Iowa loves to play fast. If the Hawks could find a good shot in the first ten seconds of every possession, they would gladly take them almost every time. Iowa is still good offensively in the half court, but transition is where the team thrives.

One tried and true way to get Iowa’s offense out of sorts is to slow the pace of play down as much as possible -- to bleed the shot clock down to almost nothing, shoot, then get back on defense as quickly as you can to prevent Iowa’s transition offense.

Coming into this game, 7-seed Purdue knew it couldn’t keep up with 2-seed Iowa in a fast-paced game. It tried that in Iowa City and lost 83-68. Instead, Purdue came into this game hoping to disrupt Iowa and win a low-scoring slugfest.

Iowa started the game well on both ends and led 13-6 at the under-5 timeout. Caitlin Clark had a couple early baskets and Monika Czinano started the game 3-3 from the floor. Defensively, Iowa forced Purdue into long jumpers and secured rebounds on most of the missed shots.

Purdue’s strategy was also strange. The Boilermakers forced a bunch of threes early, and after a made shot they were doubling Clark 90 feet from the basket. The double didn’t stop Clark from getting the ball further down the court, but at least once led to an easy Iowa basket because Purdue didn’t have enough defenders back.

Both teams struggled somewhat offensively in the second half of the quarter, but Iowa maintained its advantage and led 19-10 heading to the second quarter.

Offense was tough to come by for Iowa to start the second quarter, but the Hawkeye defense kept forcing Purdue into bricked jumpers, and Iowa pushed its lead to 11 at 25-14.

After the timeout, Iowa started turning the ball over on offense and the giveaways helped Purdue get a few good looks on offense. The Boilermakers went on a run, and Iowa called timeout with 3:46 to go and the lead down to 27-23.

Iowa didn’t do any better after the timeout, but Purdue couldn’t capitalize and Iowa took a 29-25 lead into the half. Iowa didn’t make a field goal in the final 6:24 of the half.

Of note, Clark got whistled for a technical foul with 33 seconds left in the half for screaming at the officials. Purdue had gotten away with contact on several Iowa possessions before the tech, then Clark got whistled for a foul on a play where she seemed to get a clean block initially.

Purdue started the third quarter well and quickly tied the game at 31. Iowa responded with a Gabbie Marshall basket, but Purdue hit another three to take its first lead at 34-33.

But just as a Purdue seemed to have all the momentum, Iowa got its offense going again. The Hawks got a couple baskets in transition, another Marshall three, and suddenly they led 41-36 at the under 5 timeout. Both teams struggled offensively to close the quarter, and Iowa took a 45-40 lead into the 4th quarter.

Iowa got a Kate Martin three and a Clark jumper on its first few possessions of the fourth quarter, which helped the Hawkeyes push the lead to 50-40. Purdue called timeout, but the break didn’t help. In the next few minutes Clark hit a couple threes, the Iowa offense kept clicking, and Purdue called timeout again with 5:25 to play and Iowa leading 60-44.

Purdue continued to battle, but was never able to get enough stops to cut the Iowa lead to single digits. Iowa ultimately finished off a 69-58 win to advance to the semifinals.

Clark led Iowa with 22 points and 8 rebounds. She wasn’t very good in the second and third quarters, but scored 12 points in the 4th quarter to help Iowa pull away. Czinano scored 14 points on 6-7 shooting, but again couldn’t get the ball consistently enough to truly take over. Marshall was Iowa’s last double-digit scorer with 11. She hit some big shots in the middle of the game when Iowa’s offense was really struggling. A box score for the game is here.

Iowa has developed a habit of slow starts at the Big Ten Tournament. Last year, Iowa only led a good-not-great Northwestern team 33-32 at halftime of the quarterfinal game. Two years ago, Iowa only beat a 7-16 Purdue team 87-76 in the second round of the tournament thanks largely to a 3-22 shooting performance from three.

No, this game wasn’t pretty. No, Iowa didn’t play close to its best. But Iowa played well enough in the fourth quarter to come away with a victory and advance to the Big Ten Tournament semifinal. That’s all that matters for now. The Hawkeyes should look better in tomorrow’s game because they pushed through their struggles today.

