Despite youth, Hawks hopeful

IOWA CITY - Black, gold ... and green all over.

That's the University of Iowa women's basketball team, which met the media Wednesday morning at Carver-Hawkeye

The Hawkeyes have graduated 10 seniors in the last two years, a pair of seasons that produced back-to-back 22-11 ledgers and trips to the NCAA tournament.

Gone are Kristi Smith, Wendy Ausdemore and Megan Skouby, the highest-scoring trio from the same class in Big Ten history.

“You look at our team, and it is a rebuilding year,” said Coach Lisa Bluder, who is beginning her 10th season at Iowa, her 26th overall. “How quickly we grow will determine how we end up in the Big Ten Conference.”

This year's team has three upperclassmen - senior JoAnn Hamlin and juniors Kachine Alexander and Kelsey Cermak. The roster features five freshmen, a bunch of “kids,” according to Hamlin.

“They are kids,” Hamlin said. “But they're going to be good.”

So acquaint yourself with names like Morgan Johnson, Theairra Taylor, Gabby Machado, Trisha Nesbitt and, of course, Jaime Printy, the Linn-Mar all-stater who committed to Iowa four years ago.

They're freshmen, one of Bluder's favorite things.

“I love freshmen,” she said. “They bring out the teacher in any coach.”

Johnson, listed at 6-foot-5, was the Miss Show Me Basketball Award winner, given to the top senior in Missouri, after averaging 19.4 points and 11.5 rebounds per game at Platte County High School.

“She's a girl that can get up and down the floor. It will be hard for Big Ten teams to guard her,” Hamlin said.

Johnson said Hamlin “has taught me how to move my feet better on defense and how to use my hands better.”

That's Hamlin's job now. To lead.

“It's definitely a little weird, everybody's looking to me for advice,” she said.

Alexander and sophomore guard Kamille Wahlin also are returning starters.

Despite standing 5-foot-9 - and in actuality, she's not even that tall - Alexander ranked second in rebounding among Big Ten players last season at 8.8 boards per game.

“Rebounding is a mindset,” said Alexander, the Hawks' top returning scorer at 10 points per game. “I've always known where the ball is coming off the board. I'm undersized, but rebounding is always about heart.”

Wahlin and Hamlin averaged 7.6 points per game last year. With Smith's departure, Wahlin is the likely starting point guard.

“That's her natural position,” Bluder said.

Bluder is well aware that her team will be picked middle-of-the-pack, at best.

That's fine.

“I don't think right now we're on the top of too many people's radar screens,” she said. “And that's OK because the last two years, we haven't been there.”

Iowa opens Nov. 14 against Santa Clara in the Hawkeye Challenge.