The “Eyes” of March

Mar 24, 2023 - 12:33 PM

It’s been a week for the Hawkeye women’s basketball team. Coach Bluder’s squad is coming off an instant classic last Sunday that sent the Hawkeyes to their first Sweet 16 since 2020. I can’t imagine what it’s like to wait longer than 2 years to experience your school in a Sweet 16...

An interesting “tactic” has sprung up within the last week by opposing coaches trying to slow down the Hawkeyes potent attack. SE Louisiana Head Coach Ayla Guzzardo’s comments on making Caitlin Clark’s life “miserable” in game one are already well documented on this blog. I’ll read you the spark notes version, “It did not end well for SE LA.”

After that locker room material debacle, and an Iowa alum in Georgia coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson prepping her 10th seeded Georgia Bulldogs for a Sunday matchup in Iowa City with a birth in the Sweet 16 on the line, you’d be correct to assume Saturdays presser would be pretty quiet. The first year head coach would have undoubtably learned from coach Guzzardo’s mistake and not poke jabs at Caitlin Clark. Well, Abraham-Henderson put her hands to the fire and took a shot at the hottest player in mens and women’s college basketball and was thoroughly burned. No not caitlin Clark, she took aim at shooting guard Gabbie Marshall, and right now, that’s probably even worse.

When referring to the scalding Iowa sharp shooter, Abraham-Henderson called Marshall “the cute little one with the cute eyes, pretty eyes.” ...

Going into Sundays matchup, the senior from Cincinnati was a scintillating 14-28 from beyond the arch in the month of March. I’m not a math whiz, or even a novice for that matter, but I know that 14-28 is equal to an outrageous 50% clip! Those hot hands helped the Hawkeyes capture their second straight Big Ten Tournament Title as well as set an tournament record for made 3-pointers by a single player with 13. Again, probably not the player you want to gift extra motivation to.

And they shouldn’t have.

In the same way Clark responded to the SE LA comments by starting 4-4 from the floor, Marshall’s start was even “prettier”. Those “cute” eyes helped Marshal start 4-4 from deep to open the game, and would prove to be the difference in a tightly contested game that would end in a 74-66 Iowa win.

After the game, Marshall had mixed emotions regarding Abraham-Hendersons comments and said initially, she wasn’t sure how to take it.

“I don’t know how to take that, I kind of had mixed emotions.”

Eventually, Marshall claimed to have moved on from the matter and was more more eager to praise her teammates togetherness for her performance.

“I’m like, ‘Forget it, who cares. She called me pretty eyes.”

“We’ve been playing together so long that we know where each other is. Just how to get each other open, and I feel like they knew I was hot, and they got me the ball.”

After Sundays 5 for 9 output from three, Gabbie has improved her 50% clip in the month of March to 19/33, good enough for 58.5%. That’s a far cry from how the year began for Marshall when she started the year hitting only 19-80 from deep. A pessimist might say that eventually, Ms. March is bound to cool down from her stupendous spring shooting, but she’s operated at these levels before.

In her junior year of high school at Mount Notre Dame in Cincinnati, OH, Marshall converted on 53.2% of her three point attempts in route to her second consecutive All-State selection. Add in the fact that in her previous three years dawning the black and gold she converted at a 41.5% clip and currently sits at 37%, I’d say she’s just getting started.

So doubt the 5’9 senior leader all you want, tell her she has cute eyes, soft eyes, pretty eyes, or sad eyes. It’s all irrelevant. At the end of the day, #24 has a shooters eyes. And now that it’s March, Gabbie Marshall only cares about her “Hawk”eyes.