ALBANY, N.Y. — The all-time winningest coach in school history. A three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year with five conference tournament titles. Eight straight 20-plus win seasons, including a program-high 32 victories this year.
These are just a few of the milestones Iowa women’s basketball head coach Lisa Bluder has achieved in her 24 seasons at the helm.
On Monday, Bluder’s Hawkeyes will compete in their third Elite Eight in the last five national tournaments. This time, Iowa will face the defending national champion LSU Tigers. Iowa fell to LSU, 102-85, in the NCAA title game last year.
“I’ve always wanted to play for her ever since I was a little kid, and I’m so glad that she’s still here and that I’ve gotten to play for her for six years,” guard Kate Martin said. “I’m really glad that she’s getting the recognition that she deserves because what she’s done is incredible.”
Growing up, Bluder said she didn’t have female role models like you see in sports today. There was no coverage of women’s basketball. There wasn’t an Olympic team. Little girls had no idea what they could achieve. Six-year-old Bluder wouldn’t be able to comprehend where women’s basketball is today, the head coach said.
Even without someone to model her game after, Bluder always had a desire to compete, to come out on top in the final box score. It was Bluder who wore down the hoop in her childhood driveway and asked for the bushes to be trimmed down so she could shoot from further out, not her two older brothers.
From playing six-on-six high school basketball to having the third-most wins among active Division I head coaches, Bluder was destined to be one of the faces involved in the explosion of women’s basketball.
“It’s the best time to be a female athlete. I mean, look at Paige [Bueckers], Juju [Watkins], and Hannah [Hidalgo]. I mean, I can go on and on about the tremendous talent that is coming up,” Bluder said. “This is not the pinnacle. In my opinion, this is just the start of it.”
She started her coaching career at St. Ambrose, where she transformed the Bees into an NAIA powerhouse over six seasons. Registering a 169–36 overall record with the Bees, Bluder’s 1990 squad was No. 1 in the nation, and she earned NAIA Converse Coach of the Year. Bluder then moved on to Drake, compiling a 187-106 record during her 10 seasons in Des Moines.
She took over the head coaching job at Iowa in 2000 and has since become one of 27 Division I coaches to win 20-plus NCAA Tournament games at one school. Along with leading the Hawkeyes to their first national title appearance last season, Bluder has given National Player of the Year Caitlin Clark a platform to shine. LSU head coach Kim Mulkey said she has great respect for what Bluder has done in her career and her ability to adjust coaching styles to fit her athletes.
“She’s a Hall of Fame coach,” Clark said of Bluder. “Over the course of my four years, I don’t know if I would have the type of success I do if I didn’t have amazing teammates but also a coach who really allows me to be myself. For that, I’m forever grateful. She’s one of the best our game has ever seen.”
Something that Clark and Martin both mentioned is Bluder cares more about them as people rather than for their talents on the court. The two veterans said Bluder believes every single person on the team matters, and she makes sure each athlete knows how important they are. One of the walls in Iowa’s locker room displays the values Bluder tries to instill in each of her players: Positive Attitude. Respect. Integrity. Discipline.
“Our values are not just slapped on a wall,” Bluder said. “If you ask our players what our values are, they would be able to recite them because it’s ingrained in what we do all the time.”
Bluder constantly preaches about ignoring outside voices and only caring about those in Iowa’s tight-knit group. One of Bluder’s most well-known traditions is having her team sit in a circle at mid-court pregame. This is a circle full of encouragement, love, and trust. For Sharon Goodman, sitting in this circle gives her time to “center” herself. Before the Sweet 16, Bluder went around the circle and told each of her players something she loved about them.
The strong bond between Hawkeye players on the court is a byproduct of how Bluder treats everyone off of it. Bluder, a Naismith Trophy Coach of the Year finalist for the second straight year, is who Martin said she hopes to emulate once her playing days are over and she transitions into a coaching role.
“I think it’s really important that your players see honesty when you’re talking to them, that you’re trustworthy, that you do what you say you’re going to do when you’re supposed to do it,” Bluder said. “What you ultimately stand for, what your morals and values are, hopefully they don’t change as you have success or have failures. You hopefully are the same person no matter what. I hope that I’m the same person that I was when my mom and dad raised me.”