Here's the first in the series looking at opponents of MAAC teams still playing in national post-season tournaments.
First up, Iowa, which plays Marist Sunday at 8 p.m. (eastern time) at the Hawkeyes' home Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa.
RECORDS:
- Iowa is 26-8 overall and is the No. 6 seed.
- Marist is the No 11 seed and has a 27-6 overall record.
RANKINGS:
- Iowa was rated 19th nationally in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.
- Marist received four votes in the poll, the 30th-highest total nationally.
COACHES:
- Iowa's Lisa Bluder is in her 14th season with the Hawkeyes and has a 277-165 record there. Overall, she is in her 30th season as a coach of a Division I program. Her 633-307 record makes her one of 13 active D-I coaches with more than 600 victories.
- Marist's Brian Giorgis is in his 12th season with the Red Foxes, his only Division I position, and has a career record of 304-86. His .780 career winning percentage is third-best among all active Division I coaches. Only Geno Auriemma (UConn), Tara Van Derveer (Stanford) and Kim Mulkey (Baylor) have better percentages.
IOWA'S EXPECTED STARTERS:
- Samantha Logic, a 5-foot-9 junior guard. She averages 13.4 points, 7.5 assists and 6.6 rebounds on the season. She leads the team in both assists and rebounds and her assist average is third-best nationally.
- Melissa Dixon, a 5-8 junior guard. She averages 13.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. She is the team's top long-range threat, having made 93-of-264 three-pointers this season (35.2 percent).
- Theairra Taylor, a 5-11 redshirt senior. She averages 12.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.
- Ally Disterhoft, a 6-0 freshman swingperson. She averages 13.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
- Bethany Doolittle, a 6-4 junior center. She averages 14.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and shoots .556 percent from the field. Her field-goal percentage is 22nd-best nationally. She also averages 3.06 blocked shots per contest, 12th-best nationally.
IOWA'S TOP RESERVES:
- Kali Peschel, a 6-1 sophomore forward. She started the first 19 games of this season before becoming the team's top front-court reserve. She averages 4.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
- Alexa Kastanek, a 5-10 freshman guard. She averages 4.4 points and 1.2 rebounds per game and is the team's top backcourt reserve.
- Claire Till, a 6-0 sophomore forward. She averages 2.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.
IOWA NOTES:
- The only Big Ten team, and one of only 14 teams in the country to appear in the last seven NCAA tournaments. Marist is one of the 14, having been to the last nine NCAA's.
- Iowa has won 20 or more games in six of the last seven seasons. Marist has an active streak of 11 consecutive 20-victory seasons.
- Six of Iowa's eight losses this season have come against ranked opponents.
- Samantha Logic is the only player in the nation to average more than 13 points, six rebounds and seven assists per game this season. She is also the first Big Ten player to ever record three triple-doubles in a single season.
- Iowa is the only Big Ten team with five players averaging double figures. Marist also has five players averaging double figures.
- Iowa averages 78.6 points per game, 23rd-best nationally.
- Iowa is 13-3 on its home court this season, and 88-22 there in its last 110 games.
- Coach Lisa Bluder has led the Hawkeyes to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances in her 14 seasons at Iowa. Giorgis has taken Marist to 10 NCAA's in his 12 seasons.
- Iowa has averaged 4,312 fans per home game this season. Last season an average crowd of 6,836 fans attended the first round of games at the Iowa City NCAA regionals.
- Iowa only goes three deep into its bench in most games with only eight of its players having averaged more than 5.1 minutes per contest.
- Iowa has a 1.28 assist-to-turnover ratio, 16th-best nationally. Marist's 1.31 ratio is 12th nationally.
- Iowa's field goal percentage of 46.1 is 13th nationally. Marist's field goal percentage of 46.9 is 10th best.
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