Lisa Bluder

Lisa Bluder

Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder would rather her Hawkeyes not even play Drake. Before taking over at Iowa Bluder was the Drake coach for 10 years and led the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament four times. Also, current Drake coach Jennie Baranczyk was a standout player for Bluder and the Hawkeyes.

Iowa hosts Drake on Tuesday night in its final game before the start of Big Ten play.

“I believe what she has done has been tremendous and I wish we did not have to play the game to be quite honest”, said Bluder. “There is a lot of emotion and Jennie is doing a great job and that is the last person you want to compete against.”

Iowa is 9-2 and has won 23 straight home games. After racing out to a 6-0 record the Bulldogs have dropped three of their last four after an 87-73 loss at Northern Illinois.