It's going to be hard for any team outside of the quintet of UConn, UCLA, South Carolina, Texas and LSU to end the 2025-26 women's college basketball season with a championship, but there was a little bit of time there where it looked like Iowa might be able to do something it couldn't do with Caitlin Clark: shock the world and bring a title to Iowa City.
But back-to-back losses to USC and UCLA have brought the Hawkeyes back down to earth. Just like their fellow Iowa rivals in Ames, a rough patch has threatened to derail the season, though the Hawkeyes are probably better equipped than the Cyclones as far as turning things back around goes. Still, Iowa finds itself having to rethink what this team can be.
Losing to UCLA isn't the end of the world, but it was rough
Let's start with the game that was chronologically second, simply because it was Iowa's biggest chance to prove it could be a contender, and the Hawkyes failed that test pretty soundly.
Iowa finished off a two-game West Coast swing on Sunday with a visit to UCLA. After starting off relatively competitively and trailing by just four after the first quarter, the Bruins turned up the heat, pulling away for an 88-65 win that really laid bare the flaws for this Iowa team.
Defensively, the team just didn't have the personnel to slow UCLA down, with the Bruins shootig 57.8 percent from the floor. Five players scored in double figures, led somewhat surprisingly by 22 points from Angela Dugalic. UCLA just has so many paths to get the ball into the basket and the Hawkeyes were unable to figure out a way to slow down those paths.
Then offensively, the team was unable to get in much of a rhythm, especially from deep, with the Hawkeyes going 5-for-21 from 3-point range. That bad shooting luck contributed to the team's inability to mount a comeback attempt.
The USC loss shows Iowa might just be another good team, not a great one
Losing to UCLA is one thing, but losing to unranked USC? Yeah, that might be a worse sign for the Hawkeyes.
The story of that game was basically the same as the story of the UCLA one in that streakiness and poor defense hurt the Hawkeyes, though at least in the UCLA game Iowa managed to get off to a decent start. It's hard to win when you go down 28-13 after one quarter of play.
Again, struggles from deep played a role as Iowa was 7-for-21 from 3-point range in the loss. The defense allowed USC's Kara Dunn and Jazzy Davidson to combine for 46 points.
3-Point Percentage | |
|---|---|
Iowa | 23.8 |
UCLA | 50.0 |
Simply put: a true contender can't lose to a team as inconsistent as USC. The Trojans are 1-7 against teams with a Her Hoop Stats rating in the top 20, with that one win being this one against the Hawkeyes. USC consistently underperforms against good teams, which is a bad sign for Iowa if it wants to be counted as a good team.
Can the Hawkeyes get back into title contention?
Is there a path for Iowa back into the conversation as a contender? Honestly...probably not.
That's not to say the Hawkeyes are a bad team, but their performances against UConn earlier in the season and UCLA this week are strong signals that this team can't compete against the best of the best. Both losses were by over 20 points, and both losses showcased how elite teams can stymie the Iowa offense while exposing holes in a defense that ranks just 147th in defensive rating,
It's hard to win when you struggle so much in one key phase of the game. Iowa really struggles to close out on 3-point shooters, which has been a huge issue for the Hawkeyes all season. It's just that usually, the offense does enough to make up for that. When that's not the case, things can get rough in a hurry.