Lisa Bluder previews their matchup with West Virginia

The Iowa Women’s Basketball team finds themselves in the same position as the last two seasons. On their home floor facing a sneaky tough test, with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line. Two years ago, the Hawkeyes were upset by 10 seed Creighton. Last year, they defeated 10 seed Georgia in a close battle. This season, they will face the 8 seed West Virginia Mountaineers. Head Coach Lisa Bluder met with the media on Sunday afternoon to preview their matchup with WVU.

Q. We asked Caitlin and Kate if there were any teams that you guys have faced that kind of are similar to West Virginia. I think it was Illinois because of their guard play, Georgia, Penn State and Ohio State. First off, do you agree with those teams? Then kind of is there anything you can take away from those previous matchups that you point out to your team about, hey, we did something well in this game that West Virginia is going to do and here’s something we didn’t do well in that game that West Virginia can do?

LISA BLUDER: I agree with Ohio State. I think they’re similar to this team and the pressing. We handled Ohio State’s press well. We handled Penn State’s press well. That’s going to be the goal tomorrow because they’re very, very good. Very good at creating. They force 24 turnovers a game. We cannot afford to turn the ball over that many times. They count on it. They get easy scores off those turnovers. So we have to do a good job taking care of the ball.

Q. Obviously the goal will be to not turn the ball over, but many teams go in with that mindset and they still get turned over. If West Virginia is able to turn you over that many times, is there other things you can do to kind of make up for those turnovers?

LISA BLUDER: I mean, threes are greater than two. It’s about possessions. If you turn the ball over, you’re in trouble. Possessions are so important. But if we control possessions, we’re the No. 1 team in the country in points per possession. So we have to do a good job on the boards. We have to do a good job valuing the ball.

Q. You’ve played two teams from the Big 12 in Kansas State and Iowa State. Is there anything that you can take away from those matchups that you might try to emulate in this one? Or is it a completely new challenge?

LISA BLUDER: I think it’s a new challenge. We played those teams such a long time ago. I’ve watched their films against West Virginia, but again, those were a long time ago. I think our team is different. The last time we beat Kansas State, we didn’t have Hannah Stuelke. She was unbelievable. She wasn’t healthy at that point. Hopefully having her will help us.

Q. We talked with West Virginia head coach Mark Kellogg, and he feels like they can play a slower game if they need to, they can play a little faster as well. Is that something that you see from them, they can do both those things, they can excel if you find yourselves in either type of game?

LISA BLUDER: I agree. I think they can change up their press to do whenever they want, speed you up or slow you down. They do a really good job with that.

Q. Coach, I think during the first round, 31 out of 32 higher seeded teams won. Meanwhile on the men’s side you see upsets happening and all this hoopla over that. Of those 31 teams, 16 of them played on their home court. Do you think it’s time for the women’s tournament to reconsider awarding two home games to the top 16 teams?

LISA BLUDER: I don’t think so. I don’t think we’re there yet. We tried it, and I’ve been around long enough that we did try that for a while. It was very unsuccessful. That’s why we abandoned it and went back to this. We tried eight games at a neutral site, or eight teams at a neutral site, and it didn’t work.

I think it is a huge advantage to the top 16, but maybe they deserve it because they did it during the year. So maybe they deserve it. You’re going to give up a crowd like this and a television experience like this in favor of going to a neutral place? I don’t think so.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Kate Martin’s impact on this program since the day she walked in. She talked about learning from Megan, learning how to become a good teammate, when she had an ACL, to now where she seems to be one of the greatest captains you’ve ever had. What’s been her impact, and what’s her legacy?

LISA BLUDER: She truly is one of the best captains I’ve ever had. I put Sam Logic up there, Kate Martin. What makes Kate so tremendous is she works so hard all the time. She demonstrates the level of play that you want out on the court. But she’s also communicating. She’s our best communicator on the floor, whether she’s pumping people up or whether she’s communicating defensive calls and skills, that sort of thing.

She’s the first person that will hold people accountable, and she’s also the first person that will pat everybody on the back when they need it. She builds people up. I think that’s the biggest thing about a leader is when you can make the people around you better, and Kate Martin has done that. She’s going to be a fabulous coach. I’m not going to want to coach against her because she’s going to be really, really good in time.

Q. Obviously not a ton of time to prep for West Virginia. I’m sure you’ve been doing it for a couple days now. How much of a focus point is transition defense, and how tough is that to practice transition defense in just kind of a one- or two-day window?

LISA BLUDER: You’re not going to practice that today and be ready for it. You have to practice that all year long. It has to be part of who you are. I mean, you just are not going to get better in an hour and a half practice of something like that. So it’s something you better have started working on last June, July, August, October.

Q. We talked about how West Virginia’s defense can lead into their offense, but when they get into the half-court, just what things do you see from them on their half-court offense that could be a challenge for you guys?

