In athletics, there is rarely an occupation with a higher turnover rate than a coach.

Researchers from the Stanford Graduate School of Business recently found that 30 and 21 percent of NBA and NFL teams, respectively, have a coach leave in an average year. These numbers typically are higher for assistant coaches who are trying to work their way up the ranks.

This makes the Iowa women’s basketball team so unique, as head coach Lisa Bluder has been at the helm for the past two decades, making her the longest-tenured coach in the Big Ten and the winningest coach in program history.

Now, in her 24th season, Bluder is leading the Hawkeyes to their 13th NCAA Tournament appearance. Iowa will host the first and second rounds in Carver-Hawkeye Arena this weekend as the No. 1 seed in the Albany 2 Region.

However, like Tex Winter and Jim Cleamons were for Phil Jackson, Bluder has had a pair of assistant coaches at her side through every moment of her historical run at Iowa.

“You hire people who can cover up your weaknesses,” Bluder said last October. “I think I’ve done that with Jan and Jenni.”

Assistant coaches Jan Jensen and Jenni Fitzgerald accompanied Bluder to Iowa when she departed from Drake in the spring of 2000 and have remained with the Hawkeyes ever since.

Along with assistant coaches Abby Stamp and Raina Harmon, who have been on Bluder’s staff for 15 and seven seasons, respectively, Iowa has the longest-tenured coaching staff in the Big Ten. Iowa’s current coaches average 14.14 seasons spent on a team compared to the conference average of 4.02.

Now, the staff is trying to capitalize on a veteran lineup led by star guard Caitlin Clark to make a deep run in the tournament and further last year’s success — making it to the national championship for the first time in program history.

“She instills a confidence and a belief that propels her team to hopefully and typically meet their highest expectations, and even push a little bit higher,” Jensen said of Bluder. “It’s Lisa’s constant push for ‘better’ and her intensity to never allow mediocrity that elevates all those around her.”

Coach to best friend

Jensen and Fitzgerald were first introduced to Bluder during their senior season playing basketball for Drake University, as the then 30-year-old Bluder accepted the head coaching job for the Bulldogs after six seasons at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.

After two straight seasons of averaging more than 15 points per game, Jensen was hesitant at first about Bluder’s hiring potentially disrupting things at Drake.

“The coach who recruited you and believed in you is gone, and there was always a fear that no matter how good you were, the new coach can come in and want to play freshman or people they recruited,” Jansen said on The Daily Iowan’sPress Box Banter podcast.

Jensen’s attitude toward her new head coach quickly changed once she saw how Bluder blended a desire to be great while also keeping the game fun and enjoyable for the players.

“Our previous coach was very hard-nosed: either you do this or that,” Jensen said. “Lisa was the first coach I had who had the balance and the approach of you can work hard and play hard, win or lose.”

In Jensen’s first and only season with Bluder, she averaged 29.6 points per game, becoming the first of three Bluder-coached players to lead the nation in scoring.

After briefly parting ways to explore personal interests, Jensen and Fitzgerald both returned to Drake in 1993 as graduate assistants. They were quickly promoted, with Jensen becoming Bluder’s first assistant coach and Fitzgerald handling administrative duties.

The trio coached the Bulldogs to five 20-plus win seasons and reached the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament eight times.

After Angie Lee stepped down as head coach of the Iowa women’s basketball team in 2000, former athletics director Christine Grant hired Bluder as the fifth head coach in program history.

When it came time to assemble her staff at Iowa, Bluder knew she wanted Jensen and Fitzgerald to be included.

“I knew we had a winning combination,” Bluder said. “We had a dream [leaving Drake] that we wanted to go to a Final Four and fill Carver.”

Since joining Iowa, Bluder and Co. have amassed a 523–252 record for the Iowa women’s team, reaching the postseason in 22 out of 24 seasons. Most recently, the trio won its fifth Big Ten Tournament — Iowa’s third consecutive conference title — with a 94-89 overtime win against Nebraska.

And this season, the women’s team sold out all regular season games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first time.

“We are each other’s best friends,” Fitzgerald told *The Cedar Rapids Gazette*. “We’ve been very blessed to be great friends and be able to coach together.”

Stamp joined the coaching staff in 2009 as director of operations after four seasons playing under the trio. Harmon joined in 2017 after spending the previous seven years as an assistant at Michigan and Central Michigan.

“I didn’t know Coach Bluder well prior to the hire, but during my interview process, I could tell that she and her staff were very genuine,” Harmon said in May 2017.

Coaching styles

Bluder’s coaching staff is made up of those who know her brand of basketball the best.

Despite dominating as a guard during her playing career, Jensen has found most of her success coaching predominantly forwards and centers in the post.

Jensen worked with center Megan Gustafson, who broke conference and NCAA records during her four years at Iowa. She became the consensus player of the year in 2019 and helped the Hawkeyes reach the Elite Eight.

Recently, Jensen worked with center Monika Czinano, who finished her Iowa career with 2,413 points and 787 rebounds and became the 17th Hawkeye to go to the WNBA when she was taken with the 26th overall pick in last year’s draft.

Jensen said she gets too much credit for the success of Iowa’s post players and that it all stems from the type of players she and the coaching staff recruit.

“They buy into what we are about, and I believe in getting really good at the basics and doing a lot of drills to be the best in the world,” Jensen said. “Megan did it, and Monika came very close, too.”

Last season, Jensen was recognized as the 2023 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association assistant coach of the year.

“Jenni Fitzgerald could’ve easily gotten that [award],” Jensen said. “I am a reflection of everybody I work with, certainly Coach Bluder.”

Though her title and responsibilities have changed throughout the years, Fitzgerald mostly works with Iowa’s perimeter players while also having a role in recruiting.

Guard Sydney Affolter said Jensen and Fitzgerald both played a big role in her recruiting to Iowa and that they see players as more than just a number on a jersey.

“Whether you play 30 minutes a game or you don’t play at all, they emphasize that you’re just as important as the person next to you, and I think everyone can feel that,” Affolter said.

Stamp and Harmon also help with perimeter players. The latter was recently named to the 2024 ABIS Head Coach Watch List by the Advancement of Blacks in Sport Committee.

“Coach Raina has helped me with so much stuff since I’ve been here,” forward Hannah Stuelke said. “I struggled a lot during my freshman year learning the offense, and she was always there to kind of walk me through things whenever I needed.”

The most recent addition to the coaching staff is Tania Davis, who joined the program before this season after being an assistant coach for Omaha women’s basketball from 2021-2023.

Like Stamp, Davis is the latest former player to be coached by Bluder and join her coaching staff. The now-director of player development started 87 games at guard for the Hawkeyes between 2015 and 2019.

Davis told the DI last June that transitioning from player to coach at Iowa was effortless due to the trust Bluder and the other coaches have in her.

“If I open my mouth and I speak, whether it’s during a practice, during a meeting, or anything, [Bluder’s] going to listen, trust, and hear me out just because she knows that I understand the game of basketball,” Davis said.

Bluder’s teaching of future coaches won’t stop with Davis. Guard and sixth-year senior Kate Martin have expressed interest in coaching once her playing days are over, which is supported by Jensen, Martin’s aunt.

“I couldn’t ask for a better set of coaches to learn from and to implement coaching styles that I want to do one day as well,” Martin said.