Hawkeyes changing up Hilton routine

IOWA CITY -- The last seven trips to Ames have generated the same result.

Drive over. Lose, usually decisively. Drive back.

So the Iowa Hawkeyes are changing up their itinerary.

"We're going to go over the night before," Hawkeyes Coach Lisa Bluder said. "It sounds like a minor thing and it probably is."

Judging by the Hawkeyes' fortunes at Hilton Coliseum, any change is welcome.

Iowa has lost seven straight road games to Iowa State. The Hawkeyes' last win at Hilton Coliseum was in 1989.

Only one of those seven games was close, a 101-94 double-overtime loss in 2003. The last three outcomes were losses of 77-61 (2005), 58-44 (2007) and 85-66 (2009).

Jaime Printy was a freshman on the last trip.

"I don't remember it being very pretty," Printy said. "We didn't play well, and they played really well."

The home team has won the last four Iowa-ISU games, and none were close. Iowa won last year at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 62-40.

"It's been a long time since we've had a close one there or they've had a close one here," Bluder said. "Very strange how they've been such lopsided victories.

"I can't tell you why."

The Hawkeyes (5-3) will leave for Ames around 9 p.m. Tuesday. They'll spend the night, then conduct a Wednesday shootaround.

Then it's game time at 7 p.m., probably in front of somewhere around 10,000 fans.

"They win," Bluder said of the Cyclones (4-2). "People like to see a winner, and they win. I think their style of play is very exciting."

"Their crowd is an awesome crowd," Printy said. "Their fans are yelling right at you."

Both teams have five Iowans on its roster, including two starters -- Printy (Linn-Mar) and Kelly Krei (Iowa City High) for the Hawkeyes and Chelsea Poppens (Aplington-Parkersburg) and Hallie Christoffersen (Exira) for ISU.