Iowa Reveals New Starter After Taylor McCabe Injury

The last thing the Iowa Hawkeyes wanted to do was learn that Taylor McCabe was going to be out for the rest of the season. Iowa's longtime guard had poured her heart and soul into the team, but must miss the rest of her senior year due to a torn ACL.

Now, Iowa is forced to pivot. The obvious move would be starting Taylor Stremlow, someone who filled the void of Chit-Chat Wright when she went down against Baylor.

Instead, second year head coach Jan Jensen decided to switch things up. Stremlow will still have a huge role off the bench, but instead it's the back-to-back B1G freshman of the week who has earned the right to start.

Addie Deal Will Start vs. USC

Jan Jensen announces that freshman Addie Deal will start on Thursday against USC.
— David Eickholt (@DavidEickholt) January 27, 2026

In her press conference ahead of the Hawkeyes west coast trip, Jensen revealed that Deal has earned her first career start. Coming off a pair of stellar weeks, we're at the point in the season where Deal has nothing left to prove.

Deal is still quite low on the team's totem pole with her 6.6 points per game, but don't let that fool you. The freshman is the real deal, pun absolutely intended. Coming off the best game of her career against the No. 12 team in the nation, it comes no surprise that Jensen is looking her way.

Dropping 20 points against Ohio State isn't for the faint of heart. Deal shot the ball 17 times in that game, by far her career high as she looked to fill the void of McCabe. Prior to that game, Deal hadn't attempted more than 10 shots in a game. Keep in mind, those 10 shots came against Western Illinois who is putting together an extremely solid 16-3 season of their own.

Iowa Needs Deal To Stay Consistent

❤️❤️ https://t.co/dBDp5zWomh
— Addie Deal (@deal_addie) January 26, 2026

Whether Deal starts the rest of the season or not remains to be seen. Jensen could opt to start Stremlow in certain games depending on matchups or who has the hot hand. At the end of the day, both are viable options but her decision to turn to Deal makes complete sense.

This is an extremely young team, so losing someone like McCabe hurts far more than they could imagine. Hannah Stuelke is a great senior presence to have, and Iowa will need her to calm Deal down and keep her head steady, especially when February 1 comes around and she's potentially starting against the nation's No. 2 team.

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