IOWA CITY, Iowa — While the names change, Iowa women’s basketball’s high expectations remain.

The Hawkeyes have won at least 20 games in nine straight seasons. Winning is a part of the program’s culture.

The preseason Big Ten media poll has Iowa outside of the top five, but these Hawkeyes aren’t afraid of a challenge.

“It doesn’t feel like pressure. It just feels like an expectation from ourselves. We expect to be a winning program, we expect to be a winning team, we expect to be a threat at every level, and against anyone we are playing against,” said Taylor McCabe, an Iowa senior guard. “I think we can sometimes set our expectations a little too high and then be disappointed but that only makes us better and makes us want to compete every day in practice, so I think that’s also a good thing. It kind of seems like we are the villain of the league a little bit, and I kind of like that because I don’t feel like we need to be the underdog. We’ve played a lot of different roles. Like I’ve played the underdog role since being here, we’ve played the returning Big Ten champs and things like that so we’ve been in a lot of different roles, but I don’t mind the villain role too much. It’s kind of fun upsetting teams and beating teams you’re not supposed to and when you do beat teams you’re supposed to you’re just like, ‘alright, on to the next.’”

“When Caitlin (Clark) was here that was the standard and I think we’ve tried to keep that standard high and that’s what keeps bringing 15,000 people in here every year so that’s what we want to keep welcoming moving forward,” said Taylor Stremlow, an Iowa sophomore guard. “Always what you dream of doing, doing what you love and you’re competing against everybody else who is also doing what they love, and we are going to get their best shot every time, especially in front of so many fans. So we are ready for it, we welcome it and we are excited for this season.”

“When I look at our schedule, we have a competitive non-conference schedule, and my goal is, as we morph into all these different roles, to use that non-conference as a training,” said Jan Jensen, Iowa women’s basketball head coach. “We always do, but I think you’re going to see a lot in that non-conference. My goal is by the time we hit that Big Ten season that we’re going to look a lot different then. But the possibilities are so exciting. It’s a new year, and I know that the patience and the energy it takes to form a team. The team forming is always exciting, but it also takes a lot of energy, and I love the energy that my squad has.”