Lisa Bluder talks to the media ahead of their Sweet Sixteen game against Colorado

OPENING STATEMENT LISA BLUDER: Yeah, like everybody, we’re just thrilled to be still playing basketball this time of the year. I feel like our team is in a really good spot. We got here yesterday. We’re healthy. I know some people are wondering about Hannah. We’re healthy. We’re feeling good.

We know that Colorado is going to be a really tough challenge. Their defense is very, very good. 58 and a half points that they hold people to. So a tremendous defensive team. I just think JR (Payne) has done a great job with her team. They were in Iowa City last year for the tournament, the NCAA tournament. I think she’s done a tremendous job with her team.

Q. What about Colorado’s defense really sticks out? What make it’s so difficult? And are there any similarities to the defense you faced against Georgia or is it just a completely new way that they go about playing?

LISA BLUDER: It’s a different style of defense because they play mostly player where Georgia was all about zone. I think what is so good about it is they just have really good ball pressure, they’re very active. I mean, Sherrod is so fast. They have depth off the bench, so they can keep coming at you. I think that’s really what makes them very, very good defensively.

Q. I know you mentioned Hannah, but what is the status of Hannah and Molly Davis going into tomorrow?

LISA BLUDER: Both, I feel is close to a hundred percent as you can be this time of year.

Q. Just off topic a little bit. The eight teams that are here, I think Colorado’s the closest and they’re still 1,300 miles away. We talked a little bit about the two-site deal with the NCAA. Just your thoughts on that, with those numbers?

LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I mean, with two sites obviously we’re a long ways from Iowa City. I really believe that if this site would have been five hours from Iowa City, we would have 10,000 Hawkeye fans here. And it’s just unfortunate that our fans won’t be able to support us live. I know they will be watching on television, but there’s something special about a real electric arena, with great atmosphere. I think if this was played in the Midwest, we would have had that. I really do.

So that’s unfortunate, but at the same time, we’re glad we are here. We think Seattle’s going to be a great host site. The city seems really nice, our hotel’s great, everything’s been wonderful. But, yeah, I wish it was closer to home.

Q. You mentioned the ball pressure that Colorado presents on defense. Is there a team that you played this year that’s kind of similar to that? I know that you played some pretty good teams that forced a lot of turnovers.

LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I mean, I guess Indiana would be the closest Big Ten school. Not Maryland because they switch all screens. So I would say Indiana would probably be the closest.

Q. Generally in this Sweet 16 right now, you look at it, Angel Reese was a transfer, Alissa Pili, Quay Miller. There’s a number of key transfers who subsequently made the Sweet 16. For you personally and then also generally around the sport, how do you look at the transfer portal impacting roster construction for you and then kind of more broadly?

LISA BLUDER: Yeah, we didn’t use it a lot this year. We did get Molly Davis and we needed Molly because she provides us as a backup 1, 2. So that’s an important position for us, and so that was tremendous for us. But, like, we haven’t used it like other people maybe have. Will we in the future? I think it is the future of women’s basketball and men’s basketball. I don’t think you can be successful without using it. It’s the new brand of basketball and people are going to be hopping from roster to roster. Do I like it personally? Probably not, philosophically, but as far as what it is and you have to buy in.

Q. With Colorado having been at your site last year, can you use any of the pre-game scout that you prepared for Colorado or have they changed too much?

LISA BLUDER: Oh, that’s a great question, and absolutely. I mean, we had a complete scout done for them last year and they haven’t changed a whole lot. There’s a few fresh faces, a few that exited the program as well. But they’re very similar style-wise and we absolutely started our report with that.

Q. A lot of opposing coaches have talked about how difficult it’s been to game plan Caitlin’s passing this year. I’m curious how you as a coaching staff have worked with her on that or is that more just Caitlin-driven?

