What Iowa is walking into Sunday is a UConn team that just got punched in the mouth and now gets to go home.
That is not a comfortable assignment for the 10th-ranked Hawkeyes, who travel to Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., for a 1 p.m. CT tipoff in a nationally televised FS1 game.
The Huskies are coming off a 77-66 loss at No. 5 Michigan on Thursday, and Iowa coach Jan Jensen isn’t expecting any lingering softness.
“I'm guessing that after (Thursday’s loss to Michigan, Coach Geno Auriemma) will have them even sharper,” Iowa Coach Jan Jensen said.
That read feels right. UConn’s loss was the kind that tends to sharpen a team with that kind of pedigree, and Iowa knows it is likely to catch the Huskies at their most irritated and most focused. The Hawkeyes are 2-0 after rolling past Eastern Illinois 80-39 on Thursday, but this matchup is a different animal entirely.
All-American Sarah Strong made it clear after the Michigan game that UConn wasn’t anywhere close to its standard.
“I think we have a lot to learn from this game,” All-American Sarah Strong said afterward. “We didn’t play UConn basketball at all; we just let Michigan do what they wanted to do the whole time. We didn’t fight back.”
That’s the version Iowa should expect Sunday: a team looking to answer.
“We're going to be an underdog, and now probably a really heavy underdog and should be going in,” Jensen said. “I don't know how many times Connecticut has lost back-to-back games in its entire history, right?”
The game opens a two-year home-and-home series, with UConn set to visit Carver-Hawkeye Arena in the 2027-28 season. Jensen said the matchup was exactly the kind of challenge Iowa wanted.
“We need a really good game. I'm excited,” Jensen said. “When UConn called to play home-and-home, I thought that was really a good mark.
“They called and felt like that we would be a worthy opponent. So we're going to do our best to go out there and make it a really fun game. But certainly, I've been to UConn a few times and it's a heck of a hard place to play.”
For Iowa, this is the biggest test on the regular-season schedule. UConn has been to the Final Four 25 times, and 12 national-championship banners hang at Gampel.
Amari Whiting sees the trip as exactly the kind of measuring-stick game the Hawkeyes need.
“I think that this will be a good test for us,” Iowa’s Amari Whiting said. “(UConn is) really where it's built, and so I think it'll be good for us. You know, just to bring our own energy and just to have our own swag as soon as we step on the court.”
And there’s another layer to this for the Huskies: Iowa is one of eight ranked teams they’ll face in their first 10 games.
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For a team that is going to be judged more harshly once the schedule stiffens, this was the cleaner version of Iowa basketball fans have been waiting to see. The Hawkeyes shot 46.7 percent from deep, controlled the pace from start to finish and showed the kind of pressure and balance that can travel better when the tests get bigger, even if the real answer on how far it can carry them still lies ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa Faces A Dangerous Road Test With Big Stakes Rising
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Northwestern, though, may be forced into a different look at quarterback, with starter Aidan Chiles likely unavailable and Nicco Marchiol expected to get the nod. That kind of change can alter everything about how the Wildcats want to attack, and it adds another layer of uncertainty to a game Iowa already knows will demand sharp execution on the road. [Read more 🡒]