The women of Iowa basketball begin what will hopefully be a deep NIT run on Thursday inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena against the Cardinals of Ball State.
Tip-off for the game between the Cardinals and Hawkeyes is scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. CDT, with the winner advancing to the second round to face the winner of the Little Rock-Saint Louis game.
Following are five important facts about the Hawkeyes’ first-round opponent:
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5. Boiler Up!
Ball State and Iowa had one common opponent during the regular season; the Purdue Boilermakers. Iowa split its two games with Purdue, the home teams winning both contests. The Cardinals lost a 73-63 affair on the Boilermakers’ home court.
While the Hawkeyes scored 10 more points at Purdue than Ball State did, Iowa also allowed 17 more Boilermaker points than the Cardinals did. Based on overall averages from the season, the first team into the 70s could be the winner of this game.
4. Protecting the nest
The Cardinals’ regular season opponents shot under 37 percent from the field during the regular season. While Ball State did allow its opponents to shoot a respectable 30.6 percent from 3-point range, keeping their opponents under 37 percent from the field was a big reason for the successful season.
Iowa shot over 45 percent from the field during the regular season, and will need to continue that in order to overcome the Cardinals’ stingy defense.
3. Cardinal sin of turnovers
Ball State averaged 16.57 turnovers per game during the regular season, giving them both a negative assist to turnover ratio and a deficit in giveaways to takeaways. While that would seem to be a vulnerability for the Cardinals, there is one slight problem.
Iowa was even worse in that regard during the regular season, averaging 16.09 turnovers per game. The Hawkeyes’ assist to turnover ratio was better than Ball State’s, but only slightly. The Cardinals were also slightly better at forcing opponents to turn the ball over.
This game could easily come down to which team avoids this issue that plagued it all season long.
2. Second-half birds
The Cardinals got to 21 wins despite often falling behind early in games. While Ball State outscored its opponents by an average margin of 7.7 points per game, many of those leads weren’t established until after halftime.
An increase in defensive intensity in particular was what fueled a lot of Cardinal runs. Ball State averaged allowing opponents to score just 15.2 points in the third quarters of games during the regular season, and a mere 17 points in the fourth quarters of games.
Iowa will need to be versatile on offense because the Cardinals have shown a great ability to make defensive adjustments throughout the season.
1. The Fontaine of youth
A native of Stockholm, Sweden, Nathalie Cafone has had quite a senior season. Not only has she led her team in scoring with 20.7 points per game, but she also averaged 10.2 rebounds per contest to gain the distinction of averaging a double-double. Combine that with shooting over 50 percent from the field for the season and averaging two assists per game, and it’s easy to see why she was the MAC Player of the Year.
While Cafone wasn’t the only factor leading to Ball State’s West division runner-up season, she was the driving force. In order for the Hawkeyes to advance to the second round of the NIT, they must contain Cafone as much as possible.
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For these reasons, Ball State will pose quite a challenge for Iowa on Thursday. In order to continue to be perfect in NIT games played in Carver, the Hawkeyes need to account for these factors and several others.
If Iowa wins, they could play another game in Iowa City. That would be determined by the NIT powers that be after the conclusion of both Round 1 games in the bracket.
Before the Hawkeyes can start thinking about that, however, they have to clip the Cardinals’ wings.