On Selection Sunday, things went according to plan for the now three-peat Big Ten Tournament champion Iowa Hawkeyes. They secured the No. 1 seed in the Albany 2 Region, holding top billing in a region for the first time since 1992 and the third time in program history. Not only that, but they also will host the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament for the third-consecutive year.
All this comes as the Hawkeyes are poised to meet, if not exceed, expectations by going back to the Final Four and, perhaps, contending for the national title. This go around, however, is a bit different in that their region will consist of a mixture of familiar opponents and potential new challengers, possibly leading to more competitiveness than expected.
The region features the likes of No. 3-seed LSU, No. 4-seed Kansas State, No. 5-seed Colorado, No. 6-seed Louisville, No. 7-seed Creighton and No. 12-seed Drake, all of which are teams Iowa has played against at some point in recent program history. Then, there is No. 2-seed UCLA, No. 8-seed West Virginia, No. 9-seed Princeton and No. 10-seed UNLV. The Hawkeyes haven’t played those programs in recent memory, but head coach Lisa Bluder most looks forward to potentially playing them, saying:
I like a new challenge to be quite honest. I like going against teams that we haven’t seen before. I just think it’s more fun. For one thing, they haven’t seen Caitlin (Clark) play. Until you go up against Caitlin, you don’t know how good she is. Until you [have] played against us, I don’t think you realize how fast we play. But the teams we have already played, they know that.
Speaking of Caitlin Clark, she is entering her last NCAA tournament before heading into the 2024 WNBA Draft on April 15, where she is poised to be the No. 1 overall pick by the Indiana Fever. This is her last shot at national glory, as she is riding high on her monumental impact that has helped to spur a women’s basketball renaissance.
When looking at the familiarity of opponents in the region, Clark says she is more than excited to take them on, asserting:
More than anything for us, that’s exciting. I know we didn’t beat LSU, but a lot of those teams we have won versus Kansas State, we won versus Colorado, we won versus Louisville, we beat Drake. So you can almost use that to your advantage at times and to have confidence going into those games.
She will join fellow seniors Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall, Sharon Goodman and Molly Davis in what will be their last hurrah. Davis has been out the last two weeks due to a knee injury she sustained in the regular-season finale against Ohio State, so her playing status for the tournament remains unknown. Bluder said that she is no longer using crutches, but that she is still limping, which she said is “not a good sign.”
Two other Hawkeyes, Hannah Stuelke and Syd Affolter, are expected to do big things at both ends of the floor during the tournament, just as they have all season long. Stuelke has solidified her reputation as a reliable presence in transition and in the paint, using her agility to score on the run and crash the boards with relentlessness. The same is true for Affolter, especially when it comes to scrappy play, hard-nosed rebounding and fighting her way inside the paint for points. It’s safe to say that their presences will be vital.
Both Stuelke and Affolter looked back at the team’s week off as a period of rest and reflection that was much needed. But now with the bracket set up, they are more than ready to go. “I’m excited,” said Stuelke. “We definitely have some challenges to get through, but that’s what makes teams better. I think we’re ready. We’re ready to get back on the court.”
“We’re excited,” Affolter added. “We definitely had high hopes of being a one seed and obviously hosting. It’s really important to have home court advantage with our fans. It’s amazing. But we are ready to go—we don’t care who our competition is—and take it game by game.”
No. 1-seed Iowa will take on the winner of the No. 16-seed Holy Cross/UT Martin first four matchup on Saturday, Mar. 23 at Carver Hawkeye Arena at 2 p.m. ET (ABC).
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