Iowa controls its own destiny. While still one spot behind Michigan in the latest Associated Press Poll, Iowa’s commanding 62-44 win over the Wolverines on Feb. 22 cemented the Hawkeyes with sole possession of second place in the Big Ten. Win out the rest of the regular season, and the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament is a lock. Hosting the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament is a guarantee as well.
The two-stop journey begins Thursday night when Iowa hosts a young but talented Illinois team at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. While excitement beguiles an unranked Fighting Illini squad searching for an upset, pressure sits with the No. 9 Hawkeyes.
“The expectations rise, and the target on our back can’t even fit on our back anymore,” Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said at media availability Wednesday morning. “So my job as a coach is to navigate that, to keep it the same, fun opportunity. We want to be respected. We want to be the team that’s sought after. We want the pressure.”
Illinois is 19-8 overall and ranks eighth in the Big Ten with a 9-7 mark. After losing four of five, the Illini caught fire, recording three consecutive wins leading up to their trip to Iowa City. Iowa would be Illinois’ third ranked win of the season, a milestone for one of the youngest teams in the country.
Illinois’ average age of 19.83 to start the season was the third youngest among the Power Four conferences and the Big East. Only two of the Illini’s players – redshirt sophomore Gretchen Dolan and graduate student Gisela Segura began the season above the age of 21.
For Jensen, Illinois’ roster makeup and defensive performance remind her of Minnesota, a haunting thought considering the Gophers’ victory over the Hawkeyes on Feb. 5 – the Hawkeyes’ most-recent loss and their only at home this season.
Illinois ranks eighth in the Big Ten in points per game and opponents’ points per game.
“They can score it. And there’s a lot of different [offensive] sets, you can’t possibly work on all of them,” Jensen said.
Illinois’ two leading scorers are both underclassmen, starting with second-year forward Berry Wallace, who ranks eighth in the Big Ten with 18.8 points per game. Standing at 6-foot-1, Wallace excels in all areas of the floor, shooting 49.2 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from distance. On the road, her numbers are even better, with 52.7 and 51.2 percent marks, respectively.
First-year Cearah Parchment completes Illinois’ lethal frontcourt duo. Hailing from Ontario, Parchment is the taller of the two and holds even better shooting numbers, with 50.8 percent from the floor and 44.6 percent from deep, which ranks eighth in the conference among players averaging at least two triple attempts per game. Similar to Wallace, her road splits are also superior.
For Jensen, Wallace and Parchment are formidable because of how they force the bigs who match up against them, in this case Ava Heiden and Hannah Stuelke, in “guard defensive actions.” Iowa’s frontcourt can’t just run to the block on every defensive transition, as their opponent can easily pop up a triple.
Illinois’ bigs can also get open along the perimeter from flare screens, another element that drags Iowa’s frontcourt out of the comfort zone. The key remains not fouling, especially with Heiden carrying the offensive load for the Hawkeyes. The second-year center has posted a 20-point double-double across her last three games.
“The defense of the outside game, that is definitely advantage: them,” Jensen said. “Because we don’t have that type of action out there. But I think it will be a really fun matchup.”
Another intriguing aspect of the game is the return of former Iowa guard Aaliyah Guyton. Hailing from Peoria, Illinois, Guyton spent her first season of collegiate ball with the Hawkeyes before transferring closer to home. Her year-to-year statistics are up across the board.
The second-year averages 6.4 points and 2.3 assists per game while shooting 42 percent from the floor and 40 percent from distance. She’s started eight games this season compared to just one last year.
Jensen said she and Guyton left on good terms. She wants nothing but the best for her former player, just not on Thursday night, of course. Nevertheless, the head coach holds no bad blood, simply because situations like Guyton’s have become the norm in the current collegiate landscape. Players have immediate eligibility and thus have nothing holding them back from new opportunities.
“This is a new era,” Jensen said. “Sometimes kids and their families want a little bit of a different situation. But absolutely, I think Aaliyah Guyton is a really cool kid.”
Former Iowa athletes haven’t always been treated well in their returns to Carver in a different uniform. Men’s basketball player Pryce Sandfordt received boos and expletives when his Nebraska Cornhuskers played Iowa on Feb. 17. Jensen believes a cruel welcome won’t be in the cards on the women’s side.
“I hope our fans wouldn’t do that,” Jensen said. “I don’t think our fans typically do that.”
Iowa and Illinois play Thursday, Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.