Iowa drew one of the most experienced tournament teams for its opening-round match in this year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

Overshadowed only slightly by Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference, the Bulldogs have been one of the nation’s top programs during the 28 seasons Andy Landers has been Georgia’s head coach. He’s led his program to 25 NCAA appearances in 27 years, the third-highest total of any school in the nation.

The Bulldogs finished as an NCAA runner-up in 1985 and 1996 and have played in the Final Four five times, the Elite Eight 10 times and the Sweet 16 16 times while averaging 24.3 wins per season during Landers’ tenure.

Iowa has faced Georgia once previously in NCAA play, ousting the Bulldogs from the tourney in 1987 by a 62-60 score in a Midwest Regional semifinal played in Monroe, La. The Hawkeyes are 2-2 all-time against the SEC team, but have not played Georgia since a 1995 loss in a tourney in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Iowa is in the NCAA field for the 17th time. The Hawkeyes are unbeaten against the other two teams it could face this weekend in Norfolk, Va. Iowa is 2-0 all-time against North Carolina and 1-0 vs. Bucknell.

Iowa’s No. 9 seed is shared by two of the three other Big Ten teams to reach the NCAA tourney. Purdue and Minnesota were also given No. 9 seeds. Ohio State, the team Iowa shared the Big Ten regular-season title with and the league’s only ranked team this season, received a No. 6 seed.

The No. 9 seed is familar territory for the Hawkeyes. Iowa has been a No. 9 seed in three of its last four NCAA appears. On the fourth occasion, in 2006, the Hawkeyes were a 10 seed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 11:17 am and is filed under Hawkeyes Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.