After a tumultuous season of ups and downs that saw major transitions for the Iowa women’s basketball team, the Hawkeyes seem to have found their rhythm during postseason play, with a quarterfinals run in the Big Ten tournament nabbing Iowa a sixth-seed spot in the NCAA tournament.
Despite a strong start, over two weeks in January, Iowa dropped five consecutive contests, none by more than eight points. The conference losing streak put ambitions for the national tournament in jeopardy and was a serious blow during a largely transitional season.
“There’s a lot of season left,” first-year head coach Jan Jensen said after a 62-57 loss to Illinois on Jan. 9. “I can’t afford to compare what has happened in the past because these guys are giving me a lot. They’re still young.”
The Hawkeyes began to regain their footing with a strong showing through the rest of Big Ten play. A 76-69 win over No. 4 USC on Feb. 2 was a huge boost to morale with the NCAA tournament suddenly seeming much more possible.
“I’ve been struggling because we’ve been losing, and I feel like I haven’t helped a lot with helping my team get the win,” fourth-year guard Lucy Olsen said after the upset against USC. “I’m glad today the shots were falling. I think we’ve all been clicking a lot better. It just takes time sometimes.”
Iowa’s turnaround was a key factor in the postseason when the Hawkeyes bested Wisconsin and Michigan State at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis to make a run to the Big Ten quarterfinals — where Iowa fell to Ohio State by a point.
Despite the most recent loss, the Hawkeyes are poised for another shot in the season’s biggest tournament, seeded sixth in the largely unfamiliar NCAA gauntlet. Third-seeded Oklahoma will be one of the host schools for the first round of competition, meaning Iowa will be heading south to take on 11th-seeded Murray State in Norman on March 22.
The Racers are currently 25-7 overall, ranked first in the Missouri Valley Conference after a 3-0 conference tournament showing with wins this season including Drake, Northern Iowa, and Bradley.
Despite Murray State’s success, this will be an unfamiliar contest for both teams with neither squad having played each other before and only a few shared opponents between the programs. However, although the Racers have won 10 straight, analysts have largely thrown their weight behind the Hawkeyes, with ESPN Analytics giving Iowa an 85.3 percent chance of victory.
If the Hawkeyes want to avoid the upset, defense will be key, as Murray State boasts four players averaging double figures, including fifth-year Katelyn Young with 22.2 points per game. In contrast, Olsen and third-year Hannah Stuelke are Iowa’s only players averaging double figures with Olsen averaging 18 points per game.
The rest of the region poses no less of a challenge, as the winner of the matchup would face either a toughened Oklahoma squad or FGCU with only three losses to its name this season. Other competitors in the Spokane Region ultimately include No. 2 Connecticut and No. 1 USC — who narrowly lost the Big Ten title to fellow newcomer UCLA.
“I think every game is personal, no matter who we’re playing,” Stuelke said in a press conference. “We want to be us, and I think we need to focus on us a little bit more. Every game, we have to show up.”
The game between the Hawkeyes and the Racers will tip off at 11 a.m. on Saturday with coverage from ESPN and the Hawkeye Radio Network.
“I think we’re about as good as this group can be,” Jensen said after the loss to the Buckeyes on March 7. “I think what they’ve been through, if you can come through adversity and look back on it, really look at where you’ve grown and have more success than not, I think you should feel really good about getting to play in the big dance.”