West Virginia vs. Iowa: NCAA Women’s Tournament Preview and Prediction
Here is everything you need to know about West Virginia and Iowa in our Mountaineers vs. Hawkeyes NCAA Women’s Tournament second-round preview.
No. 8 West Virginia (25-7) vs. No. 1 Iowa (30-4)
Time, TV: 7 p.m. CT, Monday, ESPN
Location: Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, Iowa
All-time series (Iowa 4-1): Iowa won the last meeting, 84-81, on Nov. 23, 2018, in the Bahamas.
NCAA Tournament Results: West Virginia: def. Princeton, 63-53 (first round); Iowa: def. Holy Cross, 91-65 (first round).
Winner: Advances to the Sweet 16 in Albany, N.Y., next week
Projected starting lineups
West Virginia: F Kylee Blacksten, G Jordan Harrison, G Kyah Watson, G JJ Quinerly, G Lauren Fields.
Iowa: G Kate Martin, G Gabbie Marshall, G Caitlin Clark, G Sydney Affolter, F Hannah Stuelke.
Players to watch
West Virginia
G JJ Quinerly: West Virginia must hold on to Quinerly at all costs after this season. That’s a weird thing to say for a player that has eligibility remaining. But in the era of the transfer portal, the junior could have options. But she’s slipped into how WVU plays basketball under coach Mark Kellogg like it’s a jacket with a perfect fit. She dropped 29 points against Princeton in the first round. She played defense incredibly well with three steals. She grabbed seven rebounds. She hit every clutch shot that WVU needed down the stretch. If WVU is to pull off the upset, she’ll need to have another huge game.
Iowa
G Caitlin Clark
How should I put this? Clark is the college game’s ubiquitous presence, and it’s not JUST because of all those State Farm commercials. Now that she’s declared for the WNBA Draft, every game could be her last college game. She’s a bucket, as the kids like to say. She is now Division I’s all-time leading scorer for men or women and averages nearly 32 points per game. What people pay less attention to is that she also averages 7.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists and 1.8 steals. Her game is far more complete than the logo 3-pointers she’s become known for. For basketball fans she’s a joy to watch. For opposing basketball coaches she’s a nightmare to game plan for.
Key storylines
West Virginia
The Mountaineers underwent a coaching change after last season as Dawn Plitzuweit left to take over at Minnesota. The Mountaineers hired Mark Kellogg away from Stephen F. Austin and he led the Mountaineers to a 13-0 start and eventually into the AP Top 25. At one point in Big 12 play WVU won seven games in a row and nine out of 10, solidifying them as an NCAA Tournament team. Kellogg won more games than any other first-year WVU coach in program history. He’s turned the Mountaineers into the women’s version of “Press Virginia,” and if you saw the third quarter of WVU’s first-round win over Princeton, you saw the havoc it is capable of creating.
Iowa
Coming off last year’s NCAA Championship game loss to LSU, Iowa’s mission is to get back to the Final Four. On paper, the Hawkeyes are just as good as a year ago, but to some degree they still miss the inside presence of Monica Czinano. Hannah Stuelke has filled in nicely, averaging 14.6 points. But the rebounding is spread out this year, and that makes the Hawkeyes a bit more challenging to deal with. Clark, Stuelke, Martin and Affolter all average at least six rebounds per game. The whole team is capable of stretching defense. Yes, Clark shoots a lot. But their top six scorers shoot 35% or better from the 3-point line.
Prediction
Iowa 84, West Virginia 73. WVU will press from the start and my guess is it will give Iowa trouble early. But it’s Clark and it’s her last game at Carver-Hawkeye. She’s not losing this game. And she’s doesn’t need Kellogg’s “Let’s send Caitlin Clark packing” comment for motivation, either.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
