Busy week ahead for women's hoops
Scouting this week’s Opponents
“The players are really excited to get going. Having the opportunity to just play against somebody different,” said Coach Lisa Bluder as she opened the morning’s media availability.
The Iowa Women’s Basketball team beat Truman State in an exhibition last week, but this week the games will count in the standings. The Hawkeyes host New Hampshire on Tuesday, followed by a game against Samford on Thursday. They will wrap up a busy opening week with a trip to Northern Iowa on Sunday afternoon.
Previewing New Hampshire (Tuesday, November 9)
The Wildcats went 5-15 last season, including a 5-11 record in America East conference play. They went 1-2 vs postseason tournament teams, while the win came vs automatic qualifier Stony Brook.
New Hampshire returns their top six players in terms of minutes played last season and is led by leading scorer G Amanda Torres (12.1 ppg). F Ivy Gogolin (11.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg), G Helena Delaruelle (7.3 ppg, 6.0 rpg), G Adara Groman (7.1 ppg) and G Brooke Kane (6.8 ppg) figure to fill out the starting five.
“They are going to try a lot of defensive things, that we haven’t seen in the past,” said Caitlin Clark. The team expects New Hampshire to run a number of different defensive sets against them, so they have been preparing in practice for various things.
As a team last year, they did not shoot the ball very well from behind the arc and scored just 53.8 ppg, which is not good news going up against and offense in the Hawkeyes that can score 80-90 points. Iowa will have a distinct advantage in the height department, with eight players over 6’0 on the roster compared to just five for the Wildcats. Monika Czinano and Addison O’Grady are taller than anyone on the New Hampshire roster.
Expect to see an improved team from last year, but the Hawkeyes should be able to win this one easily.
Previewing Samford (Thursday, November 11)
The Bulldogs went 14-11 last season, including a first-place finish in the Southern Conference. Despite the solid 11-2 conference record, Samford went 0-5 vs Power Conference programs. They made an appearance in the WNIT, but lost to Ole Miss and Illinois State.
“They went to the WNIT last year, which is pretty impressive. Definitely a team that has talent. I expect them to be athletic,” said Caitlin Clark on the matchup.
Samford returns their top four scorers from a year ago, including PG Andrea Cournoyer, who led the team in scoring with 18.4 ppg. G Shauntai Battle (15.0 ppg), C Natalie Armstrong (12.7 ppg) and F Annie Ramil (11.0 ppg) all averaged double digits in points. Ramil in particular will be someone to watch on the glass, as she averaged 8.2 rebounds and nearly 3 offensive rebounds a game.
Look for the Hawkeyes to try to force turnovers and run the floor, as Samford was ranked 227th in turnover margin last season.
Previewing Northern Iowa (Sunday, November 14)
The Panthers went 17-13 last season and made an appearance in the Women’s NIT, where they would reach the semifinal before losing to Ole Miss 60-50. UNI finished in fourth place in the MVC with a record of 11-7. Senior Karli Rucker returns as the team’s leader in ppg (13.3), assists (115) and minutes per game (30.0). The Hawkeyes defeated the Panthers 96-81 in last year’s meeting.
“Tough schedule to begin with having not a lot of time to prep for each game…UNI is a tough place to play. We’ve always had a really challenging game (in Cedar Falls),” said Coach Bluder on the in-state matchup.
“I’m excited. I think any of those in-state rivalry games, they always have a little something extra to them,” said Caitlin Clark. “We really take pride in those. Kind of call it a state championship. We want to beat all three of them, so starts on Sunday with UNI.”
The Panthers return seven of their top eight scorers from last season, which gives them seven players that averaged 7+ ppg. They did the opposite of Iowa last season, rotating many players in and now return ten players that averaged over nine minutes per game.
A road trip to Cedar Falls early in the season will be a good first test for Lisa Bluder’s bunch.
Quoting the Hawkeyes
“Lot of good things. I think we had some really good bench play. We shot the ball really well. We executed better, for this early in the year, than I thought we would,” - Coach Bluder on takeaways from the exhibition vs Truman State.
“Logan Cook will still be our first center off the bench, but Addison will definitely see time.” – Coach Bluder
“Taking care of your bodies. Sleep, eating well, getting in the training room…It’s almost more mental prep than physical prep.” – Caitlin Clark on playing three games in six days.
“She is one of those players that’s super long, but also can stretch the floor, so I think that can cause a lot of matchup problems. Especially in the Big Ten when you have a lot of true posts that really like to play on the block and stay on the block.” – Caitlin Clark on Addison O’Grady
“Why not come to both? First game of the year, haven’t been able to come to Carver…” – Caitlin Clark on the women’s/men’s doubleheader