Iowa
A whole lot of basketball fun awaits the people of Iowa this week
Suspense will be in short supply Sunday for four teams from Iowa in regards to the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments this week.
That’s a good thing. The Iowa women, Iowa State men and women and Drake men have secured their places in the tourneys. The blanks to be filled, as always, are who they’ll play in the first game and potentially after that.
For three of the four, they’ll also learn where they’re getting sent. The Iowa women know they’ll be at home this week, thus the NCAA knows it will have two days of 15,000 tickets sold.
The Drake women could be the state’s fifth NCAA qualifier if they beat Missouri State in the Missouri Valley title game today at 1 p.m. (ESPN2).
Here are four questions:
1. How clear is the Iowa women’s path to a second-straight Final Four?
It won’t be clear at all, at least not after the Hawkeyes run a No. 16 seed out of Carver-Hawkeye Arena in the first five minutes of their first-round NCAA tournament game.
Last year, Iowa had just as tough a second-round game in Carver as it did with its regional semifinal and final in Seattle. The Hawkeyes beat a determined Georgia team in Iowa City, 74-66. Iowa led by a point at halftime, and it was close all the way.
The beauty of a No. 1 seed is, on paper, you’re at least a hair better than everyone in your region. That doesn’t make it true, of course. But it makes hopes for a second-straight Final Four for the Hawkeyes legitimate.
By the way, if you have to ask what the prices at ticket-broker sites are for the two NCAA sessions at Carver, you can’t afford it.
2. Will the Iowa State men get sent to Omaha?
It has to be yes, doesn’t it?
What the Cyclones did for three days in Kansas City was like what few teams have done in a conference tournament stacked with good teams. They beat Kansas State, No. 14 Baylor and No. 1 Houston by an average of 20.3 points.
Iowa State’s 69-41 championship-game win over Houston was mind-blowing. Two of the Cougars’ four losses came from the Cyclones. At a minimumy, Iowa State will be a No. 2 seed Sunday.
Getting assigned to Omaha for the first week of the NCAA tourney will be quite a perk for the Cyclones and their fans if it happens. If so, get ready to hear CHI Health Center called “Hilton West” about 987 times.
If it’s a 2-seed, Iowa State would play a 15-seed in the first round and the winner of a 7/10 game in Round 2 if it doesn’t get stunned before that. If it’s a 1-seed, it’s a No. 16 and a winner of an 8/9 game.
I fearlessly predict these Cyclones defend better than anyone their 15th-seeded opponents are used to playing in their conference. The ISU guard triad of Tamin Lipsey, Keshon Gilbert and Curtis Jones may be as good as any backcourt group in the entire tournament.
3. Can the Drake men become a national darling in the first week of the tourney?
The answer is yes, with “can” the operative word
The Bulldogs didn’t get to 28-6 and win the Missouri Valley Conference tourney again with a four-leaf clover. They have players. Not just Tucker DeVries, though that’s where it starts.
If DeVries were playing at Iowa or Iowa State, he’d be a state-wide celebrity. The two-time MVC Player of the Year and two-tme MVC tournament MVP is sixth in the nation in scoring at 21.8 points per game. He also averages 6.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.7 steals.
DeVries should be somewhere on the All-America teams when they are announced.
Bracketologists — and let’s hope they enjoy their 11 months of vacation starting Monday — have Drake as a No. 11 seed.
So let’s say the Bulldogs are in a 6/11 matchup this week. Will there be a sixth seed they can’t beat? Absolutely not. Would there be a No. 3 seed they couldn’t frighten or even defeat in the second round? Nope.
4. Can the Iowa State women reach the second week of the tournament?
It’s very unlikely. The 20-12 Cyclones will be in a coin-flip first-round game, and would meet a giant if they got to the second-round.
However, the postseason experience will only add to the bright future of the team. I thought the program was coming unglued with all its player defections after last season. The opposite was true.
With three freshmen starting and two others in its rotation, Iowa State reached the Big 12 championship game. Center Audi Crooks could become a national star before she’s done. She averaged 18.9 points as a rookie.
Freshman forward Addy Brown was no slouch herself with 13.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and almost five assists per game.
Senior point guard Emily Ryan recently announced she was coming back for a fifth season, and she’s already the program’s all-time assists leader.
