The Iowa Women’s Basketball team opens play as a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Friday against #15 seed Illinois State. The 19-13 Redbirds earned the MVC autobid, after they defeated Northern Iowa on Sunday afternoon. The game is at 3:00 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.

The Hawkeyes watched the announcement of the bracket in the Feller Club Room and to some, a #2 seed was a bit of a surprise, but it was right where Caitlin Clark thought the team should be.

“Very deserving with how we’ve been playing lately,” said Clark. “I wasn’t surprised, I had a feeling they were going to bump us to a two (seed). I’m very happy with that and I think we’ve really earned it over the past few weeks with the ranked teams that we’ve beaten.”

Coach Lisa Bluder is taking Iowa to the NCAA Tournament for the 16th time and it’s her 20th postseason appearance overall in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes are making their fourth appearance in the tournament as a #2 seed with an overall record of 8-3. Their last time in this position was 2019, where they defeated #15 Mercer and #7 Missouri in the Iowa City Regional. That match-up with Mercer was closer than expected and Bluder says it may come up during preparation, but this team can handle it.

“They’re smart enough. They know that (they can’t look ahead). These guys really are pretty savvy and they’ve been around basketball. They understand the consequences of overlooking somebody,” said Bluder.

Iowa trailed Mercer in the second half of that contest, but ultimately pulled out the victory and ultimately made a run to the Elite Eight, where they fell to Baylor.

With Covid canceling the 2020 tournament and a bubble setup for last year, this year’s tournament is the first normal one in nearly three years. Iowa players are excited to back on the court for a regional at home and have a potential sellout crowd behind them again.

“I’m expecting Carver to be sold out again. From what I heard from our pre-sale, a lot of tickets were already gone,” said Clark. “If you haven’t gotten your tickets, you probably want to get them.”

With the Big Ten Tournament finishing up play last week, the Hawkeyes have had the time to step back and work on themselves, rather than focusing on preparing for the next opponent. Coach Bluder mentioned before the break that they would do a good bit of scrimmaging, in attempt to stay in game shape and avoid any fall off going into the tournament.

“I think it’s been great for us. Taking what we did at the Big Ten (Tournament) and learning from that,” said Caitlin Clark. “Working on what we need to work on. Lot of ball screens, lot of defense and a lot of fundamentals more than anything. Kind of felt like a preseason practice in a way…they were intense, they were good.”

“It was great…We did a lot of fundamental work, and we added a couple tweaks,” said Bluder. “We were able to scrimmage a lot, so I think that was really good for us to stay fine-tuned.”

With nearly a two week break between games, there is some concern about the Hawkeyes coming out flat or rusty against the Redbirds on Friday and while the team needed rest, Coach Bluder says two weeks is a long time.

“I wish there was some middle ground there,” said Bluder on either a two week break or going right into tournament play like some teams will. “I think two weeks is a long time, but we have the best of both worlds because we went to Sunday and then on Friday we play, so it’s as good as it can get. Sometimes when you’re done earlier in the Big Ten Tournament, it is a long time that you are sitting around, but I think this will be great for us.”

Caitlin Clark has been her normal self over the seven-game winning streak, but Monika Czinano is playing her best basketball scoring 168 points (24.0 ppg) on 72/93 (77.4%) shooting from the floor, while also grabbing 42 rebounds. Kate Martin’s contributions went unnoticed for most of the season, but in Indianapolis her 37 points, 20 rebounds and 19 assists got her some attention.

“I think it just shows I’ve bought into my role really well the last couple years…There’s a lot of things that I do that aren’t in the stat book and just to be called ‘the glue’, I guess that’s that best compliment I could ask for,” said Kate on being ok with going unnoticed. However, a big performance in Indy was exciting for her. “It was really exciting. Any recognition at all is great recognition…It was just really fun to be celebrated. My teammates and my coaches do such a great job of celebrating some of the players who might not get all of the recognition.”

Her veteran leadership will be huge during the NCAA Tournament, and she has been a huge help, noticed or unnoticed, to this team throughout an adversity filled season.

Flipping back to the bracket, it is hard not to look ahead to some potential matchups that might await the Hawkeyes in the NCAA Tournament. However, none are bigger than the potential rematch between the Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones in Greensboro for a place in the Elite Eight. There is no doubt that the chatter will be all over Twitter during the opening weekend, but the players know that there will be no rematch if they don’t take care of business during the opening weekend.

“There’s going to be a lot (of chatter) with the Iowa/Iowa State possible matchup, but I think our team has done a great job all season, especially towards the end of the season, knowing that we had to take care of business,” said Monika Czinano. “We have to beat the teams in our little region for that to matter.”

Below is a look at the entire field of 68…