Another bumper crop of women’s basketball
Iowa State grabs the spotlight, Iowa begins the ‘Jensen Ascension’ while Drake and UNI will duke it out – again
Here in Iowa, you can’t avoid farm talk even if you live in the city. It’s just there surrounding you all the time.
That being said, I haven’t paid close enough attention to know the details of this fall’s corn except to know a lot has been harvested and you really need to watch out for the deer that are nibbling on the leftovers before they hop out onto the highway.
But as for Iowa’s other well-known commodity? Let’s just say it’s another bumper crop for women’s basketball in 2024-25. The biggest name might be gone but if all the new fans decide to stick around – as they should, of course – they’ll find there’s still plenty to follow in Iowa, as usual.
Based on preseason rankings and conference media days and such, here’s a quick preview of the “Big Four” and a few more.
Iowa State
It’s possible that hoops mania will shift west this season from Iowa City to Ames, where it’s long been strong anyway. Many of the same kinds of pieces are in place for the Cyclones that were there for the Hawkeyes last season: a charismatic star who happens to be an Iowan, core veterans returning, high expectations and an arena that already sold out its (reserved) tickets for the season.
The Cyclones ranked No. 8 in the AP preseason poll, and there was good reason for it. Their young roster that included then-freshmen Audi Crooks and Addy Brown were guided by veteran point guard Emily Ryan and all are back this year. Led by Crooks’ and Brown’s emergence, the Cyclones gelled as the season went on and Crooks raised eyebrows nationally with 40 points against Maryland in an NCAA tournament victory. The 6-3 center from Algona’s tiny Bishop Garrigan High School averaged 19.2 points and 7.8 rebounds in her all-Big 12 season. This week she was named one of ESPN’s top 25 preseason players nationally.
Iowa State will be tested and then some with its brutal – and that’s an understatement – non-conference schedule. The Cyclones play No. 1 South Carolina at a tournament in Fort Myers, Fla., on Nov. 28 and No. 2 UConn at a doubleheader at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on Dec. 17.
Mark your calendar: The Big 12 regular season title could come down to a March 2 showdown between the Cyclones and No. 13 Kansas State at Hilton Coliseum.
Iowa
The reason the word “possible” is there about a shift toward Ames in hoops mania is because it might not leave Iowa City at all. Top 25 voters didn’t think highly enough of a roster void of Caitlin Clark, Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall to slip the Hawkeyes into the rankings, yet preseason honors are raining upon some of the players nonetheless. And for the second year in a row, Carver-Hawkeye Arena is sold out for the season.
Then there’s the Jan Factor. It’s Jan Jensen’s first season as head coach (or as a friend calls it, The Jensen Ascension), and no doubt decades of Jan Fans are eager to see that play out. What will be different? What will be the same? Time will tell.
Jensen’s certainly got enough to work with. Junior center Hannah Stuelke was this week named to the Naismith Watch List for women’s basketball player of the year, after being named first team preseason all-Big Ten at both the league’s media day and by USA Today.
Iowa’s offseason pickup is as intriguing as the coaching change and a highly rated recruiting class. Lucy Olsen transferred to the Hawkeyes from Villanova, where she was third in the nation in scoring (23.3 points per game) behind Clark and USC’s JuJu Watkins. Olsen was also named to the Naismith Watch List and the Big Ten preseason teams..
Mark your calendar: Up-and-coming superstar Watkins, just a sophomore, and USC will be at Carver-Hawkeye Arena as a new Big Ten foe for the Hawkeyes on Feb. 2.
Drake
So much has gone right for Drake in recent years but there is one big hurdle that has hounded the Bulldogs – getting past the NCAA tournament’s first round. To get that chance again, though, they’ll have to get through Iowa (Nov. 17) and Iowa State (Nov. 24) in the non-conference and march through the Missouri Valley Conference like they did in 2023-24 when they won the regular season and conference tournament titles.
Preseason voters for the MVC think the Bulldogs will manage just fine though, making them the pick to repeat as champions after a school-record 29 victories (against six losses) last season. There’s good reason for that optimism: Drake returns MVC Player of the Year Katie Dinnebier and two-time MVC Defensive Player of the Year Anna Miller. Point guard Dinnebier averaged 18.1 points and 6.9 assists in a season in which she was a finalist for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year award. Miller, a 6-3 forward, averaged 13 points, 10 rebounds and nearly three blocked shots a game.
The Bulldogs have the pieces in place to continue to be among the nation’s most efficient teams. They were third in the nation in assists last season with 19.9 per game, trailing just leaders Iowa (20.8) and Oklahoma (20.1). It’s part of what makes Drake immensely fun to watch.
Mark your calendar: The conference rivalry between Drake and Missouri State has been intense since the early 1990s. Sadly, it ends this season as the Bears will bolt the Missouri Valley for Conference USA next year. The last Bulldog-Bears conference game in Des Moines will be Feb. 22.
Northern Iowa
The Panthers have long been knocking on the door in the MVC and a brutal stretch of injuries last season dashed a season of high expectations. But they’re back, picked No. 2 in the conference and also returning top players.
Tanya Warren, the dean of MVC coaches, begins her 18th season in Cedar Falls with key players returning for their final seasons. Center Grace Bofelli, who had been named last season’s Preseason Player of the Year for the league, missed six games with a shoulder injury. She’s healthy now and will team up with Maya McDermott, a scrappy guard from Johnston who averaged 16.3 points a game.
If there’s any team that knows it needs to look out for the Panthers and McDermott in particular, it’s Drake. McDermott hit two buzzer-beaters within weeks of each other to defeat Drake twice during the 2022-23 season.
Mark your calendar: No. 21 Creighton comes to Cedar Falls on Dec. 21, not only giving the Panthers a tough non-conference game but also a little reunion. Warren, a Des Moines native, played at Creighton and was an assistant coach there in 2004-2007 under Jim Flanery. Flanery, of Guthrie Center, has been Creighton’s head coach since 2002.
Northern Iowa’s season schedule
Small colleges
The NAIA championship trophy remained in Iowa last season, with Dordt winning the title a year after Clarke did. Expectations are high again for the Defenders, who are the NAIA’s preseason No. 1. Also in the NAIA poll are No. 17 Grand View, No. 19 Northwestern and No. 23 Briar Cliff.
Wartburg also got some preseason love. The Knights are ranked No. 2 in D3hoops.com’s preseason NCAA Division III poll and No. 3 in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s poll. The Knights lost in the national semifinals last season. Five fifth-year seniors return with the goal of becoming the first DIII team from Iowa to win a national title since Central in 1993.
Jane Burns is a former sports and features writer for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications and websites. She’s a past winner of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Mel Greenberg Award for her coverage of women’s basketball. Over the course of her career she’s covered pretty much everything (including agriculture!), which is why her as-yet-to-be-written memoir will be called “Cheese and Basketball: Stories From a Reporter Who Has Covered Everything.”
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