If change has been the driving force behind the 2024/25 women’s college basketball season, the Iowa Hawkeyes never took their foot off the gas pedal.

After four seasons spent watching 2024 graduate Caitlin Clark become one of the most impactful players of all time, Iowa has leaned hard into reinvention this year. It's a plan the No. 6 seed will hope pays off as they continue their NCAA tournament run on Monday after a dominant first-round 92-57 victory over Murray State.

Iowa’s rise to college basketball greatness is known. Clark, a home state hero, decides to build something unique with the Hawkeyes rather than heading to a blue-chip school. She then rewrites the very concept of a successful college career, breaking every scoring record that crosses her path while leading her team to two straight Final Four appearances.

With Clark, the team built a reputation for tough defense, logo threes, raucous crowds, and an elite competitive edge that electrified fans around the country. Clark may have been the headline, but Iowa created the platform.

“I think that for our team in particular, people do fall in love with the personalities of the women, and they want to support them, and they want to get behind them,” recently retired Hawkeyes head coach Lisa Bluder told Just Women’s Sports last month.

According to Bluder, Iowa’s winning roots run deep. Before Clark, the Hawkeyes rallied around another homegrown talent: 2019 National Player of the Year Megan Gustafson.

“We don't have any pro sports, so the Hawks are a big deal here. Our players are treated like professional players.” Bluder attested. “We've had women's basketball in the state for over 100 years. And not everybody can say that.”

Iowa basketball roots run deep

Basketball heritage is woven into Iowa’s culture as it carries through much of the Midwest. But what the Hawkeyes felt entering 2024/25 wasn’t a just tide shift. It was the kind of shakeup that could cause even the most beloved program to buckle under the pressure.

Last summer, Clark transitioned from Iowa superstar to the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year. And her teammate Kate Martin surprised the world by deploying her college strengths at the professional level. 

And it wasn’t just the players that left — the Hawkeyes also lost their longtime leader.

Bluder now sits on the sidelines, after amassing more Iowa wins than any other head coach in university history. She guided the Hawkeyes to 18 NCAA tournament appearances, only tallying one losing season over her 24 years. Beyond the X’s and O’s, Bluder was known for investing deeply in her players, exemplified by recruiting Clark and guiding her through her transformative college career.

Bluder shifts focus to the sidelines

The legendary coach has taken a step back from the day-to-day elements of women’s basketball, but she remains engaged with the sport. She currently serves as an advocate for technologically informed advances in basketball scouting and performance with companies like GameChanger. And she's always available to speak to reporters and communities alike on the subject of college basketball.

Even with distance, Bluder’s take on this season’s squad are as sharp as they ever were. “This is a team that lost four starters and the world's best players,” she said. “Let's not forget that when we're trying to compare.”

Bouncing back from the loss of a luminary head coach is never easy. And the Hawkeyes subsequently hit some bumps in the road this season, their first under longtime assistant and now head coach Jan Jansen. The reconstructed group began the season 8-0 before a skid that saw them lose seven of their next 11 games. Suddenly, a team not accustomed to losing had to find their patience.

“People can be a little bit unforgiving, and they're naive,” added Bluder. “Because this is a young team.”

Finding their way in the post-Clark era

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Hawkeyes finally finding their spark coincided with a visit from their most celebrated alum. It was early February when Iowa retired Caitlin Clark’s jersey, at an event planned around the unranked side’s high-profile matchup with JuJu Watkins and the top-ranked USC Trojans.

Rather than looking like also-rans up against the new wave of basketball wunderkinds, Iowa came to play. The Hawkeyes downed USC 76-69, officially becoming a bracket buster in the making. At once, wading through all that mid-season turmoil began to feel like working towards something, not against it.

“I’m just trying to stay steady,” Jensen said after that February victory. “Obviously a top four win is huge. I’m incredibly proud of them and I intend to build on it.”

Bluder agreed.

