The 2022-23 women's basketball season is getting underway in just a few weeks, which means it's time to for the preseason hype parade to get underway. And that hype parade is going to be spending a lot of time in Iowa City. The Big Ten released preseason honors earlier this week and Iowa absolutely cleaned up.
First, Iowa was picked to win the league by conference media:
Big Ten WBB Media Poll
— Kyle Huesmann (@HuesmannKyle) October 5, 2022
1- Iowa
2- Indiana
3- Ohio State
4- Maryland
5- Nebraska
,
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) October 5, 2022
We're ranked No. 1 in the Preseason Big Ten rankings. #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/iogYtMl4YH
On an individual level, Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano were both named to the preseason All-Big Ten team:
Check out the #B1GWBBall Preseason All-Conference Team, as voted on by conference coaches and a select media panel. https://t.co/4zSjisSf6I pic.twitter.com/f4wpbNVhfQ
— Big Ten Women's Basketball (@B1Gwbball) October 5, 2022
And Clark was named preseason Big Ten Player of the Year:
Is anyone surprised? @CaitlinClark22 is the Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year! #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/ZKjZV328Fg
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) October 5, 2022
Of course, none of those honors are exactly surprising. Iowa won a share of the regular season Big Ten championship last year -- and followed that up by winning the Big Ten Tournament championship too. Considering Iowa returns basically every significant contributor from that team, it makes sense that they would be pegged as the team to beat in the conference this season. And Clark won B1G PotY last year, so tabbing her for repeat honors is also a very sensible move.
It's all very understandable -- logical, even -- and yet it also sets up a level of hype for this Iowa team that few teams (in any sport) have had to manage in recent (and not-so-recent) memory. And, look, if Iowa plays like they did for most of last season, meeting the hype shouldn't be too much of an issue. After a semi-rocky start to the year, Iowa got everything clicking during Big Ten season and was an absolute monster down the stretch in the league. Everything was great -- right up until it wasn't in that bitterly disappointing second round NCAA Tournament loss to Creighton. The main goal this season -- beyond the Big Ten titles and any individual accolades for Clark or Czinano or anyone else -- will certainly be erasing the bad taste of that Creighton loss and putting together a longer run in the NCAA Tournament.
The national hype for Iowa is also strong. ESPN has them at #5 in their preseason Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings (which is more like a Too-Early ranking at this point, since the season is just a month away, but I digress). That's tops in the Big Ten (and ahead of even mighty UConn), which is also represented by Indiana (#10), Maryland (#15), Ohio State (#17), and Nebraska (#21). Non-conference opponents Iowa State (#9), N.C. State (#11), and maybe UConn (#6) will also provide major tests for Iowa.
That #5 ranking also translates to a 2-seed in ESPN's early bracketology for the NCAA Tournament.
ESPN WBB Bracketology Update
— Kyle Huesmann (@HuesmannKyle) October 5, 2022
Iowa WBB projected to host a regional in Iowa City as a 2 seed. pic.twitter.com/GRsiLq7ZZw
The full bracket is available here. Top-4 seeds host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, so Iowa would be in line to play the first two games of the tourney within the friendly confines of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Tennessee (#4 in the preseason Top 25) is the 1-seed in Iowa's region, while Stanford (#2 in the preseason Top 25) is the other top seed on Iowa's side of that mock bracket. Those would be great teams and formidable opponents, but not teams that Iowa would need to worry about facing until the Elite 8 and the Final Four -- and the first step is getting to those games. Iowa is going to get everyone's best shot this season and they're probably going to need to be able to respond with their own best efforts in every game. But if anyone's up to that challenge, it's probably the utterly fearless Caitlin Clark and the rest of Bluder's Bunch.
In some other -- and much sadder -- Iowa basketball news, Lisa Bluder said during the preseason media day that Hawkeye commit Ava Jones is unlikely to ever play basketball again. Jones and her family were involved in a devastating car crash (that also tragically killed Jones' father) this past summer.
Some heartbreaking news to share...
— John Steppe (@JSteppe1) October 7, 2022
MRI scans show Iowa WBB commit Ava Jones tore all four major ligaments in both knees in the July crash while she was in Louisville for an AAU tournament.
Lisa Bluder: "I doubt she will ever play basketball again."https://t.co/btYqO0TZmK
Just a truly awful and sad development for a young woman who's already lost so much. Our thoughts and prayers to go out to Ava and the entire Jones family. There's a GoFundMe for Jones family available here.
