A Hawkeye and a Cyclone have both been named to the Associated Press preseason All-America team. Not surprisingly, that's never happened before.

It's a big day for women's college basketball in the state of Iowa with both Caitlin Clark of Iowa and Ashley Joens of Iowa State named among the six best women's players in the country. What makes it even better is that they're both native Iowans. If you don't have tickets for their game later this fall in Iowa City, I wouldn't wait to buy them.

Iowa junior guard Caitlin Clark (#22) was named to the AP Preseason All-America team today for the second straight year, the first time a Hawkeye has received the honor two years in a row. She was a unanimous pick for the upcoming season.

Clark, a West Des Moines native, led the nation in six categories last season, including points (27 per game), assists (8 per game), triple-doubles (5), and 30-point games (11). She was named Big Ten Player of the Year.

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Iowa State fifth-year senior guard Ashley Joens (#24) is the first Iowa State AP Preseason All-American in school history.

Joens, a native of Iowa City, is Iowa State's all-time leading scorer. She currently has 2,369 points. Joens has averaged over 20 points per game each of her last three seasons in Ames and in double digits every year. She has also averaged 9.5 rebounds or more per contest each of the last three seasons.

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Clark and Joens have been named the Preseason Player of the Year by the Big Ten and Big 12 respectively. Clearly two of the nation's best, Clark and Joens will meet as two of the country's finest teams go head-to-head on December 7 in Iowa City. The 6 p.m. tip-off between Iowa and Iowa State will be televised by ESPN2. The Wednesday night Cy-Hawk game in Iowa City will be one the entire nation is watching. The AP Top 25 Women's preseason poll has Iowa ranked 4th and Iowa State 8th.

*The other members of the AP Pre-Season All-America team are Aliyah Boston of South Carolina, Haley Jones of Stanford, Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech, and Aneesah Morrow of DePaul.

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