“I told her after the game, ‘Jan, this is your first top five win,’” she said, surrounded by fellow spectators like David Letterman and other celebrity fans. They watched from the stands as Iowa chipped away at a new team identity, one centered on transfer senior Lucy Olsen’s explosive shooting and the stabilizing interior presence of former Clark and Martin compatriot Hannah Stuelke.

“It just clicked that game, like, ‘This is what we brought you here to do,’” Olsen told The Athletic late last week, reflecting back on her team’s game-changing win.

Iowa paves a path to March Madness

Going into this weekend’s NCAA tournament, Iowa’s results have been there. They’ve won 10 of their last 13 games, with all three of those losses decided by single-digit margins against ranked opponents. That includes a near-upset of No.1 overall seed UCLA in late February, with Olsen averaging over 21 points since the victory over USC. And while the Hawkeyes’ corner of the bracket might be tough, they’ve managed to make some noise.

And momentum appears to be on Iowa’s side as they gear up for this afternoon’s second-round clash with No. 3 seed Oklahoma. The team recorded a tournament program-record 28 assists against Murray State — no small feat considering the Clark era's free-flowing basketball. All 12 Iowa players to feature last game scored at least two points, with five players registering double-digits.

The Hawkeyes will be eager to keep the good vibes going. But perhaps more importantly, they’re having fun playing the patented style that made so many fans fall in love with Iowa basketball. 

"It's fun to score obviously, but being able to make the extra pass... that just shows how special this team is,” said Iowa freshman Taylor Stremlow after Saturday’s win. “How much we love to share the ball, and support each other." 

Now aligned, the future is bright for Iowa

Resisting the temptation to let their season tank in favor of a lengthy rebuild, Iowa is achieving something far more difficult and by many degrees more interesting. They’re holding their own in an increasingly difficult Big Ten, leveraging their talent and potentially rewriting their legacy should they make it to the Sweet 16 — or beyond.

Of course, Bluder is keeping her eye on Iowa’s future. She’s already excited about next year’s recruiting class, saying she’s looking forward to five-star prospect Addy Deal joining the team. And the Hawkeyes announced they’ll be holding onto senior floor general Kylie Feuerbach for one more season.

“If recruits feel how great the atmosphere is in Iowa, in Carver [Hawkeye Arena], they're going to want to come back,” Bluder noted. True to her word, fan engagement hasn’t waned in the post-Clark era. The team averaging at-capacity attendance throughout the 2024/25 season.

A Cinderella March Madness run hangs in the balance

Iowa women’s basketball has been nothing short of a dream for a state so deeply entrenched in the sport. But things change, and the Hawkeyes are shifting their focus to a new dream: creating a level of success that extends far beyond a single figure. 

Regardless of whether they’re able to extend their Cinderella run or if their March Madness campaign comes to an end this afternoon, Iowa’s 2024/25 season was a hard-fought step in the right direction.

“Everybody asks me if I knew this was going to happen,” Bluder said of the legacy that lives on in this new team. “Of course, I didn't know it was going to happen. I hoped it was going to happen, but you never know for sure. We just had a belief.”

Seven-a-side football is going global, with the newly announced World Sevens Football (W7F) set to kick off in May 2025.

Promising a $5 million prize pool per event, W7F will be a series of competitions in the same fashion as tennis' Grand Slams, with tournaments scheduled in "football-loving cities" worldwide.

Jennifer Mackesy, a minority owner of the NWSL’s Gotham FC and the WSL’s Chelsea FC, is a co-founder of the new soccer venture. Additionally, some of the game’s biggest names are backing W7F, including the USWNT's two-time World Cup champions Tobin Heath and Kelley O’Hara.

Heath is helming the W7F's player advisory council, which includes O'Hara and a trio of former international stars — England defender Anita Asante, longtime Sweden captain and midfielder Caroline Seger, and France defender Laura Georges — who are all shareholders in the organization as well.

Aly Wagner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the USWNT and co-founder of the NWSL's Bay FC, is serving as the new venture's chief of strategy.