LISA BLUDER: Just how fast they are going downhill. They’re extremely fast. Jordan and JJ are incredible. I think they feed off each other really well, but they are very quick going downhill. I think Lauren Fields is an excellent spot-up three-point shooter. Then you’ve got your post Kylee that can come out and hit threes too. Defensively, it’s tough to match up with them just because of their speed.

Q. Sometimes when you’re going through the moment it’s hard to stop and smell the roses and think about the things, but you’ve coached through a ton of Senior Days, seen a lot of great leaders here exit the program. How do the ones on this team, how do you feel knowing that tomorrow is the last time they’re going to wear Iowa, an Iowa uniform on this court and the impact that they’ve made, which seems to be obviously profound?

LISA BLUDER: Their impact has been amazing, and it’s not only an impact on our program, it’s an impact on the entire state of Iowa. It’s an entire — our community, our university. I think women’s basketball nationally. I truly believe that this team has elevated the play, the enthusiasm, the excitement for women’s basketball across the country.

I am not thinking about tomorrow being their last game. I can’t. If you start thinking about that and focusing on that, you’re not focusing on the task at hand. So that’s something I’ll think about after the game, but it’s not something that I really want to prepare myself for now.

Q. I asked Caitlin this right before. When it is all said and done, what would you define her legacy as, whether for this program, or you touched upon it, the state or women’s basketball in general?

LISA BLUDER: Caitlin, my goodness, she’s the face of women’s basketball across the country right now. So absolutely, she’s elevated this game. I mean, she really creates a lot of buzz. Whether it’s good or whether it’s bad, it’s a buzz out there.

I think she’s taught people they can be passionate about this game, competitive about this game, and they don’t have to hide their feelings. I think there’s a whole lot of little boys and girls that are playing basketball right now because of her, because of watching her play and her inspiring the next generation of basketballers.

Q. I was asking Caitlin about this. When you’re a real guard dominated team — and I’m not short changing your post game at all, but you’ve got so much experience on guards. Is it easier in some ways to prepare for another team that’s guard dominant, or does it really make much difference?

LISA BLUDER: I don’t know if it makes a whole lot of difference. I haven’t thought about that, and I do think our post play was good yesterday. Even with Hannah going 0 for 2 and not playing many minutes, we were 11 for 16 from the field with our post play. So I think they did a nice job. But certainly when you talk about Iowa, you talk about our guards right now.

Q. Coach, yesterday in the Princeton-West Virginia game, Princeton actually had fewer turnovers than West Virginia in the first half and more points off of turnovers and more fast break points, and we know what happened in the second half. So how important will it be for your team not to play a great 10 minutes against that pressure, not a great 20 minutes, but a great 40 minutes?

LISA BLUDER: I think every game you play this time of year, you’re playing against great people. West Virginia has a 21 NET. They’re a really good basketball team. I think they’re under seeded or whatever you want to say about that. I think they should be really like a 7 or a 6 right now, or a 5 possibly.

I’m not on the committee, so I can’t make those calls, but I was really surprised they’re an 8 seed. I’m sure they were. They have something to prove about it. I think anybody you play now, you’ve got to be locked in for 40 minutes, or you’re going to go home. So that’s the goal. And you’re right, it hurt when Jordan got into foul trouble a little bit in the first half. She’s the front of that press, the kind of two-headed monster up there, and she’s one of the principal parts of that.

Q. I wanted to ask you about physical play and the challenges it could present for you if — depending on the way it’s called — and I’m not saying it’s good or bad, I’m just saying like balls and strikes. If it’s called loose and there’s not a lot of fouls, how do you keep Caitlin focused and not maybe getting into — yesterday she just seemed to be a little out of character. How do you keep her kind of focused and not worrying about other things?

LISA BLUDER: Caitlin and I had a really good talk this morning. I think she’s going to be great tomorrow. I really do. I have full faith in that. She got frustrated with herself, with the situation last night, and she’s too much of a veteran to let that bother her. She knows that a lot of times whistles are swallowed this time of year. But hey, there was 57 free throws shot between West Virginia and Princeton. That’s a lot of free throws and a lot of calls. So that game, they didn’t really swallow their whistle, in my opinion.

Q. Coach, you mentioned just how tough these games are, really from the first round, but definitely I feel like the second round now are incredibly tough. Caitlin mentioned you can’t go into this game thinking we’re going to win comfortably. It is going to go down possibly to the last possession. The confidence, I guess, you have in the way you guys execute at the end of games, because that seems to be a huge difference maker this time of year?

LISA BLUDER: We practice our end of game situations often. I’m not going to say every day, but often. We did it in shootaround yesterday. I just feel like with a player like Caitlin, you’re never completely out of a game because she can do some amazing things at the end of games. We’ve all seen it over and over again. Yeah, end of game situations are very important, both offensively and defensively.