By John Bohnenkamp

Iowa’s women’s basketball team could face three teams in this season’s non-conference schedule that finished in the top 10 of the NCAA’s NET last season.

The Hawkeyes will face North Carolina State (32-4, 2 NET) in a December 1 home game, and Iowa State (28-7, 10 NET) on December 7 at home. Iowa could also face UConn (30-6, 4 NET) in the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament on November 27.

Iowa opens the season at home against Southern (14-17, 274) on November 7, followed by a home game against Evansville (8-22, 285).

The Hawkeyes then play back-to-back road games at Drake (20-14, 80) on November 13 and Kansas State (20-13, 38) on November 17. Iowa returns home for a November 20 game against Ohio Valley Conference champion Belmont (23-8, 45), then travels to play Oregon State (17-14, 50) for the first game in the Phil Knight tournament.

The final two games of the non-conference schedule are home games against Northern Iowa (23-11, 54) on December 18 and Dartmouth (3-23, 344) on December 21.

Iowa returns all five starters, including consensus first-team All-American Caitlin Clark, from last season’s team that went 24-8, shared the Big Ten regular-season title and won the conference tournament.

Photo: Iowa’s Caitlin Clark drives to the basket against Southern last season. The Hawkeyes open the 2022-23 season against Southern at home. (Stephen Mally/hawkeyesports.com)