2008 Iowa women's basketball celebration

The Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team represents the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

, United States. The team is a member of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

as well as the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

. The team plays its regular season games at 15,400-seat Carver-Hawkeye Arena, along with men's basketball,

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

, and volleyball teams.

History

Iowa women's basketball began in 1974, under

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Lark Birdsong. The first Iowa team finished 5–16 in 1974-75, its first victory over the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

. Birdsong coached Iowa until 1978-79, which marked Iowa's first winning season. Birdsong was subsequently replaced by Judy McMullen, who led the program for the next four years. McMullen was succeeded in 1983 by former

Cheyney University Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public historically black university in Cheyney, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1837, it is the oldest university out of all historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States. It is a mem ...

coach

C. Vivian Stringer Charlaine Vivian Stringer (born March 16, 1948) is an American former basketball coach. She holds one of the best coaching records in the history of women's basketball. She was the head coach of the Rutgers University women's basketball team from ...

. Prior to her stay at Iowa, Stringer led the

Cheyney Wolves The Cheyney Wolves are the athletic sports teams for Cheyney University. They compete as an independent and formerly played in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC). Women's sports include basketball, cheerleading and volleyball. Baske ...

to the 1982 NCAA championship. Beginning with the 1983–84 season,

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and prese ...

inductee Stringer coached at Iowa for 12 seasons. In that time, the Hawkeyes won six Big Ten championships, played in nine NCAA Tournaments, and reached the Final Four in 1993. Unprecedented attention was shown to the Hawkeyes under Stringer, as evidenced by the record-setting 22,157 fans that watched Iowa play Ohio State on February 3, 1985, in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.''Carver-Hawkeye Arena: Celebrating 25 Years.'' Iowa Sports Information, 2008. Stringer, however, left Iowa to coach at

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

in 1995, following the death of her husband, Bill. Angie Lee replaced Stringer, and led the Hawkeyes to a Big Ten championship in her first season. Under Lee, Iowa won another Big Ten title in 1998. In 2000, Lee's successor as head coach was

Lisa Bluder Lisa Marie Bluder (, born April 16, 1961) is the head coach of the University of Iowa, Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball program. Formerly, she served as coach of St. Ambrose University and the Drake Bulldogs women's basketball, Drake Bulldogs. E ...

. Bluder is Iowa's current women's basketball coach. Under Bluder, the Hawkeyes have won two regular season Big Ten championship and four Big Ten tournament championships. From 2015 to 2019,

Megan Gustafson Megan Gustafson (born December 13, 1996) is an American basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Gustafson was drafted in the second round (17th overall) by the Dallas Wings in the 2019 WNBA ...

has played for Coach Bluder and the women’s basketball program at Iowa. Gustafson was named the 2019 National Player of the year, after averaging a

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

of 27.8 points and 13.4 rebounds on 69.9% shooting. The

2018–19 Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team The 2018–19 Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team represented the University of Iowa during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Hawkeyes, led by 19th year head coach Lisa Bluder, played their home games at Carver–Ha ...

had a 29-7 regular season record, winning the Big Ten Conference tournament championship and advancing to the Elite Eight of the

2019 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament The 2019 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 64 teams to determine the national champion for the 2018–19 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 38th annual edition of the tournament began ...

. The 2021-22 Iowa Women's Basketball team finished the season 24-8 sharing the regular season title with the Ohio State Women's Basketball team. They also won the

2022 Big Ten women's basketball tournament The 2022 Big Ten women's basketball tournament was a postseason tournament held from March 2–6, 2022 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The winner of this tournament, Iowa, earned an automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Division I women's bask ...

a week later winning games over #7 Northwestern, #6 Nebraska, and 5th seeded Indiana in the Big Ten Championship 74-67.

Caitlin Clark Caitlin Clark (born January 22, 2002) is an American college basketball player for the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference. She plays the point guard position. At Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, Clark was named a M ...

was the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament's MOP.

NCAA tournament results

Iowa has appeared in 28 NCAA Tournaments with a record of 26-28.

Retired numbers

National award winners

;

Naismith Trophy The Naismith Trophy is a trophy awarded to the men's champion of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, and is named in honor of basketball's inventor, James Naismith. The trophy was first awarded to the winner of the 1967 FIBA World Championship. The ...

– 2019 ; AP Player of the Year *

– 2019 ; USBWA Player of the Year *

– 2019 ; Naismith Coach of the Year *

– 2019 ; Academic All-American of the Year (women's basketball) * Ally Disterhoft – 2016, 2017 ;

Lisa Leslie Award The Lisa Leslie Award is an award presented annually to the best women's basketball center in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie, an eight-time All Star and two- ...

(top D-I center) *

– 2019 ;

Nancy Lieberman Award The Nancy Lieberman Award, named for Basketball Hall of Fame legend Nancy Lieberman, was given annually by the Rotary Club of Detroit in the Award's first 14 years to the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. Sue Bi ...

(top D-I point guard) *

– 2022 ;

Dawn Staley Award The Dawn Staley Award was established in 2013 to "recognize the nation’s best guard in Women’s Division I college basketball". It was established by the Phoenix club of Philadelphia, an organization established to recognize the achievements of ...

(top D-I point guard) *

– 2021, 2022 ; Tamika Catchings Award (

USBWA The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awar ...

freshman of the year) *

– 2021 (shared with

Paige Bueckers Paige Madison Bueckers ( ; born October 20, 2001) is an American college basketball player for the University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies of the Big East Conference. At Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Bueckers was ranked as th ...

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Ha ...

) ;

WBCA Freshman of the Year The WBCA Freshman of the Year is an annual college basketball award presented by Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs ...

– 2021 (shared with Bueckers)

References

External links

* {{Big Ten Conference women's basketball navbox