Drake, Iowa State kick into gear as NCAA bids loom
State’s other women’s basketball teams find success in a season when so many eyes have been on the sport
For good reason, a lot of the attention for women’s basketball in Iowa this season has been focused on a black-and-gold team in Iowa City. And it makes sense; the Hawkeyes and Caitlin Clark are the blockbuster of the moment — “Star Wars,” Taylor Swift and a new Krispy Kreme opening all wrapped into one.
But like with other blockbusters, there are great things living in their shadow that are worth some sunlight too. That’s certainly the case with women’s basketball in Iowa this season.
As NCAA bids loom on Sunday (7 p.m., ESPN), it’s worth taking a look at some other players and teams to pay attention to this month. It’s almost an embarrassment of riches in the state, but of course it’s nothing to be embarrassed about at all.
Dinnebier and the Dogs
Drake’s balanced attack lifted the Bulldogs to the Missouri Valley Conference title and the top seed in the league tournament this weekend. The Bulldogs are 26-5, 19-1 in the MVC. They play at noon today (Friday, March 15) against Indiana State.
That Drake success is in no small part due to Katie Dinnebier, the MVC player of the year. The junior guard helps Drake get that balance by doing whatever the team needs. She leads the team in scoring with 18.1 points a game, as well as averaging 7 assists a game with a season-high of 14. She’s had four double-doubles this season and even had a triple double of 19 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against Northern Iowa.
“Katie is the Caitlin Clark of the mid-majors,” said Laura Leonard, a former Drake player who calls Drake and Missouri Valley games on TV. “She can score — not always 30 points a game, but she can. She can dish the ball out, she rebounds, she has steals. At the mid-major level, she brings all the things to her team that Caitlin brings to Iowa.”
Dinnebier, who led Waukee to a state title in 2021, is also one of the peskiest players to ever wear a Bulldog uniform. Her defense helps spark Drake’s high-powered offense that averages 81 points a game.
“Katie is like when you’re at a picnic and there’s that fly or mosquito that is just always around you,” Leonard said. “You can’t get rid of her, she’s that pest.”
Dinnebier is a finalist for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award, which seems appropriate for reasons beyond the Drake guard’s play.
Most people know Hammon as coach of the WNBA’s two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces or the barrier-breaking assistant coach with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. Many Drake fans, however, know Hammon as the dream-crushing Colorado State junior who scored 33 points and ended the NCAA tournament hopes of one of Lisa Bluder’s best Bulldog teams in 1998.
Drake was seeded No. 5 that year – an almost unheard-of high seed for a mid-major – and ranked No. 22. But Hammon pushed the Rams to an 81-75 first-round victory over the Bulldogs, who were led that season by Kiersten Miller and Tammi Blackstone.
Even with a top seed in the MVC tournament, Drake will likely have to win to earn the NCAA bid because the league isn’t particularly strong this season. A Bulldog loss would put them in a precarious bubble spot.
A team that could play a spoiler in the MVC tournament: Northern Iowa. The Panthers (15-14, 14-6) battled injuries all season and took it in the chin during a tough non-conference schedule. They fought back in conference play to earn the tournament’s No. 4 seed.
ISU’s Crooks turns skeptics into believers
Iowa State has defied expectations all season with its freshman-heavy roster that had huge wins such as two over Baylor when it was ranked No. 4 and No. 17, No. 7 Kansas State and a smackdown of Big 12 champ Oklahoma, 85-68, in the conference tournament semifinal.
Perhaps no one has defied expectations more than Audi Crooks, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and first-team all-conference player. The topic of size is what comes up with Crooks: Can a kid from a tiny school of less than 100 students (Algona’s Bishop Garrigan) find success in a big-time college program? And can a player make a quick college transition when their body shape doesn’t conform to what people think a basketball player should look like?
With Crooks, both answers are a vehement yes.
Leonard, who also calls the girls’ state high school basketball tournament, had the same questions when Crooks was a high school freshman making her first of four state appearances. Leonard soon got her answers.
“Her junior and senior year, people kept coming up to me and saying, ‘There’s just no way she’s going to make it at the college level, at Iowa State,’” Leonard said. “I said, ‘Come back and talk to me in four years. That kid is good.’”
The 6-3 center leads the Cyclones in scoring with 18.9 points a game, along with 7.7 rebounds. She has given the Cyclones a strong post presence, something that hasn’t always been a hallmark at the school that’s long been a three-point shooter’s paradise.
The key is how she plays. Simply put, Crooks has magic hands and fantastic footwork. High school, college, it doesn’t seem to matter: Get her the ball, she’ll get it in the basket. If you don’t like how Crooks plays basketball, you simply don’t like basketball.
“I told Coach Fennelly, ‘I think she’s got the best hands I’ve ever seen in a post player,’” Leonard said, “and he said, ‘I agree with you 100 percent.’”
Crooks made a believer out of at least one Hall of Famer. Sheryl Swoopes worked the Big 12 tournament game against Oklahoma for ESPN and peppered her calls with “I see you Big Girl!”
It’s likely that after another three years, a lot of opponents will be tired of seeing Crooks.
Another Final Four, another Iowa team
Wartburg made a second consecutive trip to the Division III Final Four this week, but lost in the national semifinal game to Smith, 61-54, on Thursday.
The loss ended a great season for the Knights, 29-3 overall and 16-0 in the American Rivers Conference. Jaedon Murphy, a senior from North Polk, was named honorable mention All-American.
Central is the lone Iowa team to win a Division III national title, in 1993.
NAIA teams head to Iowa
While teams and fans await NCAA tournament bids this weekend, the NAIA’s tournament gets under way – and it’s full of Iowa teams, too.
The 64-team NAIA postseason field has 64 teams and like NCAA women’s tournament, 16 high seeds host first and second round games Friday and Saturday (March 15-16). The difference is what happens next: All teams that make it to the Sweet 16 will head to the national tournament March 21-26 at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City.
Dordt will host early rounds in Sioux Center and will open with a game against Oakland City, Ind. In Dubuque, defending champion Clarke will host early rounds, too, opening against Missouri’s College of the Ozarks. Other Iowa teams: Northwestern, Grand View and Briar Cliff.
On the radio
A couple weeks ago I was asked to be on Iowa Public Radio’s morning show, “Talk of Iowa,” to talk about my favorite topic — women’s sports. The success of Iowa and Caitlin Clark was the launching point for the conversation.
Others on the program were Jan Jensen, Iowa’s associate head coach, and Kathy Bresnahan, former Iowa City West volleyball coach and author of The Miracle Season. (And because the world is small, Bresnahan and I played high school sports against each other in Wisconsin a million years ago.)
The episode of “Talk of Iowa” is on IPR’s website.
Jane Burns is a former sports and features writer for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications and websites. Over the course of her career she’s covered pretty much everything, which is why her as-yet-to-be-written memoir will be called “Cheese and Basketball: Stories From a Reporter Who Has Covered Everything.”
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
I’m happy to join fellow Iowa writers and journalists as part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. To receive a roundup of the week’s columns, subscribe to the Collaborative’s Sunday email.
Thank you for this. These other Iowa teams deserve their recognition as well. This has been a great season for ISU and I hope it continues for a few more weeks.