Iowa has rolled out the required blue carpet this week for the first NCAA women’s basketball tourney to be played in Iowa in 11 years.

It’s about the only local connection to the madness of March in these parts since the NCAA decided to move its wrestling tourney to off-campus sites a few years back.

The field for the opening-round games being played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena is worth the price of admission. Led by three-time all-American Courtney Paris, Oklahoma may be one of the best basketball teams — mens or womens — to visit Iowa in several years and the uptempo style played by Georgia Tech and Prairie View A&M add to the proceedings. Throw the home team into the mix and an investment in a ticket should create a good night of entertainment, win or lose.

“It’s something we don’t get to host every day,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “A lot of people have put a lot of hours into planning and organizing and I know we’ll do a good job of hosting. There is a lot of experience on staff here and they do a great job.”

Bluder’s role is simply to prepare her team for its sixth NCAA appearance in her nine years.

“I’ve never had the chance to sleep in my own bed the night before an NCAA tournament before. It’s a special opportunity,” Bluder said.

Ticket sales passed the 4,000 mark on Saturday and Iowa officials are hoping for crowds in excess of 5,000 for Sunday’s session.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 at 9:52 pm 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.