Watertown, MN is just a short 40-minute drive to Williams Arena, where the University of Minnesota plays basketball.

The small town with a population of about 4,500 people is right in the heart of Golden Gopher country and is the place Iowa senior Center Monika Czinano calls home.

Growing up in Watertown, Monika and her family made the drive to Williams Arena a number of times to watch the Gophers and those visits ultimately helped her realize that college basketball was a dream that she wanted to pursue

“I remember I went to The Barn a lot growing up to watch the Gophers play. I remember I had a birthday party there in third grade and I kind of realized that was a goal of mine, that I wanted to play in college…I remember walking by the locker room and just thinking how cool that was and how fun it would be to play there. It seemed kind of unattainable at that time, obviously, in third grade.”

Over the next five years, Monika would get better and better at basketball.

Her first offer came in 8th grade from North Dakota State out of the Summit League. As Czinano started her high school career at Watertown-Mayer, she began to realize that playing college basketball was more than just a dream.

“Growing up, I didn’t really fully realize that college basketball was on the table until freshman year of high school…Beginning of my freshman year, getting my first offers and being like “wow ok, so I’m good enough to do this.’”

Czinano would gather all kinds of accolades over her time as a Watertown-Mayer Royal. She was a team captain junior and senior year, a three-time all-conference selection, and a first team All-State selection as a senior, while averaging 23 points and 14 rebounds as a senior. Monika finished her high school career with 1,643 points and 1,035 rebounds. On top of her individual accomplishments, her team won back-to-back conference championships in 2016 and 2017.

So why are we the one writing the article? She went on to play for her home state school, right? The same one she watched many times growing up, right? Well not quite.

“I wasn’t offered by Minnesota. I really wasn’t even recruited by them…I would say weird is the right word. The recruitment process, in the fact that they weren’t really looking at that many Minnesota girls…It was just a little odd.”

The 2019 Minnesota squad had just one player from in-state, and it wasn’t Monika. As we all know, Czinano decided to play her college ball here at Iowa.

“I went on a visit to Iowa and I remember calling my AAU director and being like “If Iowa offers, I’m committing. I love it. I want to go here.’”

Lisa Bluder extended an offer to her early in her junior season at Watertown-Mayer and Monika says she committed on the spot.

“I’m really happy with the way my story went. I think Iowa is the perfect place for me. I think this is where I would have ended up regardless. It’s just such a homelike atmosphere.”

The trip with the Hawkeyes to Williams Arena is always a nice return to the place where Monika dreamed about playing college basketball growing up, but her fourth trip to Minneapolis is going to have a little bit different emotion to it. This time there is a familiar face on the sideline for the Golden Gophers. A freshman guard out of Watertown-Mayer that Monika knows very well. It’s her younger sister Maggie.

“When she committed, I was so excited. I think I’m just more excited that both of us are living out our dreams. We both dreamed of doing this for the longest time…I don’t know how many families get to say they get to play against their sibling in one of the best conferences in the whole country.”

As for who is going to be there watching the sisters live out their dream?

“I’ve heard a lot of my hometown is going to be there. I know the high school team is going to be there, my mom, my dad, everybody is going to be there…I think more than anything it’s just a lot of fun to be surrounded by family and to be surrounded by people that support me.”

Monika said that her dad tried to make a custom jersey with half a Minnesota jersey and half an Iowa jersey, but the CustomInk site would not allow him to do it due to copyright issues with the logos, so he has one with the state outlines on it. Rumor is that her parents Gyula and Theresa may have something else in the works to equally show their support for Monika and Maggie.

As for communication between the two sisters ahead of the game? The two Face Timed on Tuesday night and it was a little bit different conversation than they usually have.

“It was so funny because we talk about the scouts of other teams. She will be like “oh I’m playing Rutgers” and we kind of talk back and forth. Now we’re like “oh we’re playing each other. I can’t tell you the scout and you can’t tell me the scout.’”

Monika said she is trying to Maggie to keep the Iowa scout papers until the season is over, but Maggie says she has to throw them out after the game is done.

It’s safe to say that the Minnesota/Iowa game tomorrow night will have a little extra emotion for Monika, but she knows that at the end of the day, they are there to win a Big Ten basketball game.

“There is a lot of emotion connected to it for me and it’s just kind of separating myself from it a little bit and really focusing on that it’s a Big Ten game. This is a road game. It’s going to be hard…I think for me, I just kind of have to do my best to detach from it.”

More than anything it’s a cool story to think about as the game unfolds tonight. Two sisters living out their dream of playing college basketball and even though it’s at different schools, it’s at the arena they grew up frequenting.