Make no mistake about it, Iowa women's basketball is one of the most successful teams of any sport in this decade. 

Big Ten championships. Final Four appearances. Caitlin Clark's incredible career. Those are just of few of the factors that has made this program what it's known as today - a national women's basketball powerhouse. 

All of those achievements are fantastic, but Iowa could prevent itself from adding more accolades to the trophy case if it doesn't clean up this crucial area - turnovers. Every squad is prone to having a plethora of turnovers every once in awhile, but the turnover bug seems to strike the Hawkeyes every time they touch the floor. 

Iowa is committing 15.5 turnovers per contest, the fifth-worst total in the Big Ten. Three of the six teams ahead of the Hawkeyes in the turnover department (there's ties for third and fourth worst) - Purdue, Rutgers, Penn State, and Northwestern - all sit at the bottom of the league standings and will probably stay there at season's end. While Maryland and surprising Wisconsin are at or near the top of the leaderboard, they too have been plagued by turnovers. 

Maryland and Iowa are both, if not the two premiere programs in the Big Ten, but they both are among the league leaders in turnovers. How are they escaping with 20-25 win campaigns each year? It's due to a mix of good coaching and star talent, which the Hawkeyes have, but their turnover issues have cost them many games in the Jan Jensen era. 

Losses to Tennessee (30 turnovers) and Michigan State (23 turnovers) ultimately foreshadowed the end of Iowa's season - a dismal 34-point beatdown against Oklahoma in Norman, where the Hawkeyes turned the ball over 20 times. 

Improvement in that area was expected in 2025-26 due to the addition of veteran point guard Chit-Chat Wright from Georgia Tech, but the same issues are still haunting Iowa through 15 games. The Hawkeyes are 13-2, but a disappointing end could be on the horizon if they don't take care of the basketball. 

Iowa probably wouldn't have beat No. 1 UConn on Dec. 20 even if it had played a clean game, but 26 turnovers in a marquee matchup is unacceptable, and Jensen knows that. The same issues returned in Monday's narrow 67-58 over Northwestern, as the Hawkeyes turned it over 20 times, allowing a bad Wildcats team to hang around and nearly win the game. 

“The Big Ten is just tough. Road wins are hard to come by, and it would have been great to look a lot sharper, but I think the fact that we found a way to win ugly, that’s another good sign for this team,” head coach Jan Jensen told Hawkeye Report after the game. “I went in [to the locker room] and you would have thought we lost…I don’t need them hanging their heads and feeling like they lost.”

Jensen said it perfectly. Road wins are definitely hard to get, especially in the ragged Big Ten, but the dejected emotions of the Hawkeyes shows they know they need to figure out how to hold on to the ball. 

Here's the thing - it's not too late for Iowa to improve, far from it. It's only January. This is a very good team that's only going to get better as the calendar eventually flips to March. Plus, they're young. This isn't an experienced roster that is showing concerning cracks, it's a young roster trying to navigate the challenges of being a student-athlete. 

If the Hawkeyes can cut down on their turnovers, they will be a force come NCAA tournament time. But if they don't, a golden opportunity to return to the second weekend could slip through their hands. 

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