In the hero’s journey story trope, there is always a point early in the quest when the hero’s task seems impossible. When the hero has hit their lowest point and there’s no real reason for optimism. The Iowa women’s basketball team finds itself in a very similar position right now. Coming into the season ranked #4, there was plenty of reason to be optimistic that Iowa could return to the Final Four for the first time in decades.
Through eight games, however, Iowa sits just 5-3. The Hawkeyes' best win is at Drake in a game they could’ have easily lost. They lost a game they shouldn’t have at unranked Kansas State, and played no defense at all in a home loss to #12 NC State.
But the good news is that the season isn’t over. Last year, Iowa was arguably worse in the non-conference portion of the season. The Hawkeyes didn’t really start winning big games until Big Ten play. And Iowa has also shown it can go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the country in #3 UConn if it sells out defensively for 40 minutes.
Would Iowa begin to rebound with a conference victory over Wisconsin, or would they allow a poor start to compound into a truly bad loss?
Recap
In the first quarter, we saw a lot of bad Iowa. Defensively, the Hawks gave Wisconsin plenty of open shots. And Wisconsin was able to score six second chance points due to lazy rebounding. Iowa also failed to get Monika Czinano involved in another quarter. The good news is that Caitlin Clark and McKenna Warnock were both on offensively. Clark had 12 in the quarter, Warnock had 11, and Iowa led 25-20 after the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Iowa finally started to commit at both ends, and increased their lead to 33-22. Wisconsin called timeout to try to stop Iowa’s momentum, but it didn’t work. Iowa’s offense kept rolling along, and the defense started to get more stops. Iowa led by as many as 25 in the second quarter, and took a 57-34 lead into halftime. Clark had 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists at the half.
Iowa was fairly listless in the third quarter, but Wisconsin couldn’t do much to cut into Iowa's lead, either. Iowa led 75-55 heading to the fourth quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, Wisconsin made a run and cut Iowa’s lead to 15. But Iowa responded well, pushing the lead back to 25 with 5:39 to play. Iowa rolled on from there, and won 102-71.
Box Score
Clark led Iowa with her 7th career triple-double scoring 22 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and dishing 10 assists. Monika Czinano got back on track as well, scoring 18 points on 9/10 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds. Warnock and Molly Davis had 13 points each, while Hannah Stuelke had 10. A box score for the game is here.
Thoughts
Monika Czinano has had minimal impact on the offensive end in Iowa’s last few games. In the first quarter, it looked like that was happening again here in the early going. Thankfully, Czinano responded in the second quarter on and looked like herself again. Hopefully this game gives Czinano more confidence over the next few weeks.
It was good to see Iowa steamroll Wisconsin in the second quarter. The first quarter was far from Iowa’s best, but was aided significantly by Wisconsin’s offensive rebounding. Iowa has generally been decent on the boards this year, so I’m not overly concerned by one bad rebounding quarter.
Sharon Goodman and Sydney Affolter both made an impact in Iowa’s big second quarter. Neither has played significant minutes so far this year, so it was good to see them both play when the game was still somewhat in question. It was also good to see them make plays. Building depth that Coach Bluder trusts in key moments will still be very important for Iowa’s season.
We can’t really conclude much from a blowout win over Wisconsin. The Badgers will likely finish towards the bottom of the Big Ten (again), and don’t have the talent yet to truly compete with Iowa. But it was still nice to see Iowa get a big victory after so many difficult games to start the season.
Records
Caitlin Clark's triple-double was the seventh of her career -- which broke a tie with former Iowa star point guard Samantha Logic and made her the all-time Big Ten leader in triple-doubles.
- @CaitlinClark22 is now the Big Ten record holder for career triple-doubles. #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/wy0M30S2fa
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) December 4, 2022
Not bad for a lazy Sunday.
Clark wasn't the only person in the Iowa program setting (or tying) records today, though. Lisa Bluder joined in on the fun as well.
.@LisaBluder @cvivianstringer
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) December 4, 2022
All-Time B1G wins
With today's victory, Coach Bluder ties C. Vivian Stringer for the most Big Ten regular-season conference wins with 233! #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/dX2pt6fA6u
Stringer's Big Ten wins came at Iowa and Rutgers, of course; all of Bluder's Big Ten wins have been at Iowa. A record like that is a testament to her ability to win at a remarkably high (and consistent) level during her 22 years at Iowa. Congratulations to Bluder for this impressive accomplishment -- and to many more Big Ten victories to come.
Next Up
Iowa returns to action on Wednesday, December 7 at 6 PM CT (ESPN2) at home against #8 Iowa State. The Cyclones are 6-1 on the season, and look as good or better than they did last year. But the Cyclones also dropped their only game against a ranked opponent so far this season, losing to #6 North Carolina by squandering a 17-point lead in the game.
Iowa really needs a win over the Cyclones to bolster its resume come March. Iowa and Iowa State are very similar teams and will likely be competing with each other for seeding in the NCAA Tournament. A win in this game would give Iowa a de facto tiebreaker if their resumes end up similar.
