The Drake women will begin a quest for a second straight Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title in the Quad Cities Friday afternoon. The top seeded and regular season champion Bulldogs will play the winner of Thursday’s game between Indiana State and Southern Illinois.

That’s Drake coach Allison Pohlman. One of the strengths for the Bulldogs is depth and that will be a plus when needing to win three games in three days.

Pohlman says the Bulldogs are focused on their first game and not the entire bracket.

Pohlman says one of their preseason goals was to win the tournament and return to the NCAA Tournament.

Drake is 26-5 overall and finished 19-1 in the Valley regular season race.

In the age of the transfer portal in college basketball Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson will be spending the next couple of weeks finding out who will be returning. Nearly the entire roster could return from a team that finished 19-14 after a loss to Indiana State in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Jacobson says it may take a few weeks to determine what next season’s roster will look like.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa forward Owen Freeman was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a total of five Hawkeyes earned All-Big Ten honors, it was announced Tuesday by the league office.

Freeman was named the Co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year by the league coaches along with Indiana’s Mackenzie Mgbako (Freeman was the sole honoree by the league media). The Moline, Illinois, native is the second Hawkeye in program history to earn the distinction, joining Jess Settles in 1994.

Senior Tony Perkins earned second-team All-Big Ten laurels by the coaches (and was honorable mention by the media) and junior Payton Sandfort was a third-team selection by both the media and coaches.  Sophomore Josh Dix (media), Freeman (coaches, media) and graduate Ben Krikke (media) earned honorable mention all-conference accolades.

Freeman was also selected to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team — Iowa’s first honoree since 2020 and seventh in the Fran McCaffery era — and Krikke was tabbed as Iowa’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient.

Freeman has been the Big Ten’s best rookie, leading the league in rebounds (203), blocks (56) and double-doubles (5), while ranking second in steals (30) and field goal percentage (.636) and third in scoring. Freeman is averaging 10.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. He has been in double figures in 15 games with two 20-point contests.

Over the course of the season, Freeman earned nine Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors, which are the second-most all-time in Big Ten Conference history.

Perkins has enjoyed a breakout senior season, ranking in the top 17 in the league in scoring (14.5), assists (4.9) and steals (1.7). He is one of seven players nationally to have 450+ points, 140+ assists, 130+ rebounds and 50+ steals. The Indianapolis native has scored in double figures in 27 games with eight 20-point games.

Sandfort has emerged as Iowa’s go-to scorer, leading the team in scoring (16.2 points) and rebounds (6.5). The forward has made a Big Ten-best 83 3-point field goals, while shooting 37.1 percent from distance. Sandfort made Iowa history in February, recording the first triple-double in program history, finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and three blocks against Penn State. He has been in double figures in 25 games with a team-best 10 20-point games and four double-doubles.

Dix garnered honorable mention honors after averaging 8.9 points on 56.6 percent shooting and 44.1 percent from 3-point range. The Council Bluffs, Iowa, native came on down the stretch, pouring in three 20-point games at the end of the regular season.

Krikke also earned honorable mention accolades after averaging 13.5 points and 4.7 rebounds during his first Big Ten season. The Valparaiso transfer has reached double figures in 21 games, including seven 20-point contest and has three double-doubles.

Iowa (18-13) heads to Minneapolis as the No. 7 seed for the TIAA Big Ten Tournament. The Hawkeyes open play Thursday, facing 10th-seeded Ohio State at 5:30 p.m. (CT) at the Target Center. The game will be televised live on BTN.

CHICAGO, Ill. – For the first time in network history, the Big Ten Network had two women’s athletic events bring in over one million viewers. On Saturday, March 9, the semifinal matchup between Iowa and Michigan delivered 1,075,000 viewers, making it the most-watched women’s athletic event in BTN history. The game between Iowa and Penn State on Friday, March 8, saw 1,040,000 viewers tune in to the quarterfinal matchup.

The two tournament games rank as the second and third most-watched basketball games in BTN history. The all-time record of 1.2 million viewers was set during the 2022 men’s tournament in a game between Michigan State and Wisconsin on March 11, 2022.

The previous record for a women’s athletic event of 657,000 viewers was set earlier this year on Feb. 8, 2024, in a women’s basketball matchup between Iowa and Penn State.

For the third consecutive season, Big Ten regular season women’s basketball and the TIAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament were the most watched in Big Ten Network history. Viewership of the TIAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament on BTN was up +141% year-over-year, averaging 361,000 viewers per game.

2023-24 regular season women’s basketball coverage on the Big Ten Network averaged 101,000 viewers per broadcast, a year-over-year increase of +46%.

All viewership data is attributed to Nielsen Media Research.