Iowa Women's Basketball headed to the NCAA Tournament

On the heels on a second Big Ten Tournament Title in as many seasons, the Iowa Women’s Basketball team gathered in the Feller Club Room at Carver-Hawkeye Arena to watch the field of 68 reveal. The Hawkeyes received the automatic bid for the Big Ten and will host a regional in Iowa City for the second straight season.

“It never gets old. It’s like Christmas morning and you know you’re going to get a present, but you just don’t know what it is,” said head coach Lisa Bluder.

“You still get a little anxious and excited. My heart was still racing and I knew we were still going to be the two seed that pops up,” said Caitlin Clark. “I grew up watching the Selection Show and I loved watching it…I really think it’s the best tournament in all of postseason sports, You don’t know who you’re going to get and you’re going to go play them a week later.”

Iowa is a two seed in the Seattle region and will face 15 seed Southeastern Louisiana in the opening round of the tournament at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Lady Lions are 19-9 on the season and earned the automatic bid out of the Southland Conference. They defeated Texas A&M-Commerce and Lamar en route to the conference title.

Should the Hawkeyes advance to the second round, they would face the winner of seven seed Florida State and 10 seed Georgia. The winner of that second round game would advance to play in the Sweet 16 in Seattle. The Seminoles enter the tournament with a 23-9 record. They finished in a tie for fourth place in the ACC and are led by true freshman guard Ta’Niya Latson. The Bulldogs enter the tournament with a 21-11 record, after finishing in a tie for fifth place in the SEC.

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“All I know about Southeastern Louisiana is they were conference champs, they had four all-conference players on their team and their coach was the all-conference coach,” said Bluder.

The one seed in the Seattle 4 region is the Stanford Cardinal, while Duke (3), Texas (4), Louisville (5) and Colorado (6) round out the rest of the top seeds in the region.

The Hawkeyes have now made the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season. Last season, Iowa received the automatic bid for the Big Ten after defeating Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament Title game. The Hawkeyes defeated Illinois State in the first round, but were upset by seven seed Creighton in the second round.

“We brought it up during the summer more because we wanted to use it as motivation to really get going in the summer,” said Bluder. “I kind of want them to forget about it because I don’t want that to be something that they’re thinking about or concentrating on.”

Under the direction of head coach Lisa Bluder, Iowa has made the NCAA Tournament 17 times, including 11 times in the last 13 seasons that a tournament was held. The 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bluder owns a 13-16 record in the NCAA Tournament. while her deepest tournament run came in 2019, when the Hawkeyes advanced to the Elite Eight, before falling to Baylor.

Overall, it is Iowa’s 29th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. They have eight Sweet 16 appearances, four Elite Eight appearances and one Final Four appearance. The Hawkeyes have an all-time record of 27-28 in the tournament.

This season, Iowa has a 26-6 record, including a 15-3 mark in Big Ten play. They finished second in the regular season standings, behind the Indiana Hoosiers. They own an 11-5 record against teams that made the field of 68, as well as a 6-3 record against teams in the AP Top 25. Iowa is 15-1 at home this season, with their lone loss coming against North Carolina State on December 1st. The Hawkeyes faced five NCAA Tournament teams in non-conference play. Experience that will come in handy during the tournament.

“I give a lot of credit to our coaches for scheduling those games like UConn, Oregon State, I know they didn’t get in, but they’re really coached. Kansas State, I know that ended in a loss,” said Caitlin Clark. “Understanding that we’ve gone up against some of the best teams in the country. We’ve beaten a lot of the best teams in the country, so we know we belong with them.

The Hawkeyes are led by National Player of the Year candidate Caitlin Clark and Lisa Leslie Award semifinalist Monika Czinano. Clark is averaging 27.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game. Czinano is averaging 17.3 points on 67% shooting from the floor, while also averaging 6.5 rebounds per game.

HawkeyeReport will have coverage on NCAA Tournament media day at Carver-Hawkeye Arena later this week, as well as a full preview of the opening round matchup against Southeastern Louisiana.