LISA BLUDER: It’s pretty innate. She is a fabulous passer, but has been most of her life. But I think when she came to college, it really opened up even more because she had people that could catch her passes. Sometimes in high school, honestly, they came in so fast, so hard, people weren’t expecting them, that they weren’t ready for them. AAU was better for her, and USA basketball, of course, was better for her.

But when she came to Iowa, and I think the first time she met Monika and scrimmaged with Monika, it opened up her eyes that I can really have an opportunity to pass the ball like she’s capable of, which is incredible.

Q. Two-part question to follow-up on that question before about location. I don’t know if Des Moines or anyone in Iowa bid for a regional and that’s obviously how teams get regionals. Would you encourage someone in Iowa to probably bid down the road for a regional? And the second question is you’ve been around for a few years, Colorado has not been in the Sweet 16 since 2003, and I think you were a young coach back then. Do you remember anything about those teams with Ceal (Barry) from the early 2000s?

LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I do. I’ve known Ceal for a long, long time. I mean, I remember when I was at Drake, and Ceal came to play in a Sweet 16 at Drake University. Shelley Sheetz, she took Shelley Sheetz away from Iowa, who turned out being a — I think it was Kodak back then, a Kodak All-American, still.

Ceal was a tremendous coach. You know, Linda Lappe from Iowa also played there and then was a coach there. So I absolutely remember the Colorado teams, and I remember them being really tall. I mean, they had some really tall and then obviously good guards, like Shelley Sheetz.

But I would hope that Des Moines would bid for this because — you look at Iowa, Iowa State, and Drake, three of the four schools from Iowa, the Division I schools, were invited to the NCAA tournament or won. They each won their tournaments. So they were both automatic bids. And how well Iowa State and us draw, it would just make sense that Des Moines should be trying for this.

Now they hosted a site for men this year, but I’m hoping that in the future, that would be really nice thing, I think. I think we would — I think it would sellout. I really do. I know Pat Summitt was there for the last time I think they hosted. Baylor was there. Tennessee. They had good crowds then.

Q. You have Monika who comes back for a fifth year, and obviously now is having this run that hopefully continues. What does she mean to this program? And where do you think this team this year might be without Monika on the roster?

LISA BLUDER: Oh, Monika’s incredibly important to our success. I mean, she’s a region All-American, along with Caitlin. She was a finalist for the Lisa Leslie award, top 5 centers in America. I think she’s fourth right now in field goal percentage shooting in the country, which is low for her. The last two years she’s been No. 1 in the country. Monika is phenomenal, a phenomenal post player. She’s so efficient. Her footwork is so good. Her hands are incredible.

Yeah, I mean, I don’t want to even think of where we would be, and I’m thankful I didn’t have to think about where we would be without her. So that’s down the road.

Q. Multiple players on the team have talked this year about how much they watch college basketball, women’s college basketball, outside of the game film and things like that. Stanford loses in your region, Duke loses, Texas loses. All had home region games. Is that kind of one thing where the team could possibly — you know, just weighing what — potentially looking ahead, like look how much this region has opened up for us or is it more of a lesson of, hey, if we don’t bring our best game, this region has had a lot of upsets, so we could be the next one?

LISA BLUDER: I think it’s more the latter. I think you’re seeing parity in women’s basketball right now, and I think that’s tremendous for our game and it makes it so much more fun to watch for everyone, maybe even the casual fan, right, not just Iowa Hawkeye fan, not just the South Carolina fan. But the casual fan, I think enjoys it a little bit more when there’s more parity in women’s basketball.

But when those people go down — like you say, they were hosting, well, it wasn’t that long ago we felt what that’s like. So my heart aches for those people. I know exactly what they’re going through, and it just shows you where women’s basketball is right now. But did we think about it any differently as far as our steps? No. It’s the same steps as we were before. Certainly we all watched the Duke-Colorado game the other night. We had a text thread going from our whole group of our players. It’s just the next step. The next step is Colorado.

