Letdown possibility concerns Bluder

IOWA CITY - Lisa Bluder has issued a Letdown Watch, effective Thursday for suburban Chicago.

Conditions are favorable for danger.

'Absolutely,” she said Tuesday, a day after Iowa snapped its women's basketball hex against Nebraska. 'I'm very concerned about a letdown.

'We only have one day to practice, and we're going into an environment in which there's not much energy. We'll have to bring it ourselves.”

No. 17 Iowa (16-3 overall, 7-1 Big Ten) takes a five-game winning streak into Thursday's game at Northwestern (14-5, 4-4). Tipoff is 7 p.m. at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.

It's a potential trap game for the Hawkeyes. They beat Nebraska in overtime on Monday (ending an eight-game skid against the Huskers), then took a mandatory day off Tuesday before getting just one day to prepare for the Wildcats.

Iowa is at No. 5 Maryland on Sunday in a showdown between the league's top two teams.

'We can't let (Northwestern) sneak up on us,” Bluder said. 'We'll tackle that bear (Maryland) when we get to it.”

When the teams last met, Bethany Doolittle scored a career-high 29 points in an 83-70 Iowa win Jan. 14 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

'I think they were concerned so much with our outside shooters, it allowed us to use our inside game a little more,” Bluder said. 'That was good for us.”

Thursday's game marks the beginning of a road-heavy stretch for the Hawkeyes. Six of Iowa's next eight games are away from Carver, where it has built a 12-0 record.

'I feel good about where we're at,” Bluder said. 'But we haven't played some of the tough road games yet. We have some tough ones coming up, and this is one of them.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com