Special senior class led by Hawkeye legend Caitlin Clark will be honored on Sunday
Iowa faces No. 2 Ohio State on Senior Day at Carver-Hawkeye Arena
By Susan Harman
IOWA CITY, Iowa – As if a nationally televised game against Big Ten champion Ohio State weren’t enough Sunday, Iowa will formally bid adieu to one of its more interesting and successful classes on Senior Day. That class has a record of 100-29 (.775) through four years, and if you include five years for Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall, it is 123-36 (.774).
These seniors and super seniors won two Big Ten Tournament titles and tied for a regular-season title. They were only the second team in Iowa history to reach the women’s Final Four, and they were the first to reach the championship game.
They played in front of empty arenas during a pandemic and to record-breaking crowds thereafter.
More than 55,000 chilly fans watched Iowa play an October exhibition game in Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes sold out Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the season, another first, and this season they have created a cult-like following that resulted in sellouts throughout the Big Ten whenever they were on the road.
They featured the consensus player of the year, a true unicorn who swept all the major POY awards in addition to winning the Honda Award for best female college athlete. She will be the first pick in the WNBA draft. She is an Iowan.
They have incorporated a transfer who has thrived in her two years in Iowa City and who has made some of the most memorable plays of any season. Collectively they are 100 percent committed. They all have that competitive gene; they just show it differently.
When they finish the season they will all go in different directions, but they will always have each other and the memories they created.
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Caitlin Clark, Sr., guard, West Des Moines.
What you need to know about Iowa’s greatest player is that for all her considerable skills passing, shooting, and managing a game it is the fire that burns within that separates her from everybody else. It is that mixture of skill, flamboyance and constant fine-tuning combined with that inner drive that enables her to make season-defining shots.
She has never missed a game. She’s had the endurance, concentration and talent to break scoring records in the NCAA and AIAW.
Associate coach Jan Jensen: “I tell people all the time that she is special in that she truly has a blast playing this game. And at the moment what is awesome about Caitlin, when she was little 5-year old Caitlin to now, is when she’s playing and who was ever watching if there’s 10 little kids on the playground? She wants you all to know at this particular moment she’s the best that ever was, right? Because that’s how she’s wired.
“But when it’s all over, all those balls that she gets in the trophies, they are the least of her concern. And her eyes sparkle, and she cannot wait to do it again and just have those moments.”
When she was a kid and went to games at the Knapp Center she didn’t go to get autographs. She went to fight for the freebies shot into the stands or dropped from Drake University’s little dirigible.
She and Gabbie and Kate have a bond that will last a lifetime.
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Molly Davis, 5th year, guard, Midland, Mich.
Transferred from Central Michigan, where she was a prolific scorer and point guard. An athlete since she was a toddler she fools people who dote only on her size. She compensated by learning the game, its angles and intricacies and developing moves and shots to enable her to succeed.
Lisa Bluder: “For Molly Davis to come here from Central Michigan, not to be guaranteed anything, no starting position, no amount of playing time, come here and accept her role, do whatever it takes for us to be better, that took a lot of courage.”
Molly Davis is a starter this year.
Her teammates have marveled at some of the shots she makes while being pursued in transition. She can make herself into a pretzel to avoid a block and somehow get the ball in the basket. She grabbed a rebound while lying on her back just outside the lane. She catches half-court bullet passes from Caitlin Clark and cashes them in.
Current Iowa assistant and former CMU assistant Raina Harmon said Davis was recruited to follow a bunch of successful point guards at the school: “We needed somebody to kind of follow up that was going to have a similar style, similar swagger. She’s super confident; she’s very poised, and you could see that in her at a very young age.”
She is universally described as having a high basketball IQ. Kylie Feuerbach: “Molly is just a very smart player. She kind of knows when to take over and when to kind of let things flow.”
Clark: “Molly’s always had swag. It’s almost like she doesn’t care. She just goes out there and hoops, and it’s fun to watch. She’s very steady; she’s always level-headed.”
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Sharon Goodman, RS-Jr., center, Lime Springs
Goodman is the surprise among the five because she has eligibility remaining because of a redshirt year and the Covid year. An excellent student who won an award at the Final Four for having the best grade-point average among participants, she has elected to graduate and move on to nursing school.
Her basketball development was hampered by an ACL injury that cost her a year and lingered into the next year. But she had some solid games earlier this season as a strong, physical presence inside. But more importantly she has touched the hearts of her teammates.
