Every women’s college basketball team dreams about cutting down the nets to celebrate a conference title in front of a sellout crowd.

A sellout doesn’t happen at every school and a conference title doesn’t happen at every school.

Not every school is Iowa and not every school has fans like Iowa.

The path to a Big Ten title for the Hawkeyes was unique, from Covid breaks to injuries to needing four wins in nine days, their title may be different from every other team in the country.

However, that roller coaster season makes lifting the trophy a little bit sweeter.

“We dreamed about a sold-out arena, Jan, Jenni and I when we came here 22 years ago,” said Coach Lisa Bluder. “These guys kept believing and I’m so blessed to be able to coach them and to have them as a part of my extended family…you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

Coach Bluder preaches to her team that they need to control the controllables, but it was the uncontrollables that wreaked havoc on the Hawkeyes for most of the season.

“I think we deserve being ranked number nine. But now it’s really just stepping on the court and really proving that and only going up from there,” said Caitlin Clark before the season tipped off, but it has taken the team a long time to get to their best form.

The Hawkeyes rolled to a 4-0 start, but Covid issues within the program forced them to cancel a home game against Drake, as well as their trip to play in the Cancun Challenge. After nearly two weeks and just one practice as a team, they struggled on the road at Duke and lost 79-64.

Then, as the calendar turned over to 2022, the Hawkeyes had games against Penn State and Illinois postponed due to Covid issues. Again, Lisa Bluder’s team went on a big break. They played just one game between December 21st and January 5th. Iowa fell to Northwestern at home a day later and dropped them to 7-4 on the season.

I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you, it was frustrating,” said Caitlin Clark on the constant stopping and starting to their season.

The Hawkeyes responded with seven straight wins to get to 14-4, but injuries became the next uncontrollable to try to derail the Hawkeyes. In a close loss at home to Ohio State, starters McKenna Warnock and Gabbie Marshall were injured, while AJ Ediger and Logan Cook were already out with injuries.

Iowa was forced to play against #6 Michigan in Ann Arbor with just seven healthy players. They lost the game. Eight days later, Gabbie Marshall was back, but without Warnock, the Hawkeyes dropped another game. This time against a physical #15 Maryland squad.

Iowa fell to 16-7 on the season and fifth in the Big Ten standings, while a #7 seed in the bracket projection had everyone thinking the chances of hosting an NCAA Tournament regional at Carver were gone.

“Every team goes through that type of thing,” said Clark. “We kept saying that you can’t make excuses and we just came back and got better every single day. We knew eventually we were going to hit our stride.”

Since the loss to Maryland, the Hawkeyes have gotten McKenna Warnock back on the court and have won four games in row against all odds. Not many people thought Iowa could defeat three ranked opponents in a span of nine days to win a Big Ten regular season title, but that is exactly what happened.

“That’s what we were always thinking, I think we knew that we were going to need a little help and after Michigan lost two in a row, we kind of the door was open,” said Clark. “We just needed to win the games that were in front of us and we really just went 1-0 every time we stepped on the floor.”

The season finale and title clinching win over #6 Michigan was the Hawkeyes best performance of the season. Monika Czinano, Gabbie Marshall, Kate Martin, Kylie Feuerbach and others all stepped up in big ways, while Caitlin Clark scored 38 points on 8/11 shooting from 3pt range.

Gabbie Marshall says that a regular season title is cause for celebration, but they are far from done.

“This is something we really wanted and something that has been on our mind since the first game of the season…We’re not done yet,” said Marshall. “I think that just having this under our belt, it’s just going to make us play harder in the Big Ten Tournament and NCAAs.”

“We’re going to enjoy this and celebrate this, but we’re going to get back to work. Why not win two Big Ten titles,” said Caitlin Clark on the upcoming conference tournament in Indianapolis.

The job that head coach Lisa Bluder has done to keep this team focused on their goals through all of the adversity cannot go unnoticed and she has as good a case as anyone for Big Ten Coach of the Year.

“I am just so thankful. This whole season has been amazing. We’ve had so many ups and downs this season,” said Bluder. “A month ago, we had seven players, we had Covid shutdowns, we had delays in our transportation, we had rescheduled games…I’m almost beyond words. We’re very fortunate and very very blessed.”

The Hawkeyes will look to continue their special season in postseason play, as they start Big Ten Tournament play on Friday, with the NCAA Tournament just a couple weeks away.