Iowa WBB Projected Starting Lineup and Rotation for the NCAA Tournament

Second year Jan Jensen continues to roll out the same starting lineup for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Iowa assistant coach Lasondra Barrett huddles with Iowa’s Ava Heiden (5), Taylor Stremlow (1) and Kylie Feuerbach (4) during a game against the Illinois Fighting Illini Feb. 26, 2026 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Iowa Hawkeyes had to toy with their starting lineup a bit when senior guard Taylor McCabe went down with a season ending injury on January 25.

McCabe had been the heart and soul of this team for quite some time even though she might have never led the way when it came to points per game.

Jan Jensen opted to go with the hot hand, Addie Deal, a freshman who just dropped a career high against the No. 12 Buckeyes. Iowa lost three straight games with Deal in the starting lineup, so a change was needed.

Sophomore Taylor Stremlow re-joined the starting lineup. Earlier in the year Stremlow started a few games when Chit-Chat Wright got injured against Baylor in Florida. With Stremlow in the starting lineup, Iowa has lost just one game.

Iowa's Starting Lineup:

Getting us started. pic.twitter.com/pEyk6peXTB

— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) March 8, 2026

No. 11 Chit-Chat Wright
No. 1 Taylor Stremlow
No. 4 Kylie Feuerbach
No. 45 Hannah Stuelke
No. 5 Ava Heiden

Heiden stands 6'4'' and is the clear "big" on this team. She operates as their center with 6'2'' senior Stuelke as their main forward. Elsewhere, Feuerbach is exactly six feet tall but Stremlow and Wright are both below that mark.

Feuerbach is the only other senior who receives playing time. Her and Stuelke have tons of NCAA Tournament experience, including playing time in the team's back to back appearances in the National Championship game.

Wright doesn't always end games with a ton of points but she's an all-around tremendous point guard. Stremlow acts as the facilitatory, though she's coming off arguably the worst game of her career against an incredibly tough UCLA squad.

Iowa Can Play 10 Deep

FINAL SCORE

#13 Iowa 83
Purdue 74

Ava Heiden - 21 pts, 13 reb, 3 ast
Taylor Stremlow - 19 pts, 3 reb, 8 ast
Journey Houston - 16 pts, 5 reb
Kylie Feuerbach - 10 pts, 2 ast pic.twitter.com/EKf9s2F2wB

— Kyle Huesmann (@HuesmannKyle) February 20, 2026

While Jensen opted to play just two players off the bench against Michigan, she had three others join the party against both Illinois and UCLA in the B1G Tournament.

Freshman Addie Deal and Journey Houston are the clear favorites when it comes to bench players. They each average exactly 15.9 minutes per game and have played in all 32 this season. Keep in mind, the only other players who have played in all 32 are Stremlow and Heiden.

Those two certainly have a role carved out on this team, but the way Iowa's matchups go will dictate how much playing time the likes of Layla Hays, Teagan Mallegni and Callie Levin earn. Of those three, Hays is the lone freshman.

Both Mallegni and Levin are sophomores but neither averages more than five minutes per game. Hays has played in all but two games this year as she averages 10.2 minutes per game, the third most of any bench player.

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