A long bus ride, then a formidable rebounding foe

IOWA CITY -- The bus for South Bend leaves at 1 p.m. Friday.

There will be games -- "Catch Phrase, and Apples to Apples," according to Morgan Johnson -- and there will be movies.

"We're going to have a lot of fun," Johnson said.

In rare quiet moments, there likely will be serious reflection on how to compete on the glass.

Iowa (19-11) faces California (24-9) in a first-round game at the NCAA women's basketball tournament at 11:10 a.m. (Iowa time) Sunday at the Joyce Center on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

Check out today's SportsDesk, where Jeff Linder interviews Iowa center Morgan Johnson:

The Hawkeyes will be coping with one of the nation's most dominant rebounding teams. The Golden Bears rank third nationally in rebounding differential at plus-13.2 per game. They have been outrebounded once all season.

"They are deep, so they can spread their minutes around," Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. "Because they have fresh legs, they keep coming in after you.

"They can pursue the ball; they are incredible athletes that can jump out of the gym. So we are going to have to really rely on technique."

Cal's Gennifer Brandon, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, averages 9.9 rebounds per game in only about 24 minutes per contest.

"They have a lot of big girls, and it seems like they miss a lot of short shots," Johnson said. "But they continue to go after the boards, which is a great attribute to have. It's something that's hard to emulate.

"Every time a shot goes up, we've got to put a body on them."

Iowa is playing in its fifth consecutive NCAA tournament. It's the first for players like Samantha Logic and Melissa Dixon, both of which grew up reasonably close to South Bend.

"We try to tell them what to expect," Bluder said. "They're a little more rigid, there's a little more protocol, the drug testing and all that. They're stricter with a lot of things -- don't touch that ball before it's time or, you know, you can lose your hand."

Meanwhile, the end of the road could come at any time for seniors Kamille Wahlin, Kelly Krei and Kalli Hansen.

"Now, any game can be the last time you put on that uniform," Wahlin said. "I'm going to miss it a lot. But I'm not going to think about it yet."

The Hawkeyes took long flights the last two years -- to Stanford, Calif., in 2010 and to Spokane, Wash., last year -- for the NCAA.

Friday, they'll take a long bus ride into Indiana. Because it's less than 350 miles from Iowa City to South Bend, the NCAA does not pony up for a plane.

"I was probably on some longer ones when I was at St.  Ambrose and Drake, but I don't think I've ever taken one this long at Iowa," Bluder said.