Sunday’s Hoosiers-Hawkeyes women’s game is transcendent

It’s not a perfect scenario for women’s basketball at Carver-Hawkeye Arena Sunday, but it sure comes close.

If Iowa had been 15-2 rather than 14-3 in the Big Ten, this afternoon’s Indiana-Iowa game would have determined if the Hawkeyes shared the league’s regular-season championship with the Hoosiers.

At 16-1, No. 2 Indiana has bolted down that trophy, its first such title since 1983. The Hoosiers are quite the story, a great shooting, great defending team on a 14-game winning streak. None of those wins were by fewer than seven points, and one was an 87-78 home triumph over the Hawkeyes on Feb. 9.

Sunday’s game still has so much going for it, beginning with the fact these are two top-10 teams.

Then there’s the ESPN factor. Not only is the game itself on that network, but ESPN’s hourlong College GameDay show originated out of Carver Sunday morning.

Iowa football hasn’t hosted College GameDay since 2006. The network has been doing a basketball College GameDay at college locations for men and women since 2005, eight to 10 times per season. This is the first time it has come to Iowa City.

Now let’s talk attendance. Iowa’s home finale Sunday is a sellout. That’s 15,056 fans. The Hawkeyes have had three home crowds over 13,000 this season, but this game is a seller’s market. The game has been sold out for over three weeks.

The sellout certainly isn’t the first for Iowa women’s basketball over the years, but it’s far from common. The crowd will lift Iowa’s season average to 10,705, topping the Big Ten record Wisconsin has held for 25 years.

It’s a bump of about 2,500 fans per game from last season. Which is almost identical to Indiana’s. The Hoosiers averaged 4,725 fans last season, 7,361 this one.

For Indiana, it’s a second-straight Sunday of playing in front of a capacity crowd. The Hoosiers had their first sellout ever a week ago when 17,222 filled Assembly Hall for their win over Purdue.

The quality of women’s basketball in the Big Ten has continued to shoot upward. Iowa has the marquee name in Caitlin Clark, and that has made an enormous difference in national-television appearances and ticket sales. But the teams play really good ball.

Iowa is first in the nation in field goal percentage at .508, and Indiana is second at .502. There are 350 Division I teams. The Hawkeyes and Hoosiers are two of the three that make more than half their shots. Iowa is second in assists per game, Indiana sixth.

The Hawkeyes lead the nation in scoring. The Hoosiers are No. 4 in scoring margin.

It’s a prelude to this week’s Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis that could be the best in league history. Besides Indiana and Iowa, there are four other ranked teams in the conference including No. 7 Maryland, which could go deeper in the NCAA tournament than anyone else in the league.

The Hawkeyes have the possible National Player of the Year in the ever-dazzling Clark, but the Hoosiers come in as the undisputed regular-season champs. Sunday’s game will be packed with passion, noise, skill and sentiment.

It will, after all, be Senior Day for Iowa’s Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock, who have combined for 3,436 career points.

This weekend’s best college basketball matchup of any kind is in Iowa City Sunday. Carver will be jumpin’.

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