IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — It was just a few weeks ago when Iowa wasn’t sure it was going to be a host school for the first two rounds of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Since then, the Hawkeyes rallied to win two championships and get a chance to open the tournament in front of a sellout home crowd.
Iowa (23-7), which shared the Big Ten regular-season championship and won the conference tournament, is the No. 2 seed in the Greensboro Regional, playing 15th-seeded Illinois State (19-13) on Friday.
No. 7 seed Colorado (22-8) will play 10th-seeded Creighton (20-9) in the other first-round game.
Reaching this point meant the Hawkeyes had to get through COVID-19 issues within their own program as well as others, and battling injuries that left them with just eight available players in late January. Iowa went 3-4 in a stretch in December and early January that included a home loss…
