WHO: Penn State Lady Lions (13-10, 4-8 Big Ten)
WHEN: Sunday, February 5 at 11:00 AM CT
WHERE: Bryce Jordan Center (University Park, PA)
TV: BTN
MOBILE: www.foxsports.com/mobile
ONLINE: www.foxsports.com/live
FOLLOW: @IowaAwesome | @IowaWBB | @IowaonBTN
RADIO: Hawkeye Radio Network | Sirus/XM TBA

In my preview of the Nebraska game last week, I talked about the potential of a trap game. Iowa was coming off a big win over Ohio State and had another big game against Maryland looming on Thursday.

The same thing is true for this road trip against Penn State on Sunday. Iowa is coming off a big win over Maryland. Next Thursday, Iowa will play #4 Indiana in Bloomington in a matchup of conference favorites and potential #1 or #2 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

It would be easy for Iowa to overlook Penn State, especially considering Iowa beat the Lady Lions 108-67 a few weeks ago.

That would be a mistake. Penn State is far from the best team in the Big Ten, but few road games against Power 5 teams are easy. Iowa has learned that lesson well this year already. The Hawks would be undefeated in conference and alone atop the standings but for a tough road loss at Illinois. Iowa also lost a close game at a good-but-not-great Kansas State team early in the season. And Michigan State is unlikely to be a tournament team, yet the Spartans pushed Iowa to the limit in East Lansing just a few weeks ago.

In my preview of the Penn State home game, I discussed how Penn State has improved this year from past seasons and highlighted their leading scorers. I’m not going to rehash that here since that was done only a few weeks ago. Instead, I’ll make a few observations from that game and discuss what might be different this time.

In the first Penn State game there was some concern about how Iowa would handle Penn State’s press. The Hawks hadn’t faced a ton of pressure at that point in the season, so there was some potential that what Iowa practiced wouldn’t translate on the court. Instead, Iowa absolutely destroyed Penn State’s press. The Hawks are especially good offensively in transition, and Penn State’s press sped Iowa up more than it slowed things down. Frankly, I’m not sure that Penn State will even try the press this game. If it’s not going to force Iowa turnovers, it’s a net negative.

In the first game, Penn State shot just 3/21 from three-point range. That’s been a trend as of late, as Ohio State and Maryland also shot extremely poorly from three. Some of that is strategy—Iowa has played off of the other team’s worst shooters and encouraged them to shoot—but part of it is luck, too. If Penn State shoots better from three in this one, the game will be closer.

Makenna Marissa is one of the better scorers in the conference, yet she had just 5 points on 2/13 shooting against Iowa earlier this year. Credit to Gabbie Marshall and Iowa’s defense as a whole for slowing her down. That said, Marissa had a big game against Iowa last year, so I don’t expect that Iowa will contain her so completely for a second game in a row.

Iowa has struggled somewhat in the last few games defending athletic wings. In Iowa’s first matchup against Penn State, Leilani Kapinus—Penn State’s most athletic guard—scored 16 points and got to the free throw line 12 times. It will be interesting to see if Iowa’s defense has any wrinkles to try to slow her down this time.

Last time I said starting fast, and I’ll echo that this time. McKenna Warnock still isn’t 100%. Iowa will certainly be giving some thought to the big matchup against Indiana next Thursday. Iowa needs to start fast so that Warnock doesn’t need to play big minutes and so that Penn State doesn’t start to believe that an upset is possible.