Speaking on the phone Monday from Iowa City, her voice rough from a cold and, perhaps, the frenzy of her team's regular season finale, Iowa women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder was asked how much what happened last year was motivating her team this year.
Less than you might imagine, she said.
Last year? Iowa won the Big Ten's regular season and tournament championships. The Hawkeyes received a No. 2 NCAA seed. They opened the tournament at home at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. They cruised through their first-round game. And then?
Bang. Iowa ran into a Cinderella buzz saw, losing to a 10th-seeded Creighton team 64-62.
To Bluder, that motivation came in the summer, as the Hawkeyes prepared for another season.
But center Monika Czinano isn't having it.
"It is a lot of motivation," said Czinano, a Watertown, Minn., native whose sister, Maggie, plays for the Gophers. How much? Given a week after last season ended to decide whether to come back for the fifth year allowed by the NCAA in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic, it took Czinano three days to decide to come back for a final try.
"It always has been,'' Czinano continued. "It's been on our minds. It goes to show how important every game is. It's so true.''