All that said, here’s a safe prediction: An unusually stuffed-with-fun college basketball week is ahead in Iowa.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
IOWA CITY, Iowa — IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Morez Johnson Jr. and Yaxel Lendeborg scored 16 points apiece, and Aday Mara had two tiebreaking shots in the final 1:22 as No. 3 Michigan defeated Iowa 71-68 on Thursday night.
The Wolverines (28-2, 18-1 Big Ten) were held 18 points below their season scoring average, but managed to hold off the Hawkeyes (20-10, 10-9) in the closing seconds.
Iowa went on an 11-1 run to tie the game at 64 with 1:56 to play before Mara banked in a shot before the shot clock expired, putting Michigan in front again. After Iowa’s Cam Manyawu scored inside to tie the game at 66, Mara, who finished with 14 points on 7-for-10 shooting, scored off a lob with 43 seconds left to put the Wolverines ahead to stay.
Iowa had chances to tie the game on back-to-back possessions, but missed three shots on one of the possessions and lost the ball on another after a turnover by Tavion Banks with seven seconds left.
The Hawkeyes had a final chance to tie the game after Lendeborg made two free throws with four seconds remaining, but Bennett Stirtz’s 3-pointer try was long.
Elliot Cadeau added 11 points for the Wolverines, the Big Ten regular-season champions.
Stirtz led Iowa with 21 points. Manyawu had 14.
Michigan had a 38-25 rebounding edge on the Hawkeyes.
The game was tied at 30 at halftime. Michigan shot 50% from the field, but committed 12 turnovers that Iowa turned into 16 points.
The Hawkeyes were 11 of 31 from the field, with Stirtz especially struggling to make shots. Stirtz, Iowa’s leading scorer this season, made just one of his first nine shots, then hit back-to-back 3-pointers in a 27-second span to give Iowa a 30-28 lead.
Up next
Michigan: Hosts No. 8 Michigan State on Sunday.
Iowa: At No. 9 Nebraska on Sunday.
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Iowa women’s wrestling star Kylie Welker on competing for official NCAA championship
March 5, 2026
Kylie Welker chats with NCAA Digital’s Sophie Starkey about the success of Iowa women’s wrestling and the possibility of winning the inaugural NCAA sanctioned championship.
5 key issues the Iowa Legislature faces in the 2026 session
Eminent domain, property taxes and DOGE cuts are all on the table for legislators this session.
Repeat offenders convicted of multiple serious crimes would receive a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a bill passed by House lawmakers.
House lawmakers debated for more than an hour about high costs, lack of prison space and the bill’s impact on Black Iowans before voting 68-23 to pass House File 2542, sending it to the Iowa Senate.
Seven Democrats, including Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.
“It will put public safety first,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “It will ensure that the debt to victims and society is paid. It will prioritize victims and public safety over criminals. It will establish real and effective deterrence that is nonexistent in our current system. It will reduce chaos and violence in our society.”
Here’s what to know about the bill.
What would the House Republican three strikes bill do?
Iowans who accumulate three strikes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, with no parole, under the bill.
That would replace Iowa’s current law that says habitual offenders must serve a minimum three-year prison sentence before they are eligible for parole.
All felonies, as well as aggravated misdemeanors involving sexual abuse, domestic abuse, assault and organized retail theft would be considered level-one offenses that are worth one full strike.
Other aggravated misdemeanors, as well as serious misdemeanors involving assault, domestic abuse and criminal mischief would be considered level-two offenses worth half a strike each.
Lawmakers amended the bill to remove theft, harassment and possession of a controlled substance from the crimes that would count toward a person’s strikes.
And the amendment specifies that the bill would only apply to convictions that occur beginning July 1, 2026.
If someone is arrested and convicted of multiple offenses, only the most serious charge would count towards the defendant’s strikes.
Convictions would not count toward someone’s total if more than 20 years passes between a prior conviction and their current conviction.
Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that only a violent crime would qualify as someone’s third strike, but Republicans rejected the amendment.
“The bill still scores murder, felony embezzlement and felony theft the same, even though they are very different crimes,” Wilburn said. “One point is one point and three gets you 20 years with no ability for parole or judicial discretion.”
Holt said the legislation leaves room for judicial and prosecutorial discretion.
“There are deferred sentences, there are plea bargains,” he said. “There is plenty of opportunity for grace and judicial discretion in the legislation that we are proposing.”
