In some sports, the first game of a season is extremely important. NASCAR starts its season with the sport’s biggest race—the Daytona 500. Each year the NFL tries to make its first regular season game a matchup between two Super Bowl favorites.
The Iowa women’s basketball team’s first game of the 2022-23 regular wasn’t close to the magnitude of those examples. Last year the Southern Jaguars finished the season 14-17 overall. They went just 3-15 away from home. No one seriously expected them to compete with the #4 Hawkeyes.
But that didn’t mean that Iowa’s game against Southern had no importance. Iowa learned well last year how long delays without game action can cause performance issues. Even a non-competitive game gets Iowa’s starters and key reserves time on the floor to develop chemistry and knock off the rust from a long off-season.
And for Iowa’s freshman, games like this help them transition to college basketball. It gives them opportunities to prove to the coaches that they can be trusted in game situations, that they should have a role in the team’s rotation.
Recap
Iowa started out looking like a team that hadn’t played competitively since March. The Hawks had many open looks from three early, but missed all of them, going 0/8 from three in the quarter. When Iowa wasn’t missing threes, it was often turning the ball over. The Hawkeyes had seven turnovers in the quarter.
And there were fouls. Oh so many fouls. Last year, teams had some success against Iowa by hitting the players as much as possible and daring the officials to call fouls. To their credit, the officials were calling fouls in this one, but Southern’s 10 first quarter fouls certainly disrupted Iowa’s offensive flow.
The rough play took its toll too. Three minutes into the game Caitlin Clark was driving towards the basket when she got tangled up with a Southern player. Clark stayed down for a minute or two, then limped to the locker room. Iowa fans collectively held their breath for a few minutes, but Clark eventually checked back in at the under-five timeout and looked fine.
The one piece of good news from the first quarter was that Iowa’s defensive effort was good. The Hawks forced Southern into long jumpers that were mostly missed. The Jaguars went a collective 4/18 shooting in the first quarter.
All told, Iowa led by a less than impressive score of 15-10 after one.
In the early second quarter, Iowa’s offense finally showed up. The Hawks hit four early three-pointers, and got fouled on another. Soon the lead was up to twenty on the rout was on.
But even more impressive than Iowa’s second quarter shooting was its defense. The Hawkeyes held Southern scoreless for more than four minutes to start the second quarter, and didn’t surrender their first basket of the quarter until there was less than a minute left. Southern scored just five points in the entire second quarter, and three of those came from free throws. Iowa led 43-15 at halftime.
The third quarter started much like the second—Iowa’s offense rolled along and the defense held Southern scoreless for nearly five minutes. The solid defensive effort lasted throughout the third quarter, and Southern scored just eight points in the quarter. Iowa led 67-23 after three quarters. In the fourth quarter Iowa mostly played subs, but the Hawks rolled on nonetheless and won 87-34.
Clark led Iowa with 20 points and 9 rebounds on 6/10 shooting and 3/6 from three-point range. She was a little careless with the ball early on, but it was good to see her shots falling. Monika Czinano scored 10 points and did so while taking just four shots from the floor. Freshman Hannah Stuelke was Iowa’s only other double-digit scorer with 10 points and six rebounds in 14 minutes of action.
All 13 Hawkeyes who played in the game scored, and none played more than 24 minutes. There also weren’t any long-term injuries, which is all you can ask for in games like this. A box score for the game is here.
Defense?
I know we shouldn’t make any sweeping conclusions about Iowa’s defense after one game against a weak opponent, but Southern’s 34 points is the fewest an Iowa opponent has scored since November 2016 when Iowa played UMass.
Iowa played Southern last year at home and surrendered 67 in that game.
Again, we should take this all with a grain of salt. Southern isn’t a very good offensive team, and several of its starters spent most of the game in foul trouble. But Iowa doesn’t have to be a great defensive team to succeed this season. It just needs to improve defensively. And this was a great first step.
Iowa did particularly well at keeping Southern out of the paint. Then when Southern took jumpers, Iowa did a good job of crashing the glass. Southern had just two offensive rebounds the entire game, which is great given that jumpers often result in long rebounds.
We will know much more about Iowa’s defense and any improvements a month from now, but this was a very promising start.
Rotation
One of the things I like monitoring in early games is Coach Bluder’s rotation. Games like this usually get out of hand quick, but you can still get a good glimpse of what the rotation looks like by seeing which players see the floor in the first quarter and a half.
Tonight, Coach Bluder stuck with a nine-player rotation until the final few minutes of the first half. Clark, Gabbie Marshall, Kate Martin, McKenna Warnock, and Czinano were the starters at positions 1-5 like they have been most of the last two seasons.
When Clark went down early, Central Michigan transfer Molly Davis subbed in for her at the 1. She shifted over to the 2 for Marshall when Clark came back in. Addison O’Grady was the first sub off the bench after Davis and backed Czinano up at the 5. Later in the quarter, Sydney Affolter subbed in for Martin at the 3, and Hannah Stuelke got her first college action subbing for Warnock at the 4.
Only late in the first half did Shateah Wetering, Taylor McCabe, and Sharon Goodman get their first game action. AJ Ediger played sparingly in the second half. Freshman Jada Gyamfi was out with an injury.
My guess is that Coach Bluder would likely use a nine-player rotation if Iowa played a very competitive game tomorrow. But Wetering, McCabe, and Goodman all have a chance to break into it if they can make an impression on the coaches in these early tune-up games.
The Newbies
Molly Davis was the most heralded of Iowa’s off-season additions. Davis came from Central Michigan with a reputation as a scorer who could alleviate pressure on Clark as a ball-handler.
Tonight, Davis showed a little bit of everything. She played a game-high 24 minutes and did well handling the ball. She also made a deep three and showed an ability to attack the basket off the dribble. And she added four assists and three rebounds for good measure. I think Davis will be a true sixth woman off the bench this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up averaging similar minutes to Iowa’s starters.
Stuelke was Iowa’s highest ranked recruit from the 2022 class, and she showed why in tonight’s game. Offensively, Stuelke can attack off the bounce, shoot from three, and also grab offensive rebounds or score in transition. Defensively, her athleticism allowed her to block a shot and force a steal. Stuelke is easily the team’s most athletic player, and she could be a difference-maker if she can harness that athleticism like she did tonight.
But tonight’s game also showed that Stuelke has plenty to learn. In the first half, she was overzealous and earned two quick offensive fouls. She added a third turnover in the second half. With time, Stuelke will learn when to drive and when to hold back. She’ll learn how to use her athleticism to be an even bigger defensive force. But for now, this was an impressive freshman debut.
Finally, it took freshman Taylor McCabe a bit to get going offensively, but she showed her potential as a shooter, going 3/8 from three-point range in the game. I’m not sure how much playing time McCabe will get with Marshall and Davis in front of her on the depth chart, but the 2 position is in good hands with her in the future.