"I'm so excited to play a role in building World Sevens Football," O’Hara said in a press release. "This groundbreaking format brings a new level of energy to the game while creating incredible opportunities for female footballers to showcase their talent on a global stage — and compete for a very lucrative prize pool."

"W7F is creating a future where women footballers have greater opportunities, financial security, and a bigger platform to connect with fans," echoed Heath in a statement. "This is about legacy — about changing the game for generations to come. And as a 1v1 artist myself, this format is a dream stage for those duels."

W7F to kick off alongside Champions League final

Each event will field eight professional women's clubs to compete in seven-on-seven matches, with teams explicitly in charge of all roster decisions. Games will be comprised of two 15-minute halves, with potential extra time periods for tiebreakers.

The first-ever contest will take place in Portugal from May 21st through 23rd, offering soccer fans an early treat ahead of the May 24th UEFA Women’s Champions League final, with at least one more W7F tournament currently in the works for 2025.

Already the broadcaster of the UWCL, streamer DAZN will be W7F’s global broadcasting, production, and marketing partner.

The quest for renewed parity in the NWSL received a boost over the weekend, as the 2025 regular season’s second matchday saw a few bottom-table teams capture key wins.

While the reigning champion Orlando Pride and the Kansas City Current maintained their perfect 2025 season records with respective wins over fellow 2024 semifinalists Gotham FC and the Washington Spirit, teams lower on last year's table claimed valuable points over the weekend.

With a 2-0 Saturday win over Racing Louisville, 2024 expansion team-turned-playoff debutante Bay FC earned three points, while last season’s stragglers San Diego Wave, Seattle Reign, and Houston Dash also put important points on the board — and scored some spectacular goals in the process.

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Rookie class fuels big NWSL second matchday wins

In the wake of a superstar exit, the Wave's 3-2 Saturday win over the Utah Royals helped buoy San Diego's early season.

Meanwhile, for Seattle and Houston — last season’s two lowest-ranked finishers — the weekend victories were especially sweet.

The Reign notched a 2-1 road victory over the North Carolina Courage on Saturday, secured by absolute screamers from Seattle's midfield mainstay Jess Fishlock, who scored in her 200th cap with the Reign, and 18-year-old center back Jordyn Bugg, whose stellar strike was her first-ever professional goal.

"Not only are we different, we’re really young," said Seattle head coach Laura Harvey after the match. "To come here with that youth and energy really helped us, matched with the experience of some of the older ones."

The Dash also snagged a 2-1 road win after a scrappy Sunday battle with the Chicago Stars.

After trailing by an early goal from Chicago forward Jameese Joseph, Houston quickly answered back with a corner-kick equalizer off of veteran defender Paige Nielsen in the match's 20th minute.

Notching her career's second-ever goal, rookie midfielder Maggie Graham ultimately put the Dash on top with a second-half game-winner.

Though this season's rookie class enters with an air of uncertainty thank to the elimination of the college draft, it's their young firepower that's pushing last year’s bottom-dwellers up the league's ladder — and perhaps, in a few months, into NWSL playoff contention.

With the first round and half of the second round in the books, March Madness tipped off with massive wins, narrow upsets, busted brackets, and the survival of every team seeded No. 3 and above.

While seven of those elite squads will square off against lower seeds in their second-round matchups on Monday, five have already snagged spots in the Sweet Sixteen — No. 1-seeds UCLA and South Carolina, No. 2 seeds TCU and Duke, and No. 3 seed Notre Dame all advance with Sunday victories.

Sunday's second round also saw No. 5-seeds rule the day, as Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Kansas State all booked Sweet Sixteen berths behind wins over their No. 4-seed hosts — Baylor, Ohio State, and Kentucky, respectively.

The clash between the two Wildcat teams proved to be the game of the weekend, as Kentucky pushed Kansas State to brink before falling 80-79 in overtime to the Big 12's big 'Cats.

The lights-out play of forward Temira Poindexter secured Kansas State's first Sweet Sixteen trip in 23 years, as the senior led Sunday's game with 24 points — all of which she scored from beyond the arc.

