Last year, the LSU Tigers defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes in the national title game of the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in what was a heated and hard-fought game. But even as the Hawkeyes got a chance to avenge that loss in the Elite Eight of this year’s tournament, head coach Lisa Bluder didn’t necessarily see it as a rivalry between the two teams.
After the game on Monday, Lisa Bluder made it clear that she saw the game more as a “competition” and less as a “rivalry.”
“We talked about that last night and I told the team, ‘This is not a rivalry. This is a competition.’ It’s a competition against an opponent. It is not a rivalry. I just don’t feel like we’ve played them that many times that you consider it a rivalry,” Bluder said according to On3.
“But I mean, I think people were highly interested in this game. And so I think people were excited to see this played, to see this matchup again. So I think that was there, the excitement around the game, but it’s certainly wasn’t what we feel like is a rivalry. It was just going out to compete.”
Rivalry or not, the Hawkeyes got the better of the Tigers this time.
[On3]
