By Susan Harman

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa’s whirlwind weekend continues Sunday at Northern Iowa, the preseason favorite to win the Missouri Valley Conference.

“It’s a quick turnaround,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “But I think at this point in our practice it’s up to us to manage the legs of our players. It’s early in the season; they’re not fatigued yet. So I think that’s to our advantage a little bit.

“But we know that’s going to be a really difficult game, playing in a sold-out arena that’s, it’s not small, but it’s very cozy, you know? So I think that’s going to be a challenge for us to get our mindset ready to play UNI again.”

The Hawkeyes’ 80-76 victory over fellow Final Four qualifier Virginia Tech on Thursday in Charlotte, N.C., was a big one, but it came with some quirks. Facing a 6-foot-6 All American in Liz Kitley, Iowa’s coaches sat traditional post players Sharon Goodman and Addie O’Grady and instead moved 6-2 sophomore Hannah Stuelke to center.

This season Stuelke was envisioned as the power forward in a lineup with either of the two posts, but she became the post against Kitley while Iowa used an extra guard. Stuelke performed well (12 points, 4 rebounds) when she was on the floor, limiting Kitley’s impact. Goodman spelled her and ended up playing 22:34 minutes to Stuelke’s 17:20. But essentially Iowa played four guards and a post.

Iowa’s Kate Martin seemed prescient at Iowa’s Wednesday media conference.

“I think it helps that we have some versatility down there,” she said. “We can have Hannah play the five and go a little smaller, and she’s very quick and can drive from the perimeter and get rebounds. And we have Sharon, who’s super physical down there as well, you know, a really big body and the same with Addie. It helps to be able to switch it up a bit. Each five is going to give us a different look.”

While UNI doesn’t pose the same kind of problem in the post, Kansas State will next Thursday with 6-6 Ayoka Lee, the owner of the NCAA women’s single-game scoring record (61). Lee is a more physical presence in the post than Kitley and obviously a prolific scorer.

Another oddity was Iowa’s poor 3-point shooting. The Hawkeyes made only 6-of-26 threes (.231). Combined with its opener against Fairleigh Dickinson, Iowa is averaging 24 percent (13 of 54) behind the arc. This team shot 38 percent a year ago. Iowa managed to make up for the poor long-range shooting against the Hokies by attacking the basket, but it will need to shore this up.

Iowa got a tremendous lift from junior reserve Sydney Affolter, who grabbed 14 rebounds while playing nearly 26 minutes. It was a career-high in boards and in minutes played for Iowa’s hustle queen.

In the same vein, Kylie Feuerbach demonstrated she was back. In one key portion of the third quarter she scored eight of Iowa’s 10 points, made 3-of-3 free throws, hit a 3-pointer and had a steal. She played confidently and aggressively and showed no signs of trying to protect herself after the ACL injury that took away her season a year ago.

“Just the quickness that she has to go to the basket,” Gabbie Marshall said. “Kylie has like a really quick first step and she’s had a string of pretty good practices. She’s looked really good out there.”

Caitlin Clark was the focus of the hoopla after finishing with 44 points and drawing an amazing 16 Hokie fouls. She played every minute of the game, and even though she was cold from the perimeter she steadied the ship and created many high-percentage shots near the basket with her dribble penetration.

With two days of preparation Iowa will take on UNI at a sold out McLeod Center in Cedar Falls. The Panthers are similar to the team that gave Iowa all it could handle a year ago. Gone are guard Kam Finley and 6-3 post Cynthia Wolf. But returning are the Panthers’ three big junior scorers, 6-1 Grace Boffeli, 5-6 point guard Maya McDermott, and 5-10 Emerson Green.

Iowa had trouble last year with McDermott’s speed. She shot 38 percent from three last year and is a 91 percent free-throw shooter. Boffeli averaged 16 points and nine rebounds a year ago and is a difficult matchup. She was picked the preseason player of the year in the MVC.

The Panthers also feature 3-point shooter Kayla Laube, a former Marion prep, and Shateah Wetering, a transfer from Iowa. Wetering was hobbled after a knee injury and didn’t play much at Iowa. She is a starter for UNI. Iowa City West graduate Cailyn Morgan is a fifth-year guard who is also a starter.

UNI’s only real size is 6-3 reserve Rachael Heittola, but the Panthers are scrappy much like a supposedly undersized Creighton was a couple years ago.

NOTES: ESPN announcers on Thursday said that both Virginia Tech and Iowa received $150,000 for playing in the Ally Tip-Off event in Charlotte.

Clark is only 16 points shy of surpassing Megan Gustafson (2,804) as Iowa’s career points leader.

Sunday’s game is at 2 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.