Regardless of expansion or recent popularity, the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes have a long track record that’s molded a historic rivalry.
In front of nearly 20,000 fans, Ohio State women’s basketball and the Iowa Hawkeyes battled into overtime. There was more on the line than another win for their season record. It was a game that meant one side would potentially win a title. The game was a battle, led by a player whose name would enter their program’s rafters, and culminated in arguably the biggest win in Ohio State history. Iowa star guard Caitlin Clark wasn’t born yet.
It was April 3, 1993 in the National Semifinal. The Buckeyes and Hawkeyes played in front of a crowd of over 16,000 and despite struggling from the free throw line, a key rebound by Ohio State legend Katie Smith with 10 seconds remaining sent the game into overtime where the Buckeyes won 73-72 over the Hawkeyes.
Just one year prior, the Buckeyes lost to the same Hawkeyes side by 17 points, their seventh loss in a row in a rivalry that stretches back to 1980. That was two years before the NCAA established a national women’s tournament and the Big Ten began sponsoring women’s basketball.
For 45 years, Ohio State and Iowa have battled. That’s long before college basketball rose to its current level of every game airing on a streaming platform, having more viewers for the national final than the men’s tournament and full arenas.
Before other Big Ten schools started caring about women’s basketball, there was Ohio State and Iowa.
In those 45 years, the Buckeyes have a slight 39-37 lead. Iowa has a six to four Big Ten tournament title lead (Ohio State vacated a fifth due to recruiting violations) but a 16-10 Ohio State lead in regular season titles and five of those shared between the programs, the most shares between two schools in Big Ten history.
Back in 1987, six years before Ohio State head coach Nancy Darsch and Iowa’s C. Vivian Stringer met in the NCAA Tournament, the two teams turned a basketball game into chess. With a minute remaining, the Buckeyes were down 17 points to the Hawkeyes, but Darsch kept using timeouts.
What Darsch and Stringer knew, but their players didn’t, was that a 13-point loss for Ohio State clinched the Buckeyes an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, with this game coming eight years before the Big Ten started its annual women’s basketball tournament. Darsch stopped the game with 57 seconds remaining.
“I called time out to inform them of the point spread,” said Darsch. “I told them to do anything they could not to let them win by more than 13.”
Mission accomplished in the 66-54 victory. Despite the two teams sharing a piece of the regular season championship, Ohio State’s 13-point win a month prior meant a single point guaranteed a spot for the Buckeyes.
Over the next almost three decades, women’s basketball became more of a focus in the Big Ten with Penn State joining in 1993 with a strong program. It challenged the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes, but the two premier programs continued battling.
There were changes in that time, with Stringer moving to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and led the then Big East side to two Final Four appearances. Darsch left Ohio State and after the Buckeyes made the NCAA Tournament just once in five seasons under Beth Burns, Jim Foster took over for the Scarlet and Gray, bringing the side back to prominence.
Under Foster, Ohio State won six consecutive Big Ten regular season titles, sharing one with the Hawkeyes. Then, in 2010, the Buckeyes attempted to repeat as Big Ten Tournament champions for the first time in program history but Iowa wasn’t having it.
After defeating the Illinois Fighting Illini by 11 points and the Wisconsin Badgers by nine, the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes met in the tournament final for one of only two times in their combined histories.
Iowa grew an 18-point lead in the first half, and kept it at 16 in the second half. That’s when three-time All-American forward Jantel Lavender took over. Lavender scored 23 points in the second half, part of a 35-point and 10-rebound double-double performance. With 1.9 seconds remaining, Lavender hit two free throws to win the game 66-64.
“I promise you that I knew we were not going to lose this game,” said Lavender. “We could not lose this game going into the NCAA Tournament.”
Since 2010, the fabric of women’s college basketball is vastly different, especially in the Big Ten. The Nebraska Cornhuskers joined the conference the next season, with the Maryland Terrapins and Rutgers Scarlet Knights following in 2014.
In 2020, the eventual all-time leading scorer in NCAA history joined college basketball and the Buckeyes/Hawkeyes rivalry hit another level. Even with Clark, The Buckeyes defeated the Hawkeyes in Iowa City in 2022, eventually earning Ohio State a share of the regular season trophy with Iowa.
Then Iowa hit Ohio State hard in the 2023 Big Ten tournament, destroying Ohio State 105-72. Last season saw record attendance in the rivalry with an overtime win for the Buckeyes in Jan. 2024, which leads to Monday’s noon tipoff in Columbus.
Even without a name like Clark out of the game, this game means something to the Buckeyes’ current program.
Take forward Cotie McMahon as a great example. When fans think about Ohio State rivals, the Michigan Wolverines always come to the forefront. The Buckeyes have a 61-17 overall record against the Maize and Blue in women’s basketball. When asked about “The Rivalry” against Michigan, McMahon dismissed it as more for the fans. McMahon thinks differently about Iowa.
“It’ll be a great game,” said McMahon. “Iowa is always fun.”
This offseason, the Big Ten changed again, adding four teams from the Pac-12. Teams with rivalries of their own that they bring to the new look, 18-team, Big Ten conference.
Thursday night, the No. 1 UCLA Bruins and No. 6 USC Trojans battled in a highly anticipated matchup between two of the best teams in the nation. The Trojans pulled away, ending the Bruins’ undefeated season, and continued the trend of putting women’s college basketball firmly in the national sports conversation.
However, when it comes to Big Ten basketball’s history, it’s built on the foundation laid by Ohio State and Iowa in a rivalry that still continues today.
Historical quotes and data from the Columbus Dispatch NewsBank historical database.