CU Buffs women’s basketball prepares for Caitlin Clark and No. 1 Iowa in Sweet 16 rematch

ALBANY, New York (KRDO) - The No. 5 seeded University of Colorado Boulder women's basketball team is still dancing in the March Madness NCAA tournament and will be tasked with taking on No. 1 seeded Iowa on Saturday, March 30, in the Round of 16.

The Buffs practiced on Tuesday this week in Albany, NY, where the Sweet 16 round will be hosted for half of the rounds' games. It sets the stage for a rematch with Iowa from 2023, where Caitlin Clark and company knocked CU out with an 87-77 win.

"They return almost everybody. We return almost everybody. So in a lot of ways two very, very similar teams, you know and I think it was one of the best games of the tournament last year," explained Head Coach for the Buffs, JR Payne. "And so I think just I think everybody will go back and rewatch the film and figure out, you know, what worked, what didn't work," she said.

Junior point guard Kindyll Wetta, a native of Castle Rock, called it a special opportunity to get a rematch with the Hawkeyes, a game where CU was within two points with just two minutes to go before foul trouble led to several free throws for Iowa.

"You don't often get this chance to play the same team that you lost to the year before in the Sweet 16. And so we're very excited and obviously they're a great team and we still feel as though we have a lot to prove" said Wetta, who is normally a defensive force on the team, and notched a career-high 16 points against Drake in Round One.

It's both her and the entire team's defensive prowess that in their words, cause lots of turnovers. After the team watched West Virginia show pressure and fluster the Hawkeyes a bit in the round of 32, they feel that they can stay the course with their game plan and stick with the No. 1 seed, led by the all-time leading scorer in Division I basketball, Caitlin Clark.

"I think if you asked any of our real veterans that have been here a while, you know, they would say we're built on defense. And I think we believe that we can get stops. You know, we believe that we can turn people over, you know when we need to," said Payne on Tuesday afternoon.

The two teams will tip off at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 30. You can watch right here on KRDO13!