If change has been the driving force behind the 2024/25 women’s college basketball season, the Iowa Hawkeyes never took their foot off the gas pedal.
After four seasons spent watching 2024 graduate Caitlin Clark become one of the most impactful players of all time, Iowa has leaned hard into reinvention this year. It’s a plan the No. 6 seed will hope pays off as they continue their NCAA tournament run on Monday after a dominant first-round 92-57 victory over Murray State.
Iowa’s rise to college basketball greatness is known. Clark, a home state hero, decides to build something unique with the Hawkeyes rather than heading to a blue-chip school. She then rewrites the very concept of a successful college career, breaking every scoring record that crosses her path while leading her team to two straight Final Four appearances.
With Clark, the team built a reputation for tough defense, logo threes, raucous crowds, and an elite competitive edge that electrified fans around the country. Clark may have been the headline, but Iowa created the platform.
“I think that for our team in particular, people do fall in love with the personalities of the women, and they want to support them, and they want to get behind them,”…
