The positives and the questions as this Iowa women's basketball season ends

IOWA CITY — For all the positive steps Iowa women's basketball took this year, many of them seemingly before the Hawkeyes were supposed to, the season-ending stumble revealed how hard those final few jumps can be. Iowa's 83-75 home loss to No. 10 seed Virginia in double-overtime on March 23 abruptly halted this overachieving campaign in the NCAA Tournament's second round.

Jan Jensen's second season as head coach ended exactly where her first one did, marking the first time in nearly a decade that Iowa (27-7) didn't reach the Sweet 16 in consecutive years. While there were plenty of items to point to as evidence this team was ready to handle the March Madness tension — a second-place Big Ten finish, defensive consistency that rarely wavered, a promising youthful nucleus with a few key veterans sprinkled in — what unfolded against the Cavaliers accentuated how much mental fortitude is still needed. The culmination of problems that did Iowa in weren't stunning issues that appeared out of nowhere.

Unreliable free-throw shooting, inconsistent production from beyond the arc and a true alpha absent when the pressure intensified can all split the blame evenly after the Hawkeyes faltered with ample chances to create a different outcome. Toss in a rotation that significantly shrunk as the season wore on, and Iowa operated with less room for error than its record indicated while trying to uphold an elite standard the program's recent surge has created. Everything goes under the microscope when a stunning loss like this one unfolds.

Plenty of significant growth happened while piling up the wins. The ending revealed what progress still remains. A look at what stands out from this season.