CHICAGO — When the DePaul women’s basketball team scrimmaged Iowa last season, the teams battled it out in what both say was a close game. But no one was there to see it.
The scrimmage inspired coaches Doug Bruno of DePaul and Lisa Bluder of Iowa to schedule an outdoor exhibition Sunday at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City — in which they aim to set an attendance record for an NCAA women’s basketball game.
The “Crossover at Kinnick” will benefit the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital and will include one of the most notable traditions in college sports, “The Hawkeye Wave.” As they do during Iowa football games at Kinnick, when the clock hits zero at the end of the first quarter, teams and fans will turn toward the nearby hospital and wave to the pediatric patients and their families.
Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m., and Big Ten Network will broadcast the exhibition.
The women’s basketball attendance record of 29,619 was set during the 2002 national title game between Connecticut and Oklahoma at San Antonio’s Alamodome. According to Iowa, 51,258 tickets had been sold for the “Crossover” as of Monday.
“It was a really good ballgame, 98-94,” Bruno told the Chicago Tribune of last year’s scrimmage. “I remember after the game talking with Lisa and I said, ‘Nobody saw this.’ Caitlin (Clark) was Caitlin, but nobody knew at the moment that Iowa was going to finish second in the nation in the championship game. We were still whole. We had not lost our two starting point guards (Kierra Collier and Jade Edwards) yet.”
In May, second-team All-America forward and Simeon alumna Aneesah Morrow announced she was transferring from DePaul to national champion LSU. The Blue Demons return only five players from last season’s roster, including mainstays Anaya Peoples and Jorie Allen.
Bruno and his staff welcomed eight newcomers this summer, including transfers Katlyn Gilbert (Missouri), Brynn Masikewich (UCLA), Michelle Sidor (Michigan) and Kate Clarke (Michigan) and four freshmen.
“Looking forward to it is definitely an understatement,” Allen said of Sunday’s game. “I was excited to scrimmage Iowa because of our scrimmage last year. It was a close game and we played four quarters and I remember sitting on the bench last year and looking at my teammates and going, ‘This feels like an NCAA Tournament game.’ ”
“I’m excited to play them in an open environment this year. And to have it on a football field and be such a big stage for women’s basketball and to kick off the season, I can’t imagine any better way to start.”
Bluder and Iowa open this season on a high after a trip to the national championship game in April. According to ESPN, LSU’s 102-85 victory drew 9.9 million viewers, making it the most-viewed women’s college basketball game and ESPN platforms’ most-viewed college basketball game (men’s or women’s) on record.
“The excitement around women’s basketball and our team is really at an all-time high right now,” Bluder told the Tribune. “About a week after (the national championship game) there were 9,000 people who came out just to see the team and congratulate them.
“A few days after that, I had this idea and I went to Beth Getz, who was our deputy athletic director at the time, and said I wanted to break the women’s basketball attendance record. And I think we can do it by playing in Kinnick.”
The Hawkeyes are led by Clark, the reigning consensus player of the year. Last season the 6-foot guard averaged 27.8 points, 8.6 assists and 7.1 rebounds. She set an NCAA Tournament record (women’s or men’s) with 191 points in six games.
In August, Iowa announced season tickets had sold out for the first time in program history — an example of the enthusiasm surrounding the team.
“I think people are excited about Caitlin coming back. I think people are really excited to learn who’s going to take over the starting four and five positions from McKenna (Warnock) and Monika (Czinano),” Bluder said.
”We play an exciting style that people really like. We’re up-tempo and we shoot and pass the ball well. I also think it’s the way that our kids play. You can tell that they love the game and they love each other when they’re playing.”
Kylie Feuerbach, a junior guard from Sycamore, Ill., said the Hawkeyes are entering the season with a goal of returning to the Final Four.
“Last year was a great experience. And the years prior to that, the players who have been on each team, they’ve built us up to where we’re at right now,” Feuerbach said. ”We’re just going off of this last year and just continue working as hard as we can and controlling what we can control.”
Both teams believe this event will put women’s basketball on a national stage similar to when Nebraska hosted Omaha in an outdoor volleyball match at Memorial Stadium in August. The attendance of 92,003 set a record for a women’s sporting event in the United States and surpassed what is widely regarded as the world record.
In September, the WNBA reported record-breaking numbers in the 2023 regular season with a 21% television viewership increase from 2022 and the league’s highest attendance total in 13 years at 1.58 million.
“Women’s sports is definitely on the rise right now,” said Iowa guard Sydney Affolter, a Marist alumna. “You dream of so many things as a little girl growing up to be a basketball player. And I don’t know if (playing in a football stadium) has been anyone’s dream. That’s never even been a thought. We’re going to be playing in front of like 50,000 fans. That’s crazy for us to be able to experience.”
Said Allen: “It just shows that if you give women’s sports the opportunity to be seen, people will watch. It’s quality content. If you put us on a big stage, people are going to come to this football stadium and watch a women’s basketball scrimmage. It’s really exciting to be a part of something that impactful.”