Bill could cost millions, require Iowa to build a new prison, agency says
A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it could cost Iowa nearly $165 million more per year by 2031 based on the cost of housing inmates for longer prison stays.
- FY 2027: $33 million
- FY 2028: $66 million
- FY 2029: $99 million
- FY 2030: $132 million
- FY 2031: $164.9 million
The agency said if the bill had been in effect between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2025, there would have been 5,373 people who qualified for the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.
“An increase in the prison population due to increased (length of stay) will require the DOC to build additional prison(s),” the agency states. “The size, security and other features that a future prison may require cannot be determined, but costs would be significant.”
The analysis noted that South Dakota appropriated $650 million last fall to build a 1,500-bed prison.
As of March 1, the Iowa Department of Corrections’ website describes the state’s prison system as being overcrowded by 25%, with 8,705 inmates compared to a capacity of 6,990.
The Office of the State Public Defender could see a projected cost increase of $1.6 million due to an increased number of trials resulting from the legislation.
But the agency’s estimates come with a caveat — the Department of Corrections did not respond to its requests for data.
“The LSA has not received a response to multiple requests for information from the DOC,” the note states. “Without additional information, the LSA cannot estimate the total fiscal impact of the bill.”
Holt called the fiscal note “an embarrassment to the Department of Corrections” and “an agenda masquerading as math.”
“It is clear, in my judgment, that because they did not like the legislation they went all out and extreme to create a fiscal note that cannot be taken seriously in its assumptions,” he said. “It assumes that nothing will change, that there will be no deterrent factor and that the numbers will continue as usual.”
Black Iowans would be disproportionately impacted by the law
The Legislative Services Agency analysis says the bill “may disproportionately impact Black individuals if trends remain constant.”
Of the 29,438 people convicted in fiscal year 2025 of felonies and aggravated misdemeanors that constitute a level one offense under the bill, the agency said about 70% were White, 22% were Black and 9% were other races.
Iowa’s overall population is 83% White, 4% Black and 13% other races, the agency said.
It’s not clear how the bill’s impact would change to account for the House amendment removing some crimes from counting towards the three strikes.
“Expanding three-strike laws will intensify disparities — and that’s what this statement shows — by mandating longer sentences, limiting judicial discretion,” Wilburn said. “We already have a habitual offender statute. We already have one in place. We have a 10-year low in recidivism in our correctional system.”
Rep. Angel Ramirez, D-Cedar Rapids, said California’s three strikes law, passed in the 1990s, worsened racial disparities, and “Iowa is about to repeat the same mistake.”
“I urge every member here, do not pass legislation that our own minority impact statement tells us will deepen inequality in our state,” Ramirez said.
Holt said minority communities in Iowa are impacted by crime and that the legislation “will make citizens of all colors safer.”
And he said the minority impact statement “tells only one side of the story, doesn’t it? It tells the criminal’s story. What about the victim’s story?”
“What about the mother who will continue to tuck her kids in at night and read them Bible stories because she never became the next victim of a violent career criminal?” he said. “Where is that data point in the minority impact statement?”
House lawmakers also approved separate legislation that would increase Iowa’s statewide bond schedule, Senate File 2399.
That bill passed on a vote of 74-19.
Iowans could see more information on judges’ rulings
Iowans would have access to more information about judges’ rulings ahead of the state’s judicial retention elections under a separate measure, House File 2719, which passed on a 73-19 vote.
The Iowa secretary of state’s office would be required to publish information including:
- The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the state’s bond schedule
- The frequency that the judge releases someone on their own recognizance for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense
- The frequency that the judge’s final sentence is lower than statutory recommendations or a prosecutor’s recommendations
- The number of times the judge issues a deferred judgement, deferred sentence or suspended sentence
- The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed on appeal due to abuse of discretion or error of law
- The average time it takes the judge to rule on a motion or case
- The number of cases the judge has resolved compared to the number of cases on the judge’s docket
The data would have to be displayed with a five-year trend line beginning five years after the bill takes effect.
The Secretary of State’s Office would also be required to maintain a searchable database of all judicial opinions and orders for the judge’s current term and the preceding six years. The decisions would be redacted when appropriate.
And judges would have the opportunity to write a 2,000-word personal statement on their judicial philosophy or data trends present in their rulings.
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.
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