Hawkeyes head to Norman, will face Murray State in Round 1

IOWA CITY — The suspense lasted until the very last region.

It wasn’t a matter of “if,” but “where.”

In the end, finally, it was Norman.

Iowa drew a 6-seed in the Spokane-4 Region for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, revealed Sunday.

“It’s a new season, and now we get to see what we can do,” Coach Jen Jensen said shortly after the long wait on ESPN’s selection show concluded.

The Hawkeyes (22-10) will face 11-seed Murray State (25-7) in the first round Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla.

Tip time is 11 a.m. (ESPN).

Murray State was the tournament champion of the Missouri Valley Conference after sharing the MVC regular-season title. The Racers are the nation’s most prolific offensive team, averaging 87.8 points per game.

In Saturday’s other first-rounder, 3-seed Oklahoma (25-7) will face 14-seed Florida Gulf Coast (30-3) at 1:30 p.m.

The draw sets up a potential second-round matchup next Monday between the Hawkeyes and Iowa alum Jennie Baranczyk, the current coach at Oklahoma.

  Buy Photo

“There are a lot of connections there,” Jensen said. “I would like to think that if we weren’t playing each other, we’d be cheering for each other through the brackets.”

Oklahoma assistant coach Shannon Gage had two stints as an assistant at Iowa (2003-05 and 2007-13). OU has two Iowans on its roster: Aubrey Jones (Iowa City High) and Sahara Williams (Waterloo West).

Murray State also has a Waterloo West alum in point guard Halli Poock, who is second among Racers’ scorers at 17.1 points per game.

With the exception of the 2021 tournament — in which everybody convened in San Antonio due to the COVID-19 pandemic — the Hawkeyes will be playing on the road for the first time since 2018.

They lost that year to Creighton in the first round in Los Angeles.

Iowa will make its 31st NCAA appearance, its seventh consecutive.

Eight weeks ago, Iowa was 12-7 and mired in a five-game losing streak, and another NCAA trip appeared shaky. But the Hawkeyes answered with 10 wins in their last 13 games.

“We’re hitting at the right time,” junior Hannah Stuelke said. “We know what we can do.”

“We have a lot of confidence right now,” said senior Sydney Affolter, who will be playing in her fourth NCAA for the Hawkeyes. “We’re playing great basketball, and this is a group that doesn’t want to stop playing.”

With two wins, Iowa would advance to the Sweet 16 for the third straight year. The Norman subregion survivor advances to play in Spokane, Wash., in the second weekend of the tournament

The Final Four is at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. Semifinals are April 4; the national championship game is April 6.

The Hawkeyes reached the championship game in 2023 and 2024.

Iowa State (22-11) makes its sixth consecutive tournament, but will have to play in the opening round to make the main 64-team bracket.

The Cyclones share the 11-seed in the Birmingham-3 Region and face Princeton (21-7) at South Bend, Ind., at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The victor meets 6-seed Michigan (22-10) on Friday.

Get to know Murray State

Coach: Rechelle Turner (8th year, 136-108).

Final AP ranking: NR.

Spokane-4 Region seed: No. 14.

Record: 25-7.

Conference: Missouri Valley (16-4, T-1st; tournament champion).

Leading scorers: Katelyn Young (6-1, sr.), 22.2 ppg; Halli Poock (5-6, soph.), 17.1 ppg; Haven Ford (5-6, soph.), 15.2 ppg; Ava Learn (6-1, sr.), 13.9 ppg.

Scoring averages: Offense: 87.8. Defense: 72.1.

Tournament history: 2nd appearance. Other was in 2008.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com