WHO: #2 Iowa vs. #15 Southeastern Louisiana (21-9 overall, 14-4 in Southland)
WHEN: Friday, March 17th (time TBA)
WHERE: Carver-Hawkeye Arena (Iowa City, Iowa)
TV: TBA
RADIO: Hawkeye Radio Network | Sirius/XM 109 or 196

WHO: #7 Florida State (23-9 overall, 12-6 in ACC) vs. #10 Georgia (21-11 overall, 9-7 in SEC)
WHEN: Friday, March 17th (time TBA)
WHERE: Carver Hawkeye Arena (Iowa City, Iowa)
TV: TBA

Florida State has had an up and down season . During the first NCAA Tournament reveal there were some bracketologists projecting the Seminoles as one of the four seeds. The selection committee did not pick them, however, and they haven’t been in those discussions since.

The Seminoles have ranked wins over #13 Duke and #19 North Carolina. They appear to play much better at home (14-1) than they do on the road (7-5) or on neutral courts (3-2).

Iowa and FSU have played four common opponents. The Seminoles beat Purdue (76-75 on a neutral court), Wisconsin (92-87 in Madison), and NC State (91-72), but lost to UConn (85-77 at UConn).

FSU plays at one of the quickest paces in the country. They don’t shoot particularly well from anywhere, but rebound well. Of note, the Seminoles’ best player—Ta’Niya Latson—missed the ACC Tournament with an injury. I believe she’ll be back for the NCAA Tournament, but if she’s slowed down by the injury at all that could put FSU at a disadvantage.

Georgia doesn’t have a top 25 win this year, in part because the SEC was down overall this year and there were only three ranked SEC teams. The Bulldogs have played three common opponents with Iowa. They beat Wisconsin (68-60 on a neutral court), beat Belmont (66-55 at home), and lost to NC State (65-54 at home).

Georgia is much better defensively compared to offensively and plays at a much slower pace than Florida State or Iowa. The Bulldogs don’t shoot the ball great on two-point attempts, and are a bad shooting team from three-point range. They do rebound relatively well offensively, but are a poor defensive rebounding team.

Southeastern Louisiana won a share of the regular season Southland Conference title, then won the Southland Conference tournament. Iowa and Southeastern Louisiana do not have any common opponents. The Lions did play three Power 5 opponents, losing to Utah (99-62), Alabama (55-45), and LSU (63-55).

The Lions are another defensive team and they play at an extremely slow pace. The good news is they don’t shoot well from anywhere and aren’t great on the offensive glass.

It seems like forever ago, but Iowa actually played Duke last year. The Hawks were just coming off a COVID pause, and lost that game, 79-64 in Durham. If Iowa does get to the Sweet Sixteen to face Duke, the Hawks may have a little extra motivation to show that last year’s game was a fluke.

Duke allows the fewest points per 100 possessions in the nation, but also struggle on offense, scoring 41, 44, and 37 points in their last three games. An Iowa-Duke matchup this year would be the ultimate clash of styles.

Colorado has beaten 2 seed Utah and 4 seed UCLA this year and took 1 seed Stanford to overtime. I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Buffalos knock off Duke and make it to the Sweet Sixteen.

Stanford is the favorite to make it out of the other side of Iowa’s bracket, but I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion. Stanford has been shaky this year, especially towards the end of the season.

4 seed Texas was a pre-season top 5 team. The Longhorns struggled with injuries early in the season and haven’t quite lived up to the preseason ranking since then. Still, they are a dangerous team.

Louisville is very similar to Texas. The Cardinals were a Final Four team last year and were preseason Top 10 this year. They were trying to rebuild on the fly with some big transfers that haven’t worked out. Still, they played in a tough ACC conference and made it to the ACC Tournament Final.

Iowa not getting the 1 seed does sting a bit, but this is far from the worst result Iowa could have gotten in terms of the bracket. UConn was the team that I didn’t want Iowa to get matched with for a potential Elite Eight game. The Huskies are finally healthy again, and when healthy I think they are likely the second-best team in the country.

So while Virginia Tech gets to celebrate being a 1 seed, the Hokies also drew the toughest 2 seed in UConn. Despite being the 1 seed, Virginia Tech will likely be underdogs if they play UConn in the Elite Eight.

Missing out on the 1 seed should also give Iowa that little bit of extra motivation to go out and show the selection committee that it was wrong.

After a week filled with speculation, it’s nice for Iowa to finally know the path ahead. Iowa will have tough matchups throughout the tournament, but the Hawks have also avoided a bracket with South Carolina or UConn, which was a big key to they having a shot at a Final Four. I’ll have more on Iowa’s first and potential second round opponents later this week.