We have reached the beginning of February which means we are right in the middle of Bracketology season. Teams are wondering where they stand among the top 68 and for the Iowa Women’s basketball team, they are firmly in the field right now, but looking to get to the ultimate goal, which is a top four seed.
For those that do not know, the top four seeds in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament get to host the first and second round games. Iowa was able to host Mercer and Missouri back in 2019 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Where the Hawkeyes stand right now
As of right now, Charlie Creme of ESPN has the Hawkeyes as a six seed in the Storrs Regional hosted by Connecticut. That puts Lisa Bluder’s squad in a spot that both, allows them to still reach a top four seed, but also gives them little room for error down the stretch.
Looking at Iowa’s NET Ranking, they come in at #20 in the country, which is ahead of handful of the teams projected just ahead of them at the three and four seed line. Breaking down the wins and the losses, aside from blowing a fourth quarter lead to IUPUI at home the Hawkeyes do not have a bad loss. They are 6-0 in Q3/Q4 games and have avoided a resume crushing loss.
The Hawkeyes are 9-6 in Q1/Q2 games, which is comparable to teams around them in the bracket projection, like Maryland (8-6), Georgia (9-5), Kansas State (8-6) and Virginia Tech (5-6). All of those teams are projected from 4-6 seeds in the latest update.
Here is the Hawkeyes NET Team Sheet below…
The Remaining Schedule
vs Minnesota (#95 NET) (Q3)
vs #15 Maryland (#16 NET) (Q1)
at #7 Indiana (#17 NET) (Q1)
at Rutgers (#149 NET) (Q3)
vs #4 Michigan (#12 NET) (Q1)
Looking at the remaining schedule, the Hawkeyes have two games against Q3 teams and should take care of business there. That leads us to the three remaining games against Q1 teams. Two of which are at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Maryland is 3-6 against Q1 teams, while Indiana is still without Mackenzie Holmes, and you would hope that Iowa is fully healthy by the time they play Michigan in 20 days at home.
There are opportunities for Iowa to rack up a couple of resume building wins before the Big Ten Tournament.
The Caitlin Clark and Carver-Hawkeye Arena Affect
In the event that Iowa finishes the season strong and grabs a couple of Q1 wins, they could find themselves right on the line for a four seed depending on the outcome of the Big Ten Tournament. If the Hawkeyes are sitting at something like 20-8 or 21-9 with a NET in the top 20, they could get bumped up to the top four seed for two reasons. Caitlin Clark is regarded as one of, if not the best player in women’s college basketball and the tournament committee will do their best to give her a path to the Sweet 16 and beyond. On top of that, Iowa is known for having a good women’s basketball fan base and they will get 10k+ inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena for a tournament game, which also sways the committee’s decisions whether they want to say it or not.
Final Thought
While health is still an ongoing issue for the Iowa WBB team, they still have a shot at grabbing a top four seed. Gabbie Marshall should be back in time for the Hawkeyes game vs Maryland in a week, while McKenna Warnock’s status is little more up in the air. If the Hawkeyes can grab a couple of ranked wins at home down the stretch, they should be in the hunt to host a regional come tournament time.
