Iowa Women’s Basketball Media Day Takeaways
We are about a month away from the most unprecedented season in Iowa Women’s Basketball program history. The buzz from the fanbase and the media is at an all-time high. That’s not without good reason, of course. The Hawkeyes are coming off a 31-7 season, where they advanced to the program’s second Final Four and first ever national title game. They also return National Player of the Year Caitlin Clark and sold out every single home game. If you needed anymore to add to the excitement, the Hawkeyes are set to play an exhibition game at Kinnick Stadium on October 15th against DePaul. Almost 50,000 tickets have been sold.
While it’s about another month until Lisa Bluder’s squad takes the court for their official season opener, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing to discuss. Today was media day at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, which means we were allowed to speak with Lisa Bluder, Caitlin Clark and every other member of the Hawkeyes. We give you our five biggest takeaways from today’s conversations.
1. Caitlin Clark has not made a decision on her fifth year and isn’t too worried about it
Just looking at the calendar, it felt like the best time for Caitlin Clark to make an announcement about her fifth year was going to be today at media day or after the season. It’s pretty fair to say that she will not be making that decision in the heat of Big Ten play in February or any other time during the season, so it appears we will have to wait a few months before we find out what the National Player of the Year decides to do.
“The biggest thing for myself is I’m going to go based off of my gut at the end of the day. I’m going to know when I need to know if I want to stay or if I want to go, said Clark. “I’m not going to do research on what’s better and all this stuff and find data. Just going to trust my gut and go with that.”
Since Caitlin did not make a decision today and likely will not before the season gets underway, it is surely going to be a hot button topic throughout the season. Just because the media is discussing, does not mean that it will affect the team. Caitlin and Lisa Bluder were certain of that.
“I’m not worried about it. If she comes back, obviously, I’d be thrilled if she comes back,” said Bluder. “I want her to come back. Everybody wants her to come back. But it’s her choice.”
“I feel like it’s not something that that I think about every single day. It’s not something that I let weigh on me,” said Clark. “It’s like I’m focused on helping this team be the best team they can be, and when I know that decision, all of you will know.”
2. The pressure of being the national runner-up is not going to be as big a factor as some believe
“You’ve heard me say this before. I’ve stole this quote from Billy Jean King many times and, in fact, I’m reading the book right now, Pressure is a Privilege. So I think we have to remember that, that we’re in this situation of facing pressure because we’ve done well.”
This is not new territory for the Iowa Women’s Basketball team. Sure, there may be some added expectations because they made it to the national title game, but they have had plenty of pressure over the last couple of years.
They started the 2021-22 season ranked #9 in the AP Poll after making the Sweet 16 the year before. Pressure. They started that year 7-4 and fell out of the top 25. Pressure. Lost in the second round to Creighton and started ranked #4 in the AP Poll with plenty of people doubting their top five ranking. Pressure. They hosted a second straight regional with people wondering if they could finally make a run. Pressure. Now, they are expected to be a top ten team once again.
What’s the point here? They’ve dealt with a lot of pressure in different ways over the last three years and have more often than not embraced it rather than folding. Lisa Bluder joked this morning about their ESPN Way-Too-Early #6 ranking, but was actually right.
“We started the season last year, I think, ranked fourth, so we’re down from last year. So less pressure already, right?”
Many think that the Hawkeyes will suffer a setback season with no Monika Czinano and no McKenna Warnock. Sure, they are the preseason pick to win the Big Ten by the coaches and the media, but that’s not a new thing.
“I feel like when we do have doubters we play better,” said Gabbie Marshall. “We all come together and we’re truly like, it’s just this team. It’s just this circle and outside noise does not matter at all. We just get to work every day, every practice and no one sees the work that we put in.”
Ultimately, this team has had their fair share of pressure and have handled it well. There is no reason to believe that will change this year with the same coaching staff and just one new player on the roster.
3. Addi O’Grady is going to start at the center position
The assumption since last season ended was that Addi O’Grady was going to be the starting center unless they added someone from the transfer portal. She played backup minutes at center during the NCAA Tournament and held her own. However, Lisa Bluder never publicly said that she was going to be the starter. Prior to the Hawkeyes trip to Europe, Bluder mentioned that no center had taken a step above the rest to be considered the starter at that point.
Today, Bluder still mentioned that there isn’t a lot of seperation between O’Grady, Ediger and Goodman. She did say that Addi would be in the starting lineup if they played today and with a month until the first game, that doesn’t figure to change barring something drastic.
“If I had to name a starting five right now, she would be there. But I wouldn’t say there’s a huge separation between the three of them. And even you could put Hannah in there, too,” said Bluder. “Addi is probably winning because of experience and height, but she did have a very good foreign tour, and I thought she played very well in the NCAA Tournament. That’s why she’s ahead of the group right now.”
Over three games in Europe, O’Grady accumulated 37 pts, 19 reb and shot 75% from the floor.
4. The Hawkeyes are loaded at the guard position
We don’t really have to say too much about the three starting guards. You know exactly what you are going to get from Caitlin Clark, Gabbie Marshall and Kate Martin. They are a solid group as it is and will play the bulk of the minutes, but off the bench it seems like Lisa Bluder and her coaching staff have plenty of depth built up.
“We have a lot of people that deserve minutes, and there’s only so many minutes to go around. There’s an exercise where you put — you have each of your players — you ask them how many minutes you think they deserve and you add up all those minutes and it’s way over 200. And it’s kind of a realistic approach to showing, demonstrating that, listen, you’re not going to get the minutes that you think you deserve or you probably should deserve.”
Molly Davis and Sydney Affolter had solid showings during the Europe trip, while Caitlin Clark mentioned Davis as a player that has made one of the biggest jumps this offseason. Affolter put up 30 pts, 33 reb, 11 ast and 7 stl over three games in Europe, so she figures to be a significant piece. After that you have sharp shooting sophomore Taylor McCabe who is going to be hard to keep off the floor, while Kylie Feuerbach is back to 100% after missing last season with an ACL tear. The decisions for the coaching staff are not going to be easy during games, but they arguably have seven guards deserving of minutes and that is fantastic depth.
5. Early indications are that the Hawkeyes are equipped to handle the loss of McKenna Warnock and Monika Czinano
We won’t really know if the Hawkeyes are going to be as good as they were last season until they get on the court and start playing games. November 9th in Charlotte will be a good measuring stick when they go up against Elizabeth Kitley, Georgia Amoore and Virginia Tech. However, at this juncture, indications are that the Hawkeyes will be able to fill the voids left by Warnock and Czinano.
Caitlin Clark is Caitlin Clark, while Gabbie Marshall and Kate Martin have been valuable, consistent players for a long time. It’s going to come down to the players around them. Hannah Stuelke is the most athletic player on the team and showed flashes of an All-Big Ten caliber skillset last season. The coaching staff has mentioned that her shooting range and consistency has improved a lot. If she can take a step forward after successful freshman year, the Hawkeyes will have themselves quite the player at forward.
The guard depth has already been touched on and the knock against Iowa the last couple of years has been their lack of guard scoring off of the bench. If Davis, Affolter, Feuerbach and McCabe can, at the very least, be consistent scoring threats, the Hawkeyes will be set in the backcourt.
That leaves one remaining question. What does Lisa Bluder get out Addi O’Grady and the backup center? If the coaching staff wasn’t confident in O’Grady, they would have went hard after a center in the transfer portal. They like what she brings to the table and they like how she has progressed this summer. However, Hannah Stuelke can’t start at the 4 and play all of the backup 5 minutes, so whether it is AJ Ediger or Sharon Goodman, one of them will have to provide some minutes off the bench at the center position.
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