Iowa’s regular season game and Big Ten Tournament game against Purdue couldn’t have gone much differently, but the margins of victory were fairly similar. Iowa controlled the regular season game almost from the tip, but Purdue never let it get completely out of control, and Iowa ended up winning by 15.

In this one, the game was tied in the third quarter and Iowa only led by five points to start the fourth quarter. But Iowa still dominated the fourth quarter and was up 14 before Purdue hit a meaningless three at the buzzer.

[Ed. Note: Ross here -- I was able to take in Iowa-Purdue in person at the Target Center.] Iowa and Purdue played before the largest crowd so far (by a wide margin) at this year's Big Ten Tournament early Friday evening. The sides of the lower bowl were draped in black and gold from top to bottom. The crowd looked (and sounded) to be at least 80-85% Iowa fans.

The Hawkeyes didn't give those fans a lot to cheer about in the second and third quarters, when Purdue's grind-it-out offense and (extremely) physical defense got Iowa out of sync. Caitlin Clark finally found a rhythm in the fourth quarter, both in terms of scoring (she finally hit a few 3s) and passing the ball (she had a few crisp assists). Once she got going, and Iowa as a whole managed to find its footing on offense, the crowd really roared to life.

In person, it was also easy to see just how physical the Purdue defense was; they didn't miss many opportunities to clutch at an opponent or try to body them out of position. Clark's frustration with the way the game was being called was visible early on (and reached a boiling point with her technical foul near the end of the first half).

Conference tournaments are a wonderful opportunity for teams to improve their NCAA Tournament seeding. Iowa learned that lesson well last year. Prior to the Big Ten Tournament, Iowa was expected to be a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But the Hawks went on a run and won the tournament in a close game over Indiana. As a result, the Selection Committee made Iowa the final 2 seed in the 2022 NCAA Tournament even though there were teams behind Iowa with arguably better overall resumes.

This year, Iowa was slotted 9th overall in the Selection Committee’s last Top 16 reveal, but that was before Iowa’s emotional last-second win over #2 Indiana. Now ESPN projects Iowa as a 2 seed pending the season’s remaining results before Selection Sunday.

Even better, teams above Iowa are already faltering. Stanford was the Selection Committee’s #3 overall team, but the Cardinal lost to #4 overall Utah last week. Utah then slipped up last night, falling in the PAC 12 Tournament quarterfinal to a Washington State team that was on the bubble prior to that victory.

If Iowa repeats as Big Ten Tournament champions, I think a 1 seed is very much in play. At a minimum I think Iowa would jump Utah and Maryland (who Iowa would either beat in the semifinal or who would have lost to Illinois in the quarterfinal in this scenario). Iowa would also likely jump LSU unless LSU is able to beat South Carolina to win the SEC Tournament, and would probably jump Virginia Tech even if Tech wins the ACC Tournament.

If the Hawkeyes make the Big Ten Tournament final, then lose, they probably cement themselves as a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. In that scenario, Iowa either beat Maryland or saw Maryland lose in the quarterfinal. In either case, Iowa probably jumps Maryland at a minimum.

If Iowa loses in the semifinal, things get more complicated. UConn, Notre Dame, and Duke are all 3 seeds that could potentially jump Iowa if the Hawks lose in the Big Ten Tournament semifinal. I think a high 3 seed would be most likely in that scenario.

Iowa returns to action tomorrow afternoon in the semifinal of the Big Ten Tournament. The game will tip off approximately 25 minutes after the conclusion of the 1:30 PM CT game between Indiana and Ohio State and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

Iowa will play the winner of tonight’s quarterfinal game between 3 seed Maryland and 6 seed Illinois.

The Hawkeyes lost their only matchup with Illinois 90-86 in Champaign way back on January 1st. Illinois is the only Big Ten team Iowa hasn’t beaten this year, so a rematch to avenge that loss would be nice.

Iowa went 1-1 against Maryland in the regular season this year. Iowa dominated the Terps in Iowa City on February 2nd, winning 96-82. Maryland then gave Iowa its biggest defeat of the year, beating the Hawks 96-68 at Maryland on February 21st. A rubber match against the Terps would be a good opportunity for Iowa to show that the Maryland game was a fluke.

Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball, and recruiting coverage. Sign up with Go Iowa Awesome here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Talk about it inside The Premium Forum

• Follow us on Twitter: @IowaAwesome

• Like us on Facebook.