The Iowa Women’s Basketball team travels to the highly anticipated Phil Knight Legacy Tournament this weekend in Portland, Oregon. The Hawkeyes will face the Oregon State Beavers in the opening round on Friday, with a second matchup coming against either Duke or #2 Connecticut. Head Coach Lisa Bluder, Molly Davis and McKenna Warnock met with the media today to discuss the upcoming tournament.
OPENING STATEMENT
LISA BLUDER: It’s kind of a big week, I mean, this is one that you circle at the beginning of the year that you’re excited about. This Thanksgiving tournament, it’s very prestigious to be invited to this tournament.
The opposition is very very good. Oregon State, I have a connection with Scott Rueck. He was my assistant for Pan American Games, so we have that connection. I know how good of a coach he is. He plans for games very well. Caitlin (Clark) visited there, so there’s that connection. Jelena (Mitrovic) the 6’9 center visited here, so we know her fairly well. They’re just a very good team. They haven’t been tested like we have; I don’t think their opponents have been as good as our opponents. They’ve played all their games at home.
We know it’s going to be a pro Oregon State crowd. They’re only about 80 miles away, so they’re going to have a good crowd. Good team, deep team. Raegan Beers coming off the bench at center/power forward is very good.
Q: What’s the challenge of facing their centers? 6’9 Jelena Mitrovic and then 6’2 Raegan Beers. Height difference, but two very talented players.
BLUDER: And sometimes they play them together and they’re really big when they play them together. Coach Jensen was trying to find a stepstool, so somebody could step on it and try to shoot overtop of them. She’s (Mitrovic) a legitimate 6’9. I’m just trying to tell the team; you cannot turn and just shoot a jump shot over her. You’ve got to be creative with your post moves. You’re not going to be able to shoot over her. We think we can be up tempo against them.
Q: What does this big stage do for the program?
BLUDER: These are things that you want to do when your program gets national respect. You don’t get invited to this tournament unless you’re a Nike school and a top ranked Nike school. We’re thrilled to be able to represent our university at this tournament and it speaks well for recruiting. It speaks well for where our program is right now.
Q: How do you pick and choose what tournaments to play in?
BLUDER: We go someplace every Thanksgiving. The players are not in school all week, so it’s a great time for us to travel. We have already chosen where we’re going to go next year. We’ve been invited to the Florida Gulf Coast tournament and that’s an MTE (Multi-Team Event). Where you can play three games and it only counts as two. You can only do that once every four years.
This tournament was a no brainer because we were invited to go out there and it’s like “oh my goodness, yes.” You want to be involved in this tournament. We always like to go someplace warm if we can, I mean everybody likes to get out of Iowa in the winter. We want good competition on a neutral court because that’s like beating somebody on the road. It counts for more points in the new NET if you can beat somebody on a neutral court and wouldn’t you rather play on a neutral court than their home court? What is the level of your team right now? I always try to schedule the best competition that I can beat, if that makes sense. It changes from year to year. I’m not saying we think we can or cannot beat Oregon State, Duke or UConn because this was a prestigious tournament (we were invited to). That’s how our non-conference normally goes.
Q: How crucial are these November early season opportunities for this season even though you have a veteran team that understands the Big Ten slate is tough?
BLUDER: We do have five returning starters, but you can see how much time Molly (Davis) is getting. You can see how much time Hannah (Stuelke) is getting. Those are absolutely new pieces to the puzzle, and we got Taylor (McCabe) and she was in for five minutes yesterday. We still do have some new pieces that I think are really significant to our success. We get better as the season goes on because we’re based on a lot of reads and cuts and sometimes it’s just hard to emulate when the team is just scrimmaging in the summertime. They get kind of lazy and some of those reads, but now they’re having to do them.
Q: Trying to keep the team from looking ahead to a potential UConn matchup and focusing on Oregon State.
BLUDER: I don’t think (there’s an issue). Again, Caitlin visited there, and she knows how good that program is. We know they were in a Final Four not that long ago, so those things kind of help (the focus). Our team is pretty mature and smart, and they know they can’t do that, otherwise we’re not going to be able to play Connecticut.
Q: Oregon State is shooting 23% from 3pt range and 59% from 2pt range. Are you going to make them beat you from outside and guard the inside more?
BLUDER: We try to keep everybody out of the paint. That’s one of our defensive fundamentals that we try to keep everybody away. Steer everybody away from the paint because we know it’s a higher percentage shot. We’re definitely going to try to do that and it’s hard when (Mitrovic) she is 6’9. It’s definitely hard.
Q: How many games do you go before you believe the stats paint the picture of a team? Four games is a small sample size.
BLUDER: I think it’s still hard just because we just don’t have a big enough pool right now. Just like Kansas State, right? Sarah Shematsi was 2/9 from three-point range before our game and then she was 6/10 (against us).
Q: Raegan Beers is similar to Algona Sr Audi Crooks. How do you handle her inside?
