It’s been a frustrating couple of months to begin the season for the Iowa Women’s basketball team.

They returned all five starters, All-American Caitlin Clark and have one of the best coaches in women’s college basketball history. Excitement for the season was very high with a preseason #9 ranking and their 4-0 start had everyone thinking things were moving smoothly.

Adversity has hit the team in the form of long breaks in between games. The breaks have stemmed mostly from Covid issues; the same issues that have been plaguing sports for nearly two years.

“I’ve been impressed with what they’ve done in practice,” said Lisa Bluder on the team responding to scheduling challenges. “It’s amazing how resilient they have been…the women have come to practice every day, trying to get better. They’ve tried to stay optimistic.”

The Hawkeyes were forced to cancel three games in November after their 4-0 start, including a home game vs in-state rival Drake, as well as a trip to Mexico where they were set to play Seton Hall and USC in the Cancun Challenge. They practiced as a team just one time in a two-week span before traveling to Duke, where they were all sorts of discombobulated and lost by double digits.

After three games in a week, once again the Hawkeyes were forced to take a break, this time a ten-day break for finals. They defeated UCF, but were upset by IUPUI at home after blowing a 15 point fourth quarter lead.

Now after Christmas break, the Hawkeyes have had games vs Penn State and Illinois postponed due to Covid within their opponents’ programs. Luckily, they were able to set up a last-minute matchup with Evansville Sunday, but it’s still the third time this season that 10+ days have elapsed between games for Lisa Bluder’s squad. For comparison, back in 2019 the Hawkeyes never went more than seven days without a game, before the Covid-19 pandemic canceled the NCAA Tournament.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you, it was frustrating,” said Caitlin Clark. “I think especially coming off a loss and then going into Christmas Break, really the only thing you want to do is play a game…We’re 1-0 (in the Big Ten) and really have a whole new slate that we can build off of. Coming back and getting the word that Penn State couldn’t play and then Illinois. A little frustrating, but really out of our control.”

Most of the Hawkeyes struggles can be credited to not playing games consistently and being able to get in a rhythm on both sides of the court.

“It’s going to take time,” said Lisa Bluder on how the team can build up some momentum on the court. “I really don’t know how we’re going to get our rhythm until we get into a routine. Until we can be practicing and playing on a regular basis.”

Bluder says that the team is doing a lot in practice to try to keep the team as close to game level as possible, despite the long breaks between games.

“We are doing a lot of scrimmaging in practices. We are doing as much up and down, more than we would normally be doing at this time of year, because we want to keep that game mentality…and I think the players enjoy that more too.”

The impact of the cancelations and postponements on the players is clear, but the toll it takes on the coaching staff is understated according to Coach Bluder.

“I really feel bad for my coaches like Jenni Fitzgerald has done so many scouts and then had to just kind of tear them up and that’s incredibly frustrating for her…You don’t expect to be trying to find games during your competitive season and that’s been a whole other strange thing (for us).”

With two games already postponed and many games being postponed daily across the country, it seems like the Hawkeyes may be gearing up for another fragmented season where games are canceled and scheduled again on the fly.

“I think our attitude is always the same,” said Caitlin Clark. “We’re just excited to be here and happy to compete every single day, no matter if it’s practice or a game, but it is frustrating at times. We really have a full Big Ten season to play and were hopeful that we’ll be able to reschedule at least one of the two games that have been canceled in Big Ten play and we have a lot of opportunities in Big Ten play to show who we are.”

Iowa will get back on the court against Evansville on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and is scheduled to jump back into Big Ten play on January 6th vs Northwestern. That game will also be at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.