March Madness is upon us which means a lot of upsets, insane stat lines, and Cinderella runs. Another crucial part of this time of the year is the crossover between big college programs, mid-majors, and teams just starting to make a name for themselves. Coach Maureen Magarity's Holy Cross basketball squad lies in between those two latter categories. They are first in the Patriot League and have a chance to enter the Women's NCAA Tournament if they win against UT Martin. Who awaits them after? Oh, just Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Holy Cross has arrived in the home of the Iowa basketball program for the NCAA Tournament. Before March Madness even started, the team in the First Four decided to shoot some content. Janelle Allen of the Crusaders posted a hilarious TikTok that made rounds all over the internet. There, they featured the court and it seemed like they were amazed at it. The video was described as ‘POV: you're a 16 seed going to a #1-ranked school', via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.

While they still have work to do against UT Martin, Coach Maureen Magarity has the chance to face the Iowa basketball program next. Make no mistake, this team is not at all a slouch despite their ranking. The Crusaders netted 21 wins and won the Patriot League over a fairly strong Boston University. They have also not lost their last four games.

Along with Allen and Simone Foreman manning the inside, Bronagh Power-Cassidy is also a strong scoring presence who could scare both UT Martin and Iowa. In their conference tournament title game, Power-Cassidy notched 21 points by going eight for 15 on field goal attempts.

Iowa, battle-ready for a title run

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Those numbers are all far from the production that Caitlin Clark brings to the Iowa basketball squad but the essence of March Madness equalizes them. After all, the first seed is never safe from the wrath of the 16-seed come the NCAA Tournament. Just last year, FDU pulled off one of the greatest miracles from the First Four en route to bringing Purdue back to the ground.

While the uncertainty of March Madness looms over every team, Clark will make sure she gets the last laugh. Her storybook season before being the first-overall pick in the WNBA Draft cannot end one of the biggest losses in the NCAA Tournament. She has gotten extremely close to winning it last year if not for a stacked LSU Tigers squad. Now, as her foes start to dwindle, the Iowa basketball program has all the momentum to win it all.

The Hawkeyes rank first in all of college basketball in points per game. They score an average of 92.8 on a nightly basis. Iowa is also second in field goal percentage due to knocking down 50.3% of their shots from all three levels of scoring. More importantly, everyone is able to find the open man. This has netted them the most assists per contest over any team in college basketball with an average of 21.9 per game.

Will all of this be enough to push them to a national championship?