Clark: “Sharon is somebody that came in with me and somebody I’ve always had around me that always had my back and I can think about sharing. She’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had as long as I played sports. She’s just always there for people. She really cares about people. She loves people. She’s one of the purest souls I’ve ever been around. I know she’s going to make a really great nurse. If you know Sharon you know that’s the perfect job for her.”
Goodman talked about how fortunate she felt to be at Iowa during this time, but it came down to people. She said she’d miss “the circle that we have in the relationships that we’ve built because of the highs and lows that we’ve experienced. You don’t get strong relationships or good team chemistry from an easy walk to the Final Four. It comes from the battles and the losses. And even off the court when we see each other go through struggles, building those close relationships.”
The memory that sticks out for Goodman: “The run to the Final Four. It was just such a joy for me to be able to see that the five starters last year that we had for those three years, to see those five do that and accomplish that. And the whole team too, but to see their growth over three years and then see them accomplish that was very special for me.”
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Gabbie Marshall, Fifth year, G, Cincinnati, Ohio
Marshall has a dual identity as a player, and it’s exemplified by one statistic. She is the only Iowa player in history to have more than 200 steals (219) and more than 200 3-pointers (235). She’s a dead-eye 3-point shooter, a “sniper” as Georgia coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson called her, and she’s a defensive whiz.
She was a major contributor in the post-season run a year ago. She sank seven threes against Maryland in the Big Ten semifinal, and Iowa needed every one of them. She finished the Big Ten tournament with 13 threes total in three games.
The noise that the Carver-Hawkeye Arena fans make when she shoots a three is just different. It’s 15,000 people trying to exert their hopes and will the ball into the net, and when it goes it’s an explosion of sound.
Defensively she is usually assigned to the opponent’s top perimeter player. She held Minnesota star Mara Braun to just six points when she was on the floor. Marshall is clear that defense is her primary concern, and she has the mileage to prove it as she works her way around and through screens in pursuit.
She is a four-year starter. Marshall has been accepted to a Master’s program at North Carolina in Occupational Therapy.
Asked what her emotions were going into the final month of the season, she said: “It was the same starters for three years and just thinking about all that we accomplished and just how close I am with them. I think the thing I’ll miss the most is just being around them every day. Thinking that it’s coming to an end is just kind of sad. But just knowing that we’ve been able to do so much together and just being part of such an amazing program in the last five years.
“The memories that we’ve made off the court far exceed the memories that we made on the court, which is surprising because we’ve done so much together.”
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Kate Martin, 6th year, G/F, Edwardsville, Ill.
Martin has been the undisputed leader of the team during her four years as a starter. She does it all. She can play all five positions; she’s a tough, physical rebounder; she moves without the ball to provide targets for Clark and others; she can score from the perimeter, the mid-range and inside. She is tireless.
“I feel like I’ve had more fun playing this year than I ever have in my life,” Martin said. “I’ve been playing with a lot of freedom. I’ve had a little bit different role this year, and it’s been fun. I think that’s the fun thing about basketball is each year your role can change, and I kind of stepped into a little bit more of a scoring role this year, and that’s really been exciting and a different leadership role as well.”
Part of her leadership this season has been to get the underclassmen ready to assume that role next year. Martin’s definition of leadership: “Do anything you can to make your teammates’ lives easier.” She is vocal, encouraging. She takes it personally when Iowa loses, and she takes responsibility.
After the loss at Nebraska she said: “That’s frustrating with a mature team like this. I think it shows a little bit of a lack of leadership on my end, but also we have to play to win instead of playing not to lose.”
She has the respect of her peers.
Clark: “She’s a handful to guard downhill. She’s big; she’s physical. She’s not afraid to hit somebody, but she rebounds the ball. When she’s aggressive it adds a whole other dimension for our team, and I think that’s exactly what she’s been over the last couple months and really all year.
“There have been some games when her shooting isn’t there, but she always brings the leadership and glue part. To me she’s a pro basketball player. That’s exactly how her game is. It fits that way. She can shoot it; she can drive; she can pass. She screens while she rebounds. I mean she gives about everything you’d want out of a player.”
Sunday’s game begins at noon and is televised by Fox. ESPN will broadcast its College Game Day from Carver-Hawkeye Arena beginning at 10 a.m.