For fellow senior Serena Sundell, who had an impressive 19-point, 14-assist performance of her own, the win helped erase memories of last March Madness, when Kansas State was ousted in a second-round upset loss.

"That loss, we all just took it so personal," remarked Sundell after Sunday's victory. "I'm just so proud of our program, and to be able to bring [this win] back to our community and our university is so special."

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Top seeds show out with blockbuster offense

Before tackling second-round matchups, March Madness's biggest names dominated the first two days of games, making NCAA tournament history with six teams scoring over 100 points in their first-round wins.

No. 1-seeds South Carolina and Texas, No. 2-seed UConn, No. 3-seeds Notre Dame and LSU, and No. 5 seed Tennessee all surpassed the century mark in their 2025 March Madness debuts, tying the record for the most 100+ point team performances in a single NCAA tournament — all before the second round.

While each of those teams had at least one star score 20 or more points, UConn guard Azzi Fudd led the six-team field, posting 27 points to help the Huskies defeat No. 15-seed Arkansas State 103-34 on Saturday — Fudd's first NCAA tournament game in two years.

Notre Dame standouts Hannah Hidalgo and Sonia Citron closely trailed Fudd on the stat sheet, with each Irish guard scoring 24 points en route to a 106-54 Friday win over No. 14-seed Stephen F. Austin.

Those six blockbuster performances ultimately ballooned the first round's margin of victory to a whopping 26.5 points —the highest for any non-championship round in NCAA history.

Even more, the 2024/25 NCAA tournament's first round claimed a historic level of chalk, marking the first time in 31 years that no seed higher than No. 10 escaped the round of 64. Only two double-digit teams advanced — No. 10-seeds Oregon and South Dakota State.

Those arguably expected early-round oustings, however, bring top-tier matchups to the tournament's subsequent rounds — meaning the coming weeks will likely inject even more Madness into March.

The second round of March Madness will wrap on Monday, after an eight-game slate featuring some of the 2024/25 NCAA tournament’s breakout stars, with title contenders colliding with a few of the weekend’s feel-good storylines.

Hoping to turn an upset into a Cinderella run is the competition's last-standing double-digit seed, No. 10 South Dakota State.

Following their 74-68 defeat of No. 7-seed Oklahoma State in Saturday's first round, the Jackrabbits must contend with UConn's legendary program, facing the surging No. 2-seed Huskies on Monday night.

Also hunting a Cinderella story is tournament’s second-lowest remaining seed, No. 9 Mississippi State. After edging out No. 8 seed Cal on Saturday, the Bulldogs will lean on both defense and their leading scorer, guard Jerkaila Jordan, to push them past sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins' No. 1-seed USC on Monday.

Underdog team stars to push for Sweet Sixteen berths

While all eyes have been on superstars like Watkins and UConn standout Paige Bueckers, Monday’s slate will give fans a chance to check out some of the season’s most exciting surprise performers — possibly for the last time this year.

Hoping for a little Madness magic is No. 6-seed Florida State, who will rely heavily on star junior Ta’Niyah Latson — Division I's leading scorer — to fuel them past the offensive firepower of 2023 NCAA champion No. 3-seed LSU.

Chasing a third straight trip to the Final Four — this time without back-to-back National Player of the Year Caitlin Clark — No. 6-seed Iowa must upend No. 3-seed Oklahoma to advance past the second round.

Both teams are buoyed by star transfers. The Hawkeyes will look to ex-Villanova guard Lucy Olsen to boost them over the line into the Sweet Sixteen, but the Sooners won’t go easy, as former Oregon State standout center Raegan Beers will be eager to lead her new squad on a deep tournament run.

How to watch Monday's March Madness second round

Monday's action will cap the 2024/25 NCAA tournament's first two rounds — and invariably put a stamp on some of the season's heartwarming storylines.

No. 7-seed Michigan State and No. 2-seed NC State tipped off Monday's slate at 12 PM ET on ESPN, with the final seven second-round games to air throughout the day across ESPN and ESPN2.