By Pat Harty

Regardless of the outcome against Baylor on Monday, this season will be remembered for how Megan Gustafson and the Iowa women’s basketball team both soared to national prominence.

It’ll be remembered for how Lisa Bluder and her assistant coaches made the already-dominant Gustafson even more dominant, and then made her even better by surrounding her with a talented and well-connected supporting cast.

It’ll be remembered for how senior point guard Tania Davis overcame two season-ending knee injuries to be the straw that stirred Iowa’s winning potion.

It’ll be remembered for how well senior forward Hannah Stewart played in Gustafson’s vast shadow on both ends of the floor.

It'll be remembered for how Iowa fans rallied around the team and packed Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first two games in the NCAA Tournament, with over 22,000 fans combining to watch the victories over Mercer and Missouri. 

But mostly it’ll be remembered for how the 6-foot-3 Gustafson and her teammates managed to go where only three previous Iowa teams had gone before.

And should Iowa get past the top-ranked Lady Bears on Monday, it would mark just second time that Iowa has advanced to the Final Four.

The first time came in 1993 under former head coach C. Vivian Stringer, who set the standard at Iowa while serving as head coach from 1983-94.

Baylor clearly has the advantage on paper with a starting lineup that includes 6-7 Kalani Brown and 6-4 Lauren Cox.

The Lady Bears are 34-1 and have been flirting with superpower status as a program for over a decade under veteran head coach Kim Mulkey, winning national titles in 2005 and 2012.

But the 2012 season was also the last time that Baylor has advanced to the Final Four, so the current team is on a mission to get where the players haven't been since joining the program.

And they're playing like they're on a mission.

Baylor beat No. 15 South Carolina by 25 points in the Sweet Sixteen, and its average margin of victory through three NCAA Tournament games is 40.3 points.

The Iowa players are also on a mission to get to the Final Four, to show that anything is possible if you work hard enough and trust your teammates and coaches. But also because they're highly competitive and they hate to lose.

The fans showed their appreciation by packing Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first two NCAA Tournament games and that seems to have provided a spark for a team that was already hot and performing at a high level.

This run is a new experience for the Iowa players with Iowa having lost to Creighton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season, and after having played in the WNIT in the two seasons before that.

Bluder tried to have fun with the underdog role as she spoke to the media on Sunday.

“We are thrilled to be playing in April,” Bluder said in her opening statement. “We know Baylor is the favorite. But hey, it’s April Fool’s Day tomorrow.”

The Iowa players, of course, are the main story, especially when one of them is arguably the greatest player in program history, and because of how well they get along and function together on and off the court.

Gustafson has young girls throughout the country now trying to emulate her her workouts in hopes of achieving greatness in basketball some day. 

The Iowa players are fun-loving, but also a cohesive bunch that gets real serious once the ball is in play.

But they wouldn’t be where they are now on the cusp of greatness without a strong and respected leader helping to pave the way, and that’s been Bluder’s role.

Her title is head coach, but Bluder is so much more than that to her players. She is like a team mother, who teaches about strategy and about life in a way that earns the respect and admiration of her players.

Bluder’s coaching also has withstood the test of time, considering that this season is her 19^th season at Iowa and the best from a performance standpoint during that time.

The only thing Bluder hadn’t accomplished at Iowa before this season was making a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, but now she has cleared that hurdle and is one win from leading Iowa (29-6) to just its second appearance in the Final Four and to its first 30-win season.

It’ll be tall order against Baylor, literally and figuratively, but the Lady Bears also have to contend with arguably the top player in the nation in Gustafson, and with her talented supporting cast.

“They have a little more height than we do, but we are not going to grow between tonight and tomorrow, so we are going to go battle with what we have,” Bluder said.

What Iowa has is a veteran head coach, and a veteran staff, leading a veteran team with three seniors and two juniors in the starting lineup.

Bluder and her assistants are easy to overlook with Gustafson adding to her legend in each game, but the contributions from the coaches are far reaching.

Jan Jensen and Jenni Fitzgerald both played for Bluder at Drake and have been at her side for nearly three decades as valued assistants, and now as associate head coaches. 

Bluder leaves little doubt that she is the head coach, but in a way that isn’t overly dominant or rigid.

“I’m so fortunate to play for the greatest head coach, and for the greatest staff, in the country,” Gustafson said earlier in the season. “Coach Bluder has made me a better player and a better person with her leadership and with how much she cares for us.”

This special season is down to just three games at the most, and that’s kind of sad because you don’t want it to end.

Time is the only opponent that will stop Gustafson for sure, and that battle is nearly over.

The challenge for Gustafson and her cohorts is to make sure that Baylor doesn’t beat them before time does.

 

Iowa vs. Baylor

When: Monday, 6 p.m.

What: NCAA Elite Eight game

Where: Greensboro, Coliseum, Greensboro, N.C.

TV: ESPN2