Marshall and Martin to return next season, Hawkeyes to honor seniors against Indiana

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - “When I think about just being done with basketball, it just like killed me,” Iowa redshirt senior guard Kate Martin explained.

Martin, known as the glue on the team, isn’t leaving Iowa City any time soon.

“There are once-in-a-lifetime players like Caitlin [Clark], but there are once-in-a-lifetime leaders like Kate too,” senior guard Gabbie Marshall said. “Not everything she does shows up on the box score, but what she does inside the locker room and in our team meanings, there are no words to describe it.”

After redshirting in 2018 due to an ACL injury, Martin will play a sixth year for the Hawkeyes in the 2023-2024 season.

“For me, it really was a no brainer,” said Martin. “Just with finishing my masters degree and getting to finish school debt free, with a masters degree, is pretty huge.”

In addition to Martin, Iowa’s top defender in Gabbie Marshall will return for a fifth year.

“It was really a no brainer for me too. There were thoughts like, can I do this mentally another year? Physically?” Marshall said. “This place is just very special to me and it’s been an honor to play under these coaches for the last four years.

With Marshall and Martin’s return, plus Caitlin Clark heading into her senior season, Iowa will have three four-year starters on next year’s roster.

“We are just so hopeful that these guys will come back. What they’ve meant to our program, how much success they’ve had and just what quality young women they are, you want to hang on to those people, right?” Iowa women’s basketball head coach Lisa Bluder said.

They will, however, say goodbye to McKenna Warnock and Monika Czinano. Warnock plans to conclude her basketball career and pursue dental school. Czinano, who is a fifth-year senior, hopes to play professionally after college, but is currently just living in the moment.

“I’m the type of person who I’m going to look back on it, get emotional and it’s going to hit me, but like this is still our season. I don’t have time to get emotional and think about myself and that kind of thing,” Czinano said. “We still got work to do.”

They’ll get quite the send off before tournament time begins. Second ranked Indiana will help the Hawkeyes close out the regular season in front of a sell out crowd, where ESPN’s College Game will make their first-ever appearance inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“We’re one of three locations in the whole country that has hosted a women’s basketball game day. It’s pretty amazing. It says a lot about our program. It says a lot for our attendance,” Bluder said.

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