No. 3 Iowa 95, Michigan 68: One More for the Hardware

MINNEAPOLIS — By Caitlin Clark's stratospheric standards, a double-double is not exactly remarkable. Doing it in the game's first 13 minutes, though, probably merits mention.

"Caitlin's going to do whatever she has to do," head coach Lisa Bluder said after the game. "If she's open, she's going to shoot it. If she draws two defenders, she's going to dish it. She's exceptional — exceptional — at it, especially in the full court."

Clark had 12 points and 10 assists by the 7:45 mark of the second quarter — just over 12 minutes of gametime — and finished with 28 points and 15 assists as Iowa scorched sixth-seeded Michigan, 95-68, in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament Saturday afternoon. Iowa will face Nebraska in the tourney championship Sunday at 11 AM CT.

1. Iowa is locked in on both ends of the floor. Considering both teams and the final score, it would have been fair to assume that it was Iowa, not Michigan, who made its first seven threes of the game.

"We didn't like panic or anything [on defense]," head coach Lisa Bluder said after the game. "There's a lot more basketball to be played. We did a much better job of protecting [the perimeter] in the second half."

"We didn't let it faze us at all," said senior forward Kate Martin, who finished with 13 points and six rebounds before sitting the last six minutes of the game with the win well in hand. "You just have to chip away and get back into it. We did that, and we were golden from then on."

Instead, Iowa weathered the early storm, charging back to a three-point deficit by the end of the first quarter, and promptly buried the overmatched Wolverines from there on out, outscoring UM 73-43 in the last three quarters and turning a tense game into a laugher.

"We just needed to hone in on our three-point defense," Martin said. "We played three different defenses tonight, and so that's really hard for another team to figure out what we're in and what they need to do. So that was really important for our gameplan."

The zone in particular confounded Michigan, especially once the Wolverines' three-point shooting returned to mortal levels. Iowa also switched in and out of the zone depending on whether the Hawkeyes had made their own shot on the prior possession, adding a level of trepidation to Michigan's offense that proved lethal for the Wolverines' early upset hopes.

"It definitely slowed us down," Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico said. "They were doing make/miss, and it was messing with our kids. We needed to handle that better. We shouldn't have allowed our pace to switch because they were switching on a make/miss, but it did. So they kept switching it — make/miss depending on if they make — and it really made us stagnant a little bit."

Iowa still hasn't been tested for 40 minutes in the Big Ten Tournament this season; in fact, the last game the Hawkeyes played that finished within single digits was, appropriately enough, the 82-79 loss to Nebraska in early February.

"This is our third [conference tournament] game, and it's obviously going to be Nebraska's fourth," Clark said. "We need to use that to our advantage. We want to keep playing our pace. We want to play fast basketball."

Nebraska took control of the game in Lincoln by locking in a box-and-one defense, as Iowa struggled to account for the absence of one Molly Davis. Davis was limited to two minutes of court time with illness that day, and the Hawkeyes didn't have a secondary playmaker locked in to take the defensive heat off Clark.

Clark said she expects the box-and-one from Nebraska Sunday, but also that the Huskers' blueprint won't catch the Hawkeyes off-guard.

"Honestly there's been quite a few teams since that game who have played box-and-one on us, maybe for a few possessions here and there," Clark said. "Michigan tried it at our place. Penn State's done it. Quite a few teams have done it. I think we've responded well in those few games. So I think it will be something we're definitely ready for."

For Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament though, it's been No Davis, No Problem early on. And even when Caitlin Clark's not on the floor, Iowa's ball movement took on "Spurs in 2014" levels of mastery Saturday:

"I think we've had a very deep team all year, and it's getting to show right now," Martin said.

"We have other good players; they just don't get the spotlight," Bluder said. "They don't get the notoriety that Caitlin does, but they are good players. My top two centers went 11-for-11 tonight from the field. That's pretty good."

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There's no shortage of motivation for the Hawkeyes to take on the Cornhuskers Sunday, of course.

"Everybody's been having to step up. Injuries happen. People have to step up, and it's March right now, you know? It's win or go home, and people know we're going home if we lose, and I think we have a bunch of winners on our team, so it's been really fun," said Martin.

"I've seen it all year, I have the most confidence in my teammates that I could ever have, I have all year, so it's been really fun to see people stepping up and showing out."

2. And now onto the Caitlin Clark highlights. It may sound like a broken record at this point, but Caitlin Clark's stats scarcely tell the tale of her dominance — and her stats were great Saturday.

As Iowa withstood Michigan's early-game barrage of three-pointers — the Wolverines started the day 7-of-7 from behind the arc, opening up a 25-17 lead near the end of the first quarter — Clark turned her game up to match the bright lights of the Target Center, dishing dimes and splashing jumpers with utter impunity as Michigan could only watch:

Clark exited the game relatively early by her standards, playing "only" 32 minutes before subbing out for good with 7:18 left in the game — by coaches' orders, according to Clark, with the Nebraska game looming Sunday morning.

"It was fun seeing some girls who don't usually get minutes, especially in this tournament environment, playing in front of our fans and I thought they did a good job," Clark said. "Taylor [McCabe] and Kylie [Feuerbach] having to run the 1, maybe something they're not always used to, especially with Molly going down. I thought they did a great job. And A.J. playing a bit out of position with Sharon in the game. It's definitely nice to rest your legs a bit here and there."

The workload in particular was a point of emphasis for Iowa.

"You're always going to take a minute or two when you can," Clark continued. "That goes for whether it was Kate [Martin], whether it was Hannah [Stuelke], whether it was Syd, really nobody played over 30 minutes other than myself, and I'm just over 30. That makes a big difference, especially when you're going into your third game."

3. Sydney Affolter is all the way ready. After setting a career-high in both points (18) and assists (5) on Friday, wing Sydney Affolter had arguably an even better game in her second start since Molly Davis' untimely knee injury, finishing with 12 points, seven rebounds and a new, new career high in assists with eight.

"I thought Syd, again, was just outstanding," Bluder said. "She had the highest plus-minus of anybody. She's doing a great job for us, playing so strong, so physically."

Affolter's teammates were not surprised at the junior's star turn.

"She's one of those kids that works really hard and has always been in the gym," Clark said. "Obviously she has 12, 8, and 7, but she does so many things on top of that that aren't even in the box score all the time."

"[Affolter] has been showing this for forever," Martin said. "I mean, we go head-to-head pretty much every day. The kid's a stud and I'm glad the numbers are showing it. I think she's All-Tournament Team worthy."

Affolter continued her recent torrid three-point shooting with a 2-for-3 performance Saturday, pushing her season shooting to 39.0% from deep — half a percentage point ahead of noted three-point enthusiast Clark for the year.

"Syd is playing the best basketball she's played in her career," Clark said. "I couldn't be happier for her. She's one of those kids that works really hard and has always been in the gym. This has been her year to have her moment and step up, especially with Molly going down. She's done exactly that."

Though Saturday was only Affolter's fifth start of the season, her 28 minutes against Michigan were on par with her season average of 23, and the adjusted role in Davis' stead didn't stop the team's "Big Dog" from contributing in her usual ways, tying Clark for the team lead in steals (two) and grabbing one of Iowa's six offensive rebounds against the lengthy Michigan interior.

"On the defensive end, we really talked about in the first quarter, [Michigan] shot lights-out," Affolter said. "So that was really important to push on offense, get stops on defense, and lead that to offense. I think we moved the ball really well, and everyone was knocking down shots. So it was fun."

Expect to see Affolter continue to start as Davis continues to recover.

4. This kid likes penguins. Live your truth, young man.