It might not receive the 24 hour ESPN marathon, or the tens of millions of completed brackets, but helping young teams develop during post season play is very important, and that’s something the NIT can offer. After Winter Storm Stella pushed back multiple games start times, the University of Iowa faced off against South Dakota University on Wednesday night at Carver Hawkeye Arena. While it wasn’t always the prettiest of times for the Hawkeyes as they committed 16 turnovers throughout the course of the game, they survived the Coyotes 72% free throw shooting on 25 shots, and out lasted South Dakota 87-75.

While the number one seeded Hawkeyes will be on to the second round, the same can’t be said about other teams in the tournament. Upsets have become synonymous with March Madness, in the first two days of this year’s NIT, three of the four 7 seeds upset the 2 seeds they were matched up against, also number one seeded California lost at home to eight seed CSU Bakersfield. While winning the NIT may seem like a consolation prize to some, the journey and the experience that comes with it all is worth playing for and according to South Dakota coach Craig Smith, “Iowa is a good team that’s going to do some damage.”

Up next for the Iowa Hawkeyes they will take on Texas Christian University, who in the Big 12 Tournament knocked off number 1 ranked Kansas in the first round, Sunday March 19 at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Tipoff is expected for 6:30pm.

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The University of Iowa’s softball team went out to the Easton Invitational in Fullerton, California this weekend to be the fifth team in the tournament.  The field of Iowa’s opponents included CSU-Bakersfield, the host school Cal-State Fullerton, #24 Oregon State and #16 Stanford.

Instead of getting to play the unranked teams in a warm-up fashion for the ranked teams, the Hawkeyes went head first into the gauntlet and opened up the tournament on Friday afternoon with #16 Stanford.  Coming into the game the Cardinals had won 1o of their last 11 games and pitcher Kelsey Stevens had been one of the hottest pitchers in the country.  The Hawkeyes scored six runs in the fifth inning and added two more later as they were able to squeak out the upset, 7-6.

Iowa took that momentum into its Friday night game, against their other ranked foe, Oregon State.  The Hawkeyes once again got the bats going, plating nine runs on eight hits and Chelsea Lyon got her sixth win in the circle as the Hawkeyes got another upset 9-3.  It seemed as though Iowa was just getting warmed up for Saturday.

Saturday morning the Hawkeyes were set to face Cal-State Fullerton on their home field.  Kayla Massey pitched a complete game, one-hit shutout and added two RBIs to lead the Hawkeyes to a fourth straight victory, 7-0.  After the final pitch of that game, all that stood between Iowa and a weekend sweep was CSU-Bakersfield.

Saturday night brought Lyon back to the circle.  A four-run second inning was the catalyst to yet another Hawkeye victory and the Hawkeyes left California with another tournament title.  Iowa is back for practice for the week on a five-game winning streak and is now 3-2 on the season against ranked teams.

The Hawkeyes head out to the Miken Invitational in College Park, Maryland this week.  They will face St. John’s University and play the host school and future Big Ten conference opponent Maryland on Friday.  Saturday will bring Radford University and the Hawkeyes’ first conference game, against Ohio State.

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