Women's Hoops Preview: The Backcourt
When you start to break down the Hawkeyes roster, you can choose to start in the frontcourt or the backcourt.
They have a superstar at both levels.
National Player of the Year candidate Caitlin Clark is the pilot of an offense that has ranked near the top in the country in scoring the last two seasons.
Last season she became the first player to ever lead the nation in both points per game (27.0) and assists per game (8.0). She scored 20+ points in 23 games, 30+ in 11 games and broke three arena single game scoring records. It didn’t stop there. She had 10+ assists in 12 games and grabbed 10+ rebounds in 10 games en route to five triple-doubles. Yet Caitlin still thinks there are areas of her game that she can improve.
“I think the biggest thing for me offensively, I’ve got to limit turnovers and we play an exciting style of basketball, it’s going to happen,” said Clark. “There’s going to be games where I have four of five (turnovers), but it can’t turn into games where I had ten. That’s just not going to work, especially when you’re playing great teams.”
Clark turned the ball over seven or more times in eight games last season. Along with improving that stat, Caitlin says that improvement on defense is something that can help her reach the goal of being consistent at every level of the game.
“I think there’s so many more ways for me to get consistent every single time I step on the floor and that’s what makes me excited to come to the gym every single day.”
Caitlin is arguably the best player in the country and will for the most part be the one that kickstarts the metaphorical “offensive machine” that can score with anyone in the country. The rest of the front court sometimes gets overshadowed by Clark’s play, but make no mistake there are plenty of weapons that will be key pieces in the Iowa attack.
Gabbie Marshall is lethal from behind the arc making 101 three-pointers at a 43.3% clip over the last two seasons. On top of that, she has been one of the Hawkeyes best defenders. A spot that the team is really trying to improve upon for the second straight season. After Marshall’s 3pt% dropped from 47.1% to 39.3% last season, Coach Bluder is hoping to see more consistency from her because of the extra level of difficulty it brings to opponents already trying to guard Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano.
“When you have people that are lethal from 3-point range like McKenna is and like Gabbie is, it makes the other two, Monika and Caitlin's job, so much easier because they cannot just focus on those two. The minute you focus on those two, we've got somebody else that's going to knock it down.”
Marshall scored in double figures six times last season, but also had eight games where she scored five points or less. More consistency in her scoring can ultimately take pressure off of other players in the offense and make the group more dangerous as a whole.
Kate Martin rounds out the starters in the backcourt and is one of the most important members of the team. Coach Bluder often refers to Martin as the “glue of the team” because of her leadership as a team captain and the level headedness she shows on the court, among other things.
“She's a strong leader. She's a culture builder. She's somebody you want in the locker room. Kate will fill any role that we ask her,” says Bluder.
Her play down the stretch last season in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournament was an illustration of what kind of contributor she can be for the team outside of being a leader. Over the last six games of the season, Martin averaged 9.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists, while turning it over just six times.
“She is unnoticed on the floor, but her impact is amazing…She doesn’t care if she scores. She doesn’t care if she doesn’t score,” said Bluder last season during Martin’s hot stretch of play. “She just wants this team to win, and she will do whatever it takes for that to happen.”
Coming off the bench is a trio of faces that either haven’t seen much time in a Hawkeye uniform or are newcomers to the team. The group lost Kylie Feuerbach after she suffered a torn ACL earlier this offseason. Feuerbach, a transfer from Iowa State, averaged 14.6 minutes per game last season for the Hawkeyes and according to Coach Bluder she was looking good up until the unfortunate injury.
“She was really oftentimes the first perimeter substitution off the bench. That was a loss for us, and she was looking so good this summer. She was playing very well. She put a lot of time into the gym this summer,” said Bluder. She added that the other guards saw what that did to the rotation off the bench. “They can count. They see where they sit now, and they know that it moved them up a spot.”
Central Michigan transfer Molly Davis was likely not affected much by the injury. She was brought in from the transfer portal prior to the injury to Feuerbach as a primary ballhandler to give Caitlin a break throughout games, but from the sounds of it Davis has carved out a little bit bigger role for herself upon her arrival.
