NCAA women’s basketball notes: Iowa’s defensive progress has made a big difference

IOWA CITY — Some of it is scheme. Some is effort. Some is attitude.

The combination has led to a defense far superior to its immediate predecessor.

“We worked on it a lot in the offseason,” Iowa’s Caitlin Clark said. “It wasn't always fun, but that's what we needed to do if we wanted to reach our goals now.”

Those goals are sky-high as the eighth-ranked Hawkeyes (23-7) prepare for an NCAA tournament women’s basketball first-round matchup with Illinois State (19-13).

Tipoff is 3 p.m. Friday at a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena (ESPN).

Last year, Iowa was dead-last in the nation in defensive scoring average, at 80.3 points per game allowed.

“We got to the Sweet 16 with a really, really good offense but a pretty poor defense,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. “If we wanted to go further, which all these women want to do, then we had to improve the defense.

“So it was buy-in, it was commitment by our coaches to continue to stress it all year long, and it was just buy-in by our players that they were going to put more effort into it.”

The Hawkeyes are surrendering 70.8 points per game. It’s still not great, but the way this team plays (and scores), it doesn’t need to be great.

“We really worked on the fundamentals, changed some things,” Monika Czinano said. “I just think our team realizes the value of it a little bit more than we did last year.

“We've come out in games a little bit stronger on defense right from the get-go and we're seeing the rewards with two trophies (Big Ten regular season and Big Ten tournament).”

In the league title run, the Hawkeyes allowed 59, 66 and 67 points in their three wins.

Creighton’s Iowa connections

When Creighton’s name and logo was displayed on the ESPN reveal show Sunday, that alone was enough to send Rachael Saunders through the roof.

“Then, one of our coaches said, ‘Look where we’re playing,’” said Saunders, an Iowa City native and a redshirt junior for Creighton. “It was just complete joy.”

Saunders helped lead Iowa City West to the Class 5A state championship in 2018 before heading to Omaha. At Creighton, she was having her best season (8.2 points per game) last year before suffering a knee injury.

“She has overcome a lot,” Creighton Coach Jim Flanery said. “She has had a lot of knee issues. Last year was a really frustrating year for her. She hurt her knee mid-December, and her timetable for return was supposed to be three to four months, and she just had complication after complication, and she really wasn't cleared to play until the beginning of November.

“And yet, here she is, and she's a big part of our team.”

Saunders averages 20 minutes per game and scores at a 5.6-point clip.

Meanwhile, Lauren Jensen has become one of the Bluejays’ top players. A sophomore guard who transferred from Iowa last spring, Jensen averages 12.3 points per game and shoots 44 percent from 3-point range.

“Lauren has been tremendous. She's a kid we recruited out of high school,” Flanery said. “We felt like we were down to her final three or four out of high school, and so I felt like her recruitment once she entered the (transfer) portal was pretty good because we already had a relationship with her.

“I think at Iowa it maybe was just a numbers game. I felt like she could really help us as a scorer.”

Creighton (20-9) faces Colorado (22-8) in Friday’s first game at Carver, at 12:30 p.m.

Full house on Friday

When Illinois State faces the Hawkeyes, the attendance will be listed at an arena-capacity 14,382 (smaller than the regular sellout number of 15,056, due to some seating tweaks), the largest crowd of the season by a long shot.

The Redbirds’ average home attendance this season was 748; its largest crowd at any game was 2,261, at Drake on Feb. 25.

“It will definitely be a new experience for all of us, but how awesome,” Redbirds Coach Kristen Gillespie said. “This will be the best atmosphere, and that's how we're looking at it. It's not a negative, or we're not overwhelmed.”

Redbirds junior Mary Crompton is an Iowa City Regina alum and went to “a lot of Iowa games growing up, but I think that their program is at a new level now.

“I don't think I'll ever have seen Carver as full as it will probably be Friday. Even if they are cheering for the other team, it beats an empty gym for sure.”

The game was announced as a sellout on Wednesday.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com