Maryland debacle serves as inspiration for Iowa women’s basketball team
By Susan Harman
It was an ugly game. It was ugly enough that even the staunchest Iowa fan might have turned off the TV to seek comfort in a quart of ice cream.
You remember Iowa’s game at Maryland (or maybe you don’t), the 96-68 disaster that eliminated Iowa from the Big Ten race. It included the eight-point second quarter in which the Hawks made 4-of-19 shots and missed all 10 3-point attempts.
Apparently that debacle has served a purpose. Coach Lisa Bluder called it the spark that triggered Iowa’s six-game winning streak that included the last-second win over Indiana, a redemption win over Maryland, the blasting of Ohio State and two NCAA Tournament victories.
“It didn’t bring us back to reality because my team is never cocky or anything like that,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “But it sure gave us a focus. It just felt so bad that we didn’t want to feel that way again for a long time. It brought us a little closer together for some reason, and our chemistry is something we really believe in.”
“I think it was honestly embarrassing what happened to us at Maryland, and we all knew,” Monika Czinano said. “When you get 30-pieced on the road, it’s not fun.”
Czinano said the recovery involved players and coaches.
“Obviously we had meetings with coach Bluder, and our coaching staff does such a good job of kind of routing our focus,” she said. “And we had Indiana coming up, which is another big matchup. So I think it was just, we talked about it, yeah, but all of us knew we needed to change if we wanted to make it further than we’ve ever been before.”
The Terps took Czinano out of the scoring equation. Caitlin Clark had 18 and Gabbie Marshall emerged from her shooting slumber to make five 3-pointers. One of the team’s post-Maryland goals was to increase and solidify offensive contributions from other sources.
“I think obviously people are going to focus on Monika and Caitlin, as they should, and I think, really, it’s harder for teams to guard us when we have bigger roles and we know that,” Marshall said. “I think especially after that Maryland game we knew that we had to step up, and we had to knock down shots. They were focusing on Monika and Caitlin, and the supporting cast had to step up.
“So, I think we’ve done a great job at it, and Monika and Caitlin are great at finding us and giving us the confidence to knock down the shots when we’re open.”
Clark pointed to recent results as proof of progress.
“I think Gabbie and McKenna (Warnock), Kate (Martin), even our bench players Hannah (Stuelke), Sydney (Affolter), Molly (Davis), I think they have all stepped up in big ways, and I think we all understand too that if we want to win two games here, we’re going to need everybody,” Clark said.
*See you in a year. One of the oddities of Colorado playing Iowa is that they almost did so a year ago. Colorado was one of the four teams that played in Iowa City. The Buffaloes lost to Creighton and so missed the chance to play Iowa in the second round.
Both teams had each other scouted, though.
“Absolutely,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “We had a complete scout done for them last year, and they haven’t changed a whole lot. There’s a few fresh faces. A few that exited the program as well, but they’re very similar style wise, and we absolutely started our report with that.”
CU lost two post players, Peanut Tuitele transferred to California and Mya Hollinshed went to the pros. But coach JR Payne filled those spots with Arizona transfer Aaronette Vonleh and with Quay Miller, who had seen time off the bench but blossomed as a starter this year. The rest of the roster is nearly the same. Guard Jaylyn Sherrod had 27 points against Creighton.
Iowa, however, starts the same five players.
“Yeah I definitely think they’re a similar team,” Payne said. “They’re just a more experienced version of who they were last year, and they were really good last year as well. So I think it’s always great to be able to rely on past information.
“We do pour a ton of effort into our scouting reports. We feel like if there’s just one or two little things that we could glean from watching one more game or one more round of defense or things like that, we try to be pretty intense in our scouting. Then of course we have a new scout for this year as well.”
*March Madness abroad. Colorado junior guard Frida Formann is from Denmark and leads the Buffaloes in 3-point shooting. She was not immune to March Madness even though she grew up on the other side of the Atlantic.
“I watched everything,” Formann said. “My dad got like an ESPN Player so I could watch it. Yeah, it’s always been a dream of mine to be part of it. I think when you leave your country to go play over here, you don’t really know what’s going to happen and how it’s going to end up. You just kind of take a chance on a program. I’m really happy to be here with this program today.”