“We did recruit her as the backup to Caitlin. Okay, now think about how hard that is. You are all-everything for Central Michigan. You competed against Iowa in the NCAA Tournament and had 18 points on us, and then you transfer here knowing that you're going to back up the point guard, go from playing 35 minutes a game to backing up, maybe eight minutes a game,” said Bluder. “So, we told her right up front, this is your No. 1 role, but you're also going to compete for off-guard minutes…Molly is going to give us a lot of depth at the point guard and off-guard positions and will see significant playing time.”
For three seasons at Central Michigan, Molly Davis was exactly what Lisa Bluder said she was, “all-everything”. She was a three-time All-MAC selection and as a junior last season she averaged 18.6 points per game, including a career-high 32 points against Northeastern and Northern Illinois. She departed the Chippewas program as the all-time leader in points per game (17.7), 11th in points scored (1,434), 7th in assists (346) and 8th in three-pointers (187). She scored in double figures 67 times.
“I've been impressed with how well she plays away from the basketball. She's crafty. She's deceiving. She's a smart basketball player,” said Bluder. “I'm very, very excited. I think that's going to be an X factor that people haven't figured out with our team yet.”
Caitlin Clark thinks Davis’s skills as a primary ball handler can take some of the pressure off of her during games and let her play off ball, which just adds an extra wrinkle for opponents to prepare for.
“It’s exhausting bringing the ball up against full court pressure all of the time. It gives us a different look and it’s a whole other thing that defenses have to plan for,” said Clark. “I think you’re going to see us more on the court together than you will see one on the bench or one in the game… the thing that stands out for me is her basketball IQ. That’s not something that you can teach people, it’s not something you can watch film on.”
Sophomore Sydney Affolter returns for her second year with the Hawkeyes and figures to find herself in a bigger role than she had a year ago. Last season, Sydney played in 19 games last season, but averaged just 9.4 minutes and logged more than five minutes in just one game that wasn’t decided by double digits. Despite that, she says getting her feet wet in the college game was really important.
“The minutes I got last year, were really helpful for me just to have experience out there. It gives me confidence going into this year. I know I’m going to be an impactful player this year. I want to do whatever I can, whatever the team needs to win.”
Affolter said over the offseason she worked to improve on the defensive side of her game, while working on her shot and improving chemistry on the court with players, which includes being more vocal.
“I think I’ve grown more confident and been talking more out here. That’s kind of a confidence thing your freshman year, but obviously talking is really important. We have so many fans in Carver, which is really exciting, but it’s hard to hear on the court, so (communication), that’s important.”
Coach Bluder mentioned that she thinks both Molly Davis and Sydney Affolter are players that can be big surprises this season. She also mentioned that Sydney is a good rebounder and will be able to help the team improve in that area as well.
Finally, the final guard on the roster is true freshman Taylor McCabe out of Fremont, Nebraska. The 2022 Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year broke the girls state record with 389 career three-point makes and was the first girl in Nebraska Class A history to score over 2000 points in a career. She was a three-time First Team Nebraska Super State selection and was rated as the #88 recruit in the 2022 class by ESPN.
It isn’t clear yet how much McCabe will be able to help during her freshman season, but looking at the minutes breakdown from a year ago, she would be in line for the same type of minutes that Sydney Affolter saw last season. With a quick release from behind the arc, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see her get more chances as she adjusts to the college game over the course of the season.
Coach Bluder liked the comparison of McCabe to former Hawkeye Melissa Dixon. Dixon is the Iowa record holder for three-pointers in a career, season and game.
“That's a good analogy, having her be a Melissa Dixon-type of a player where she's a knock-down shooter,” said Bluder. “She's probably not going to do too much damage right now penetrating to the hoop because she is a little bit slight in size, and we've got some work on defense. As a freshman, she's got to work on that. But she has a quick release just like Melissa did. That's a really good analogy.”
There is no doubt the season-ending injury to Kylie Feuerbach throws a bit of a wrench into the blueprint that Bluder and the coaching staff may have had for their backcourt. However, with all three starters back, plus the addition of Molly Davis and the potential emergence of Sydney Affolter, the group is still in very good shape.