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University of Iowa makes sure fans, not bots, had access to Fever pre-season game tickets

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University of Iowa makes sure fans, not bots, had access to Fever pre-season game tickets


CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Good luck finding tickets for the Indiana Fever pre-season game against Brazil at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in May.

Within 37 minutes of being made available to season ticket holders and donors Thursday, all the seats were snatched up. Iowa went to great lengths to ensure that so-called “bots” were not the ones buying the tickets and selling them for high prices.

The words “Sold Out’ are plastered on the doors to Carver-Hawkeye Arena and the team website for tickets to see Hawkeye legend Cailin Clark and her Indiana Fever take on the Brazil women’s team in a pre-season game. That didn’t stop for a long time Women’s Hawkeye fan Jeff Kreinbring from getting four tickets for his Hawkeye-loving family.

“I was on the computer, and every time I would try to select our seats and add them to the cart, it kept telling me those seats were no longer available.

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You also need to be a season ticket holder or a donor to get access to buying the tickets. Kreinbring says he started buying season tickets when it was obvious to him that Clark was a generational talent.

School leaders said they didn’t have much say in ticket sales but were able to negotiate for season ticket holders and donors to have first access. One of the reasons was to keep bots or outside investors from buying all the tickets and selling them. The worry is those bots would then turn around and sell those tickets for exorbitant amounts of money. Jess Rickertsen said the people selling these tickets ranging in prices from $600 to $5,000 weren’t investors.

“Those people selling are either season ticket holders or donors,” he said. “We do periodically review all accounts, even season ticket holds and donors, for secondary market activity.”

Rickertsen said Iowa has eliminated more than 200 accounts in the last two years because they were brokers or people buying for the sole purpose of selling the tickets at higher prices. A bill in the Iowa legislature would stop investors from buying tickets for resale.

“Eliminating bots that are going in and acting as if they are purchasing as a fan solely doing it to get up to hundreds of tickets and turn around and sell them, absolutely,” he said. “That is something we’d welcome.”

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Kreinbring said he’s keeping his four tickets saying Clark brings to the game memories that are priceless to his family.

“She’s the kind of player that you just can’t look away,” he said. “If you look down at your phone or something like that, you might miss the greatest play that ever happened before.”



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Iowa State basketball vs. Arizona State prediction, 3 things to watch

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Iowa State basketball vs. Arizona State prediction, 3 things to watch


It’s the last dance at Hilton Coliseum for Cyclone lifer Tamin Lipsey and other Iowa State basketball seniors.

The Cyclones will wrap up the regular season with one final home game on March 7 against visiting Arizona State. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on FS1.

Iowa State (24-6, 11-6 Big 12 Conference) is looking to shake off a two-game losing skid after suffering back-to-back losses to Texas Tech and Arizona.

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Meanwhile, Arizona State (16-14, 7-10) is coming to Ames fresh off of consecutive wins over Utah and Kansas. The Sun Devils upset the Jayhawks 70-60 on March 3.

Here are three things to watch for in Saturday’s game:

Arizona State enters Hilton Coliseum with momentum

The Sun Devils are coming off of back-to-back wins, including an upset of Kansas in their last outing at home on March 3.

The Sun Devils built a 40-20 halftime lead and hung on for the win.

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Arizona State also had a 72-67 win over Texas Tech on Feb. 17. It was the game in which J.T. Toppin went down with a season-ending ACL injury in the final six minutes of the contest.

Pepperdine transfer Moe Odum is shining in his first season at the power-conference level. He had 23 points in both games against Kansas and Texas Tech. In the recent win over Kansas, he had a game-high 23 points and shot 5-of-10 from long range, with four boards, six assists and two steals.

The senior guard is averaging 17.3 points, 5.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game for the Sun Devils.

The frontcourt is anchored by 7-foot-1 center Massamba Diop. Diop is one of the top shot-blockers and rim-protectors in the conference, averaging 2.2 blocks per game, second to Kansas’ Flory Bidunga. The freshman center has had three or more blocks in nine Big 12 games this season.

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Senior guard Anthony Johnson has developed into a reliable sixth man for the Sun Devils. It’s his first season of Division I basketball after playing the last few years at NAIA-level University of the Cumberlands. Johnson is a two-way contributor off the bench. He is averaging 13.4 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. Primarily a slashing threat, Johnson has shown he can knock down 3s when left open.

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Iowa State basketball guard Tamin Lipsey on increased urgency

Iowa State basketball guard Tamin Lipsey on team-wide increased urgency.

Arizona State’s towering size

The Sun Devils have plenty of length and size throughout their roster.

According to KenPom, Arizona State has the ninth-tallest roster in Division I basketball in terms of average height across the team.

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The Sun Devils’ starting five features three players who are 6-foot-11 or taller.

Aside from the 7-foot-1 Diop, they have a pair of 6-foot-11 forwards in the lineup, sophomore Santiago Trouet and junior Andrija Grbovic.

Although the Sun Devils’ big men might not be as talented as Arizona’s, it will be interesting to see if Arizona State tries to emulate or utilize a similar gameplan defensively as Arizona. The Sun Devils are a good shot-blocking team and they’ll look to use their size up front to make life in the paint difficult for Iowa State.

Despite Arizona State’s size, the Sun Devils are not an exceptional rebounding team, so this can be an opportunity for Iowa State bigs to set the tone on the boards.

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Iowa State basketball coach TJ Otzelberger on emotions of senior night

Iowa State basketball coach TJ Otzelberger on the emotions of senior night from a coach’s perspective.

Iowa State will salute its seniors

The Cyclones are set to honor five seniors on Saturday afternoon: Tamin Lipsey, Joshua Jefferson, Nate Heise, Eric Mulder and Dominick Nelson.

Lipsey, a hometown hero and Ames product, will be playing in his final game at Hilton Coliseum. A senior who has been at Iowa State since the first day of his collegiate career, Lipsey is a rarity in this era of the revamped transfer portal and NIL. He is one of only five seniors in the Big 12 to stay all four, or five (if they redshirted), years at the same school.

Jefferson also will get recognition. In just two years at Iowa State, he quickly blossomed into one of the Cyclones’ top players and fan-favorites after transferring in from Saint Mary’s.

Nate Heise, a sixth-year senior, was already honored in last season’s senior-night ceremonies, but he will be recognized once again on Saturday. Heise chose to return this season for another year due to a season of eligibility stemming from a medical redshirt from a hand injury in the 2022-23 season at Northern Iowa.

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Nelson and Mulder, both graduate transfers, will cap senior-day ceremonies.

Iowa State basketball vs. Arizona State prediction

The quest for perfection at home is no longer possible, but expect Iowa State to be able to give Tamin Lipsey and the other seniors the perfect sendoff in the final game at Hilton Coliseum. Although the Sun Devils recently enjoyed a big win, they’ve struggled on the road this year, with a 2-8 record. One last dose of Hilton Magic as Iowa State gets back on the winning side after a two-game losing skid. Prediction: Iowa State 80, Arizona State 64

Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.





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No. 3 Michigan holds off a late run by Iowa, beats the Hawkeyes 71-68

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No. 3 Michigan holds off a late run by Iowa, beats the Hawkeyes 71-68


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.

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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.

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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

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Iowa women’s wrestling star Kylie Welker on competing for official NCAA championship


Wrestling-Women

March 5, 2026

Iowa women’s wrestling star Kylie Welker on competing for official NCAA championship

March 5, 2026

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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.



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