Addy Brown sits on the court before Iowa State’s opening NCAA Tournament game against Princeton Wednesday, March 19, 2025 in South Bend, Indiana. Photo Courtesy Iowa State Athletics Communications // Luke Lu
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Iowa State is coming off of a win over one of the slowest-paced offenses in college basketball in Princeton.
But on Friday, when it faces No. 6 Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament (10:30 a.m. ESPN2), it will be up against one of the fastest.
“I would say they play as hard as any team we’ve seen,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. “They play considerably faster than what we saw last night.”
The Wolverines rank 33rd in the country in possessions per 40 minutes, utilizing a five-guard lineup to get out in transition and push the pace on its opponents.
Fennelly said it’s unique to anything his team has seen this season.
“They play five guards a lot, which we have not seen,” Fennelly said. “Usually you get to this point in the year, you’ve seen everything. We have not seen that style yet. That will be interesting for us. That was probably the initial part of it.”
It will pit Audi Crooks up against smaller, but faster guards for a portion of game.
Michigan’s 6-foot-5 center Yulia Grabovskaia averages just 13.5 minutes per game.
It sets up for Crooks to succeed on the offensive end – and Iowa State is banking on that – as long as she plays to her full potential.
“I think she’s got a chance,” Fennelly said. “Obviously the difference is how are we going to guard them and how are they going to guard us kind of thing. I think Audi has done such a good job all year of finding her niche, finding her spots. Our team has done a much better job, like we saw in the second half, of getting her the ball in the right spots.
“It will be different tomorrow,” Fennelly said. “We’re going to have to do a good job of making sure the angles and the timing of when we throw the ball to her is what it needs to allow her to be successful.”
Michigan sees that matchup – playing a faster guard in the spot of a post player – as just as big of an advantage for themselves.
“I think it just comes down to grits,” Michigan guard Jordan Hobbs said. “Obviously she’s bigger and stronger than a lot of the girls on our team. But she probably also hasn’t had to go against a guard matchup. Offensively for us we have a mismatch as well just as they do down low… But I think at the end of the day it’s going to come down to who wants it more.”
Michigan routinely has three freshmen in its rotation, including the team leader in scoring in Olivia Olson.
Olson – a former Iowa State target – is averaging 16.2 points per game for Michigan, and is one of three players on the team hovering around a 40 percent mark from the 3-point line.
For an Iowa State team that starts four sophomores, they’ll be the more experienced group.
“For the sophomore class, this is our second March Madness and NCAA tournament,” Iowa State’s Arianna Jackson said. “I think having that year of experience under our belt definitely helps. Those freshmen have never played in an NCAA game, so… We’ve already played one yesterday. Having that type of experience and knowing that coming in I think just gives us a little bit more of an edge.”
Iowa State will try to key in on that inexperience, while playing defense on some sets that it hasn’t seen all season.
And as with every game in this tournament, anything can happen, come Friday at 10:30.
