sort of physical with her, but we need to try to be smart about it,” Formann said.
Colorado will also have to deal with the fan excitement that Clark and this Iowa team bring with them. Hawkeye fans are expected to make up 54 percent of the crowd at MVP Arena during Saturday’s game, with Colorado fans projected to represent just two percent of the crowd.
Even though Albany is over 1,000 miles from Iowa City, Payne said the team expects to play in a ruckus environment on Saturday.
“It felt like that too in Seattle last year, and that was on the other side of the country,” Payne said. “It’s always a great atmosphere when you’re going to play in an environment like that.”
