By Susan Harman

IOWA CITY, IOWA – After playing its best game of the season at Michigan, Iowa returns to Carver-Hawkeye Arena to face Northwestern Wednesday.

The bare numbers of win-loss records provide a stark difference. Iowa, ranked 12^th, is 12-4 and 4-1 in the Big Ten. The Wildcats are 6-9 overall and 0-5 in the conference. But the teams have an interesting recent history.

Northwestern won a share of the Big Ten regular-season title in 2019-20, tying with Maryland. The Wildcats’ regular-season record was 26-3. This was an outstanding team led by seniors Abbie Wolf and Abi Scheid, junior Lindsey Pulliam and sophomore Veronica Burton. It had size, shooters and players who could create off the dribble. Coach Joe McKeown’s “blizzard” defense rattled opponents.

The Wildcats split with the Terps, something that very few Big Ten teams were able to do against a Maryland program that won the first seven regular-season titles since it came aboard in 2014. Their other loss came to Iowa. Maryland lost only to Northwestern and to Iowa. Obviously the Hawkeyes (23-7) figured prominently in the league race.

Regrettably that Northwestern team never got to show its stuff in the NCAA tournament, which was cancelled because of the COVID virus.

In 2020-21, a ranked Northwestern team swept Iowa in the regular season.

The Wildcats then added a recruiting class that was ranked 10^th by ESPN. That class included 6-foot-3 forward Caileigh Walsh, guard Jillian Brown, guard Hailey Weaver, guard Melannie Daley and post Mercy Ademusayo. They joined with veterans Burton, Courtney Shaw, Sydney Wood and Paige Mott last season.

Those Wildcats, even after a 19-day absence from playing due to COVID issues, came to Iowa City last year and defeated Iowa 77-69.

“I remember it wasn’t very fun afterwards,” Iowa senior Kate Martin said.

Iowa got caught in the blizzard.

“They’re a good team, and they’re well coached,” Martin said. “They have a match-up 2-3 zone; they call it the blizzard, and they’re just kind of running everywhere and they wreak havoc. It’s something different than you see all year normally. You have to prepare differently for Northwestern.

“We just remember going against that, and we had some difficulties. But also there’s a lot of opportunities to break down their zone, and we’ve been practicing a lot so we’re excited to go into the game.”

Senior Gabbie Marshall explained that the Wildcats’ system uses a “stopper” at the high-post area to prevent dribble penetration, and that stopper (Burton last year) can also desert her post and follow certain players as they move without the ball or move inside to double the post.

“We’ve played against it so many times, three times last year, so I think we’ve gotten the hang of it,” Marshall said. “Like where we will be open, where to cut, where not to cut based on the things they do in the blizzard.”

A year ago Burton was the star with 25 points and eight steals. Daley scored 22, many from the open spot on the baseline in Iowa’s zone. Daley hasn’t played in the team’s last six games, and Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said she assumed it might be an injury situation.

The Wildcats returned nearly all their players with the notable exception of Burton. Burton was the seventh pick in the WNBA draft and played a reserve role for the Dallas Wings. As it turns out Burton’s graduation was a multi-faceted blow to the Wildcats, who haven’t been the same this year.

“They lost Burton, and Burton was a main cog of their offense and defense,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “I don’t know if they realized how much of a cog she was until she was out of the mix, and now they’re kind of going through some growing pains without her.”

Yes, she scored, but she also won the Big Ten award for best defensive player three years in a row. Last year she was the national defensive player of the year. She led the team in steals and assists. She organized the defense and served as the blizzard’s stopper.

McKeown uses his deep roster every game, but so far the results aren’t there. The ‘Cats have played a difficult schedule. Their losses were to Indiana, Illinois, Michigan State, Ohio State, DePaul, Michigan, Duke, Notre Dame and Oregon. It’s almost a who’s who of women’s basketball this season, and it certainly represents the best of the Big Ten.

“When a team has lost five in a row, you’re like you don’t want to be the one,” Bluder said.

This will be the only regular-season game between the teams, and it tips at 6:30 p.m.

NOTES: Marshall said she has talked with Iowa men’s player Payton Sandfort about their mutual shooting woes. Sandfort, who was 0-for-19 prior to Sunday’s game at Rutgers, appears to have broken out of it by scoring 22 points and making 4-of-5 3-pointers against the Scarlet Knights.

“We actually did contact each other because we were both struggling with the same type of things,” Marshall said. “We were kind of telling each other to keep shooting. Nothing changed, so it’s just our confidence.”

Marshall, whose 3-pointer late in the Michigan game was a key shot in fending off a Wolverine rally, said she tells herself to always be ready to shoot. “Even though I was missing earlier in the season, I’ve just got to keep shooting,” she said. “It will go in.”

“That’s what we want Gabbie to do because she’s great at it,” Martin added. “She knows that we believe in her.”