Iowa’s Seniors The Class That Could Have Been

Time is running out on the Iowa seniors, a class hailed as the nation’s best when they arrived as freshmen in 1994.

Aside from a 27-4 season when they were sophomores, the group hasn’t lived up to expectations, including their own. An Iowa promotional poster shows the six seniors with the words, “We’ve got something to prove!”

And to be honest, they do.

They went 11-17 as freshmen and had to win the Big Ten tournament last season to assure themselves an NCAA berth, whereupon they were beaten by Connecticut in the second round and finished 18-12.

This season has been difficult, too. Iowa went 3-6 against a tough non-conference schedule and began the weekend 10-9 overall and 7-3 in the Big Ten.

But coach Angie Lee, who inherited the talented class from Vivian Stinger in 1995, asks for tolerance in judging those players, noting they rarely have been healthy all at once.

Forward Tiffany Gooden, a national high school player of the year, has been bothered by a knee injury that slowed her last year and has limited her to three games this season. Angela Hamblin has a hamstring problem that has her playing at about 75 percent.

Injuries at point guard have forced Lee to start fifth-year senior Kari Knopf, an All-American softball player who had not played basketball since high school.

“When we have everybody, it’s obvious to me that we are a Top 10 team,” Lee said. “But this year, it’s been such a Band-Aid kind of team.

“What’s been so hard is that this team continues to be judged through injury. I wish somebody would wait until we are all healthy and all right to judge what this team is capable of doing.”

Still, Iowa was healthy enough to beat No. 12 Illinois at home and win at No. 16 Wisconsin. But the same group lost at Michigan and followed the Illinois win with a loss at Michigan State.

Outside shooting also has been a problem. Nadine Domond was an outstanding shooter in high school and though she’s had some big games at Iowa, she has been a 37 percent career shooter.

The Hawkeyes lost a good shooter when Stacy Frese transferred to Iowa State two years ago. Frese recently made seven 3-pointers in an upset of Texas Tech and had six in a victory at Oklahoma State.

So once again, it appears that unless the Hawkeyes put together a remarkable run, they’ll have to win the Big Ten tournament to make the NCAA field. That’s not how it was supposed to have been

“It’s been an emotional roller coaster and an injury roller coaster also,” Hamblin said. “We’ve had goals and not being able to achieve those goals because of injuries is terrible. But we don’t try to lean on a crutch. We try to go out and play, but sometimes it gets tough.”

Crimson flash

Harvard has turned out doctors, lawyers and politicians galore. Now, the Ivy League school has produced the nation’s leading scorer.

Allison Feaster, a starter since she was a freshman, began the week leading the nation with a 29.3 scoring average. That’s nearly two points a game better than the No. 2 scorer, Duquesne senior Korie Hlede (27.4).

Maine’s Cindy Blodgett, the national leader the last two years, was third with a 27.3 average.

The top scoring freshman was Western Illinois’ Kinesha Davis, averaging 20.3 points a game. Davis has averaged 22.6 points since Jan. 1 but broke her nose in a loss at Missouri-Kansas City last Saturday.