Lisa Bluder previews Sweet 16 matchup against Colorado Buffaloes

It’s a different style of defense because they play mostly player where Georgia was all about zone. I think what is so good about it is they just have really good ball pressure, they’re very active. I mean, Sherrod is so fast. They have depth off the bench, so they can keep coming at you. I think that’s really what makes them very, very good defensively.

Both, I feel are as close to a hundred percent as you can be this time of year.

Yeah, I mean, with two sites obviously we’re a long ways from Iowa City. I really believe that if this site would have been five hours from Iowa City, we would have 10,000 Hawkeye fans here. And it’s just unfortunate that our fans won’t be able to support us live. I know they will be watching on television, but there’s something special about a real electric arena, with great atmosphere. I think if this was played in the Midwest, we would have had that. I really do.

So that’s unfortunate, but at the same time, we’re glad we are here. We think Seattle’s going to be a great host site. The city seems really nice, our hotel’s great, everything’s been wonderful. But, yeah, I wish it was closer to home.

Yeah, I mean, I guess Indiana would be the closest Big Ten school. Not Maryland because they switch all screens. So I would say Indiana would probably be the closest.

Yeah, we didn’t use it a lot this year. We did get Molly Davis and we needed Molly because she provides us as a backup 1, 2. So that’s an important position for us, and so that was tremendous for us. But, like, we haven’t used it like other people maybe have. Will we in the future? I think it is the future of women’s basketball and men’s basketball. I don’t think you can be successful without using it. It’s the new brand of basketball and people are going to be hopping from roster to roster. Do I like it personally? Probably not, philosophically, but as far as what it is and you have to buy in.

Oh, that’s a great question, and absolutely. I mean, we had a complete scout done for them last year and they haven’t changed a whole lot. There’s a few fresh faces, a few that exited the program as well. But they’re very similar style-wise and we absolutely started our report with that.

It’s pretty innate. She is a fabulous passer, but has been most of her life. But I think when she came to college, it really opened up even more because she had people that could catch her passes. Sometimes in high school, honestly, they came in so fast, so hard, people weren’t expecting them, that they weren’t ready for them. AAU was better for her, and USA basketball, of course, was better for her.

But when she came to Iowa, and I think the first time she met Monika and scrimmaged with Monika, it opened up her eyes that I can really have an opportunity to pass the ball like she’s capable of, which is incredible.

Oh, Monika’s incredibly important to our success. I mean, she’s a region All-American, along with Caitlin. She was a finalist for the Lisa Leslie award, top 5 centers in America. I think she’s fourth right now in field goal percentage shooting in the country, which is low for her. The last two years she’s been No. 1 in the country. Monika is phenomenal, a phenomenal post player. She’s so efficient. Her footwork is so good. Her hands are incredible.

Yeah, I mean, I don’t want to even think of where we would be, and I’m thankful I didn’t have to think about where we would be without her. So that’s down the road.

I think it’s more the latter. I think you’re seeing parity in women’s basketball right now, and I think that’s tremendous for our game and it makes it so much more fun to watch for everyone, maybe even the casual fan, right, not just Iowa Hawkeye fan, not just the South Carolina fan. But the casual fan, I think enjoys it a little bit more when there’s more parity in women’s basketball.

But when those people go down — like you say, they were hosting, well, it wasn’t that long ago we felt what that’s like. So my heart aches for those people. I know exactly what they’re going through, and it just shows you where women’s basketball is right now. But did we think about it any differently as far as our steps? No. It’s the same steps as we were before. Certainly we all watched the Duke-Colorado game the other night. We had a text thread going from our whole group of our players. It’s just the next step. The next step is Colorado.

Yeah, I mean, two games in a row we’re going to be facing a double-post offense. Again, destiny helps, right? I mean, it’s just a situation of we haven’t seen that hardly at all this year, the entire year, and now we’re seeing it two games in a row. So I think last week will help prepare us.

I know Quay Miller is a fabulous player, All PAC 12 player. And I don’t know, Aaronette, is that how you say it? If somebody from Colorado can help me. I don’t know. You know, she is very — I mean, as a sophomore, her field goal percentage the last five games is almost 70 percent. That’s like Monika numbers. That’s impressive. That’s a very, very impressive thing.

You know, I mean, I think we’ve had a lot of little sparks along the way, but certainly beating Indiana at home in our last game to a sold out arena was really good. So I almost think the spark was actually our Maryland loss rather than a win. So coming off that game, we beat Indiana at home, like I said, in a sold-out arena, and then we go into the Big Ten tournament and play — we played four top — in eight days, we played four games and two against top 3 — no three against top 10 opponents in the country. That’s hard to do. I think that really has been good for us.

It just kind of — it didn’t bring us back to reality because my team was never cocky or anything like that. But it sure like gave us a focus. It just felt so bad that we didn’t want to feel that way again for a long, long time, hopefully. It was more that. It was more just — putting the old cliche, the nose to the grindstone. But it really was. It brought us a little bit closer together, for some reason.

Our chemistry is something that we really believe in, that we really — we absolutely believe that our chemistry is one of the parts of our success, and I think it even brought us even tighter.