ALBANY, N.Y. — No. 5 Colorado knows all eyes are on Caitlin Clark and top-seeded Iowa entering Saturday’s regional semifinal, and the Buffaloes are comfortable coughing up the attention as they prepare for what amounts to a road-game atmosphere.
“We definitely are anticipating that type of crowd. It felt like that in Seattle last year, and that was the other side of the country,” Colorado coach JR Payne said of the Sweet 16 rematch with Iowa and a likely pro-Clark crowd. “So yeah, we’re expecting that. It’s a great atmosphere always when you’re going to play in an environment like that, very similar to Kansas State last weekend, very similar to most Pac-12 road games this year where attendance was through the roof and playing really great crowds in really hostile environments.”
Colorado arrived in New York as an underdog — but a seasoned one at that. The Buffaloes started the season by becoming the first team to beat the defending national champion in the first game of the season since 1995, a no-doubter 92-78 win over LSU on Nov. 6. They are back in the regional semifinal for the second consecutive season and might have happened upon a vulnerable No. 1 seed.
Iowa’s Molly Davis went through a light workout with a compression sleeve on her injured right knee, but head coach Lisa Bluder called the 27-game starter “doubtful” to play against Colorado. Without Davis, most of Iowa’s guards are playing more than eight minutes per quarter in the Women’s NCAA Tournament.
“I don’t know. I really thought she’d be back by now. I really did,” Bluder said. “I have no idea how long it’s going to take for her to completely heal, but we’re not going to put her out there when it’s unsafe for her to be out there.”
Size and rebounding are Colorado advantages on paper, but the Buffs had a 35-27 advantage on the boards last year.
Payne said the 2023 meeting has little bearing on the Saturday game between the same teams, but Bluder is taking an entirely different angle despite replacing two of her starters from the 87-77 win a year ago.
“We had the whole team watch the film from last year, so they kind of have it in their mind, in addition to film from this year,” Bluder said. “Neither team has changed. I know they’re a little bit different, but neither team has changed a lot with their style of play.”
Clark scored 31 points and Colorado couldn’t buy a 3 in last year’s game, when some players felt they fed the emotion fueling college basketball’s all-time scoring leader.
“Caitlin’s very emotional, so for us, it’s like, we can’t feed into her emotions that she’s going to play with,” CU guard Tameiya Sadler said. “Because she’s going to fall, she’s going to throw up her hands, she’s going to talk to the refs. But at the end of the day, we can’t focus on that.”
Clark’s demeanor in the postseason has been subject to added scrutiny, but she said Friday not to expect anything different on this stage — there’s no off button to her competitive nature.
“It’s not anything you shy away from. I’m competitive. I’m fiery. That’s how it is. And I think that’s what has brought me a lot of success,” said Clark. “I think at the same time it’s being able to channel that and use it in the best way.”
–Field Level Media