BLUDER: That’s a good comparison. She’s averaging four offensive rebounds a game, so we need to box out. She’s shooting 67%, so she’s shooting Monika type numbers. Good player, we went and visited her in high school. We have to make sure we’re boxing out because they will go over the back. It’s just too tempting not to when you’re that big, so we can draw some fouls that way. She’s not quite as tall as Jelena though. She’s only 6’2, so she is a different body type.
Q: How do you assess Hannah Stuelke through five games? What does she need to do to get from 13 minutes a game to maybe 20 minutes?
BLUDER: We need to get her more minutes and we all know that and we’re trying to be creative and thinking how we can do that. My problem right now is she’s backing up the four and the five and I don’t want to give her the three as another position to learn because that’s really hard for a freshman. In my mind, it’s more on McKenna having to learn some three and she can do that. She played it at Kansas State. The beauty of our offense is really all four guards do the same thing, except for transition and that’s why I don’t want to put Hannah in that because there is a difference in transition on offense and defense. McKenna being a senior, she can handle it and we just have to get some more time getting her at that position.
Q: More interesting matchups and upsets so far this year? What is the reasoning?
BLUDER: I think we’re seeing more parity. We’re seeing more upsets. That’s a good thing for our game. Especially early, I think you see a lot of upsets early because the statistics aren’t quite accurate as they should be. You’re playing against uncommon teams or teams that you’re not as familiar with. Once you get into Big Ten play, you kind of know everybody. Everybody knows everybody’s scouts. Everyone knows strengths and weaknesses, but when you’re playing out of conference, you don’t always know that opponent as well. I think that results in a few more upsets.
Q: Talk about defending Destinee Wells yesterday.
MOLLY DAVIS: I knew that she was going to be a tough matchup and we knew that coming in. Coach Bluder gave me a few hints. Keep her on the left side of the floor, go the easiest way on ball screens, but we knew she was going to be a focus on defense and that was my biggest focus when I came into the game.
Q: How has this first stretch gone being in a new program? New surroundings and everything and now that there are games on the schedule.
MOLLY DAVIS: It’s obviously a big adjustment coming from a mid major to the Big Ten, but I knew that coming in and I think my teammates and coaches have done a really good job of helping me adjust.
Q: Has the system been what you expected when you transferred in?
MOLLY DAVIS: I think Coach Bluder was really upfront and honest with me before I made my decision and so there was nothing that I was really surprised by.
Q: How crucial are these early season games? Bigger matchups that set the table for what’s ahead this year.
MCKENNA WARNOCK: I think all the teams we’ve seen so far are very high caliber teams. They’re the kind of teams that you see in the first rounds of the NCAA Tournament and I think just getting the opportunity to go on the road at Drake, on the road at Kansas State, it helps build the senior leadership, but also the freshman and transfer. These games at the front are super important, but they definitely help later down the road.
Q: What has your role been, as a mentor for the younger players on the team?
MCKENNA WARNOCK: I’ve always had amazing leadership coming up. My freshman year, sophomore year, any year, always had great seniors. I think just trying to maintain that culture that Iowa has and bring it to our new freshman and our transfers. Just trying to keep that alive.
Q: How much did the Phil Knight tournament jump out on the schedule for this year?
MCKENNA WARNOCK: The tournament coming up is an amazing opportunity. I’m sure Coach Bluder already touched on it, but we haven’t been there before, so that’s super exciting. We’re really excited and honored to even have the ability to go and I think that’s also great to see super early in the season. You can learn a lot after this week.
Q: What do you know about Oregon State?
MCKENNA WARNOCK: I actually played with Talia von Oelhoffen a little bit during a summer one time with Adidas, so I know her pretty well. They’re a great team and they’ve been to the Final Four recently. I looked at them when I was being recruited. I think they’re definitely an NCAA team and there’s a reason that they’re at this tournament. I think it will be a really good matchup and I’m excited.
Q: What’s different about a neutral court? How do you manufacture your own energy?
MCKENNA WARNOCK: I think it’s really good for later on. The Big Ten or NCAA Tournament. It’s a completely different feel. I think Oregon State might have a little bit more of a home court advantage than we do, but it’s definitely not on their home court.
I believe in our Hawk fans. I feel like there definitely will still be some out there. I think it’s also a really good opportunity for our team just to come together and figure it out for ourselves. We play on the road a lot during Big Ten play and the Big Ten has great schools with a lot of attendance, so getting that opportunity to figure it out now is good.
Q: How do you get more offensive production from players not named Caitlin Clark?
MOLLY DAVIS: Since our Kansas State game, we’ve really touched on moving the ball a lot and I think that when the ball gets stuck, that’s when it makes it easy for the defense. I think just making sure that we move the ball on offense and that can generate some open shots for other people as well. Also when other people get the ball, making sure they take advantage of every opportunity that they get.