Q. It doesn’t help in terms of bringing your fan base any closer, but is it useful that you as a team made a similar trip out to the Northwest for the Phil Knight tournament last fall?

LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I think it is. We’ve talked about destiny a lot in our journey this year. There’s been so many things that have been like, yeah, that was part of the plan when we didn’t even know it was part of the plan, right?

But certainly coming out here and, again, facing that competition in a pro arena like this, I think gives us good experience.

Q. Going back to the parity thing, how has this evolved? How has women’s basketball become more than just Connecticut and everybody else? Is there just a deeper talent pool at the high school level? What has taken place the last 10 or 15 years?

LISA BLUDER: My opinion is that it is a deeper talent pool. I think television exposure has helped. Like, for instance, the Big Ten, with our network, when that came on the scene, it allowed us to be known more outside of just Iowa. So I think the Big Ten network certainly helped us.

But I do think there’s just a lot more parity, and I think in the last couple of years with the transfer portal, it has also changed things because of that. So I think those — that’s not 10 or 15 years, but certainly in the last couple years.

Q. Last week you faced a Georgia team that liked to run out, two centers. Colorado kind of does the same thing. What comparisons are there between those two — or those four, I guess, together? And was it kind of nice to see Georgia last week and then have that same personnel this week?

LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I mean, two games in a row we’re going to be facing a double-post offense. Again, destiny helps, right? I mean, it’s just a situation of we haven’t seen that hardly at all this year, the entire year, and now we’re seeing it two games in a row. So I think last week will help prepare us.

I know Quay Miller is a fabulous player, All PAC 12 player. And I don’t know, Aaronette, is that how you say it? If somebody from Colorado can help me. I don’t know. You know, she is very — I mean, as a sophomore, her field goal percentage the last five games is almost 70 percent. That’s like Monika numbers. That’s impressive. That’s a very, very impressive thing.

Q. Was there a particular game this year that was kind of served as a spark for this team maybe to come from behind or pulling one out on the road where you weren’t necessarily favored to win one that kind of serves as a spark for this group?

LISA BLUDER: You know, I mean, I think we’ve had a lot of little sparks along the way, but certainly beating Indiana at home in our last game to a sold out arena was really good. So I almost think the spark was actually our Maryland loss rather than a win. So coming off that game, we beat Indiana at home, like I said, in a sold-out arena, and then we go into the Big Ten tournament and play — we played four top — in eight days, we played four games and two against top 3 — no three against top 10 opponents in the country. That’s hard to do. I think that really has been good for us.

Q. How was the Maryland lost a spark?

LISA BLUDER: It just kind of — it didn’t bring us back to reality because my team was never cocky or anything like that. But it sure like gave us a focus. It just felt so bad that we didn’t want to feel that way again for a long, long time, hopefully. It was more that. It was more just — putting the old cliche, the nose to the grindstone. But it really was. It brought us a little bit closer together, for some reason.

Our chemistry is something that we really believe in, that we really — we absolutely believe that our chemistry is one of the parts of our success, and I think it even brought us even tighter.

Q. It looked like the team had some fun in Seattle yesterday exploring. Is there anything else that you’re hoping that the team will be able to do while you’re here or are you now fully locked down into game mode?

LISA BLUDER: Last night they went to the bubble gum wall, which sounds completely disgusting. I’m sorry, Seattle, but it does to me. I did not go. They did. They went to the public market, I believe. So they had a really nice time. It was good for them to get out and walk around and see Seattle. It really is a beautiful city.

This morning, I went for a walk along the waterfront there. It’s a beautiful city, and we’re glad to be here. But they enjoyed it. We needed that after a four-hour flight here, to get out and stretch the legs. The one thing that they have talked about wanting to do is the Ferris wheel. I don’t — would you recommend that?

Q. I would.

LISA BLUDER: You would? I’m sure you would. Especially at $17 a ticket, I’m sure you would. (Laughing.) They told me that already.