Talk about an instant turnaround.
After suffering a five-game losing streak in mid-January, their longest since 2013, the Iowa women’s basketball team responded with six straight wins, including a massive upset victory over No. 4 USC on Feb. 2.
The losing woes caused many fans to lose all hope for an NCAA tournament bid, but the Hawkeyes have completely flipped that around and are right back in the mix for a postseason spot.
While head coach Jan Jensen has admitted there were “tweaks” with the rotations and gameplans, she said they were “nothing wholesale.”
“We’ve tweaked a few things offensively,” Jensen added. “Defense has kind of been our calling card. I think [it is] what has really served us well.”
Iowa’s rotation consists of a veteran starting lineup and a young bench — an imbalance of experience. The Hawkeyes saw great success earlier in the season, but hitting that mid-season roadblock, especially in a very competitive conference, was bound to happen.
All teams go through adversity during a long college basketball season, but it’s the great teams that adjust and persevere through the tough times. As the calendar nears March, Iowa appears to be hitting its stride at the right time.
“By February, you really want to be trying to play your best basketball,” Jensen said. “So, I think it’s comfortability, that synergy, and I think it just takes a little longer. And the younger you are, it’s going to take longer.”
While the Hawkeyes’ underclassmen have upped their production during the winning streak, the veterans have also woken up from their slumber. The most notable example of this has been the play of fourth-year guard Lucy Olsen, who looks to have regained her footing.
Olsen’s numbers took a dip during the five-game skid, averaging only 12.2 points, 4.2 assists, and 3.4 rebounds per game on 32 percent shooting from the floor. She was held under 20 points in all six contests, including two single-digit scoring nights.
Since then, the senior has turned a massive corner, posting 22 points, six assists, and 3.8 rebounds per game during the recent winning stretch. Highlighting this period was a 32-point outing against Nebraska on Feb. 10, her third game of 20 or more points during the streak.
“She’s playing freer,” Jensen said. “We just try to get her to play freer and lighter, and just [trying] all different kinds of mechanisms to do that.”
Arguably, the most important factor was finding that middle ground — riding the waves of the season but staying level-headed through the ups and downs.
“I think the key is always trying as much as you can to stay in the middle,” Jensen said. “Because anything in life, when it shifts too extreme too much, it’s never really great. One of my favorite quotes is, ‘Usually nothing is ever as bad as it seems or as good as it seems, but somewhere in the middle reality lies.’”
Now sitting at 18-8 overall and 8-7 in Big Ten play, Iowa now looks ahead to a tough slate to end the regular season.
The Hawkeyes have three games remaining, one on the road against Michigan, and home matchups against No. 3 UCLA and Wisconsin.
While UCLA is one of the best teams in the country, Rutgers and Wisconsin sit near the bottom of the Big Ten standings and pose favorable matchups.
Michigan recently fell out of the Associated Press Top-25, but the Wolverines still present a tough challenge for the Black and Gold.
“We play in a really, really hard league, and in the middle of this league, if your name’s not UCLA or USC, you look at the scores, and it’s just everybody beating up on each other,” Jensen said. “I’m just so happy that they’ve got a few wins to keep building on.”