With the departure of Iowa women’s basketball legend Caitlin Clark and former head coach Lisa Bluder, very few expected the Hawkeyes to go as far as they did this season.
The Hawkeyes always had the talent to succeed, but the main question entering the season was how they could replace their lost veteran talent after Clark went first overall in the WNBA draft to the Indiana Fever, a huge loss in itself. The departure of Caitlin Clark, one of college basketball’s all-time great players who went first overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft to the Indiana Fever, was a huge loss in itself. That’s talent that cannot be replaced.
Then you add in Kate Martin, “the glue” and vocal leader who also turned pro. And defensive ace Gabbie Marshall, who retired from basketball in order to attend the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill for grad school. Losing your three best players plus the head coach of the team for the last 24 years usually equals a hard rebuild for the foreseeable future. But somehow, someway, this program stayed afloat, thanks to the famous Iowa culture.
“I’d like to think [the players are] coming in with a mentality, little chip on their shoulder because most everybody else is going to say, ‘Hey, you lost all that,’” first-year head coach Jan Jensen said at her introductory press conference on May 14, 2024. “This year was going to be a lot different in the sense of rebuilding in the sense of graduating seniors, including a generational player like Caitlin. A lot of people came for Caitlin, but they stayed for Hannah. They stayed for Syd. They certainly stayed for Kate and Gabbie. I think they stayed for what this team and culture is.”
And they stayed for this year, too.
The women’s basketball team sold out its tickets for the second-straight year in a matter of minutes, proving the success of the past two seasons would have a lingering effect for the near future.
It was also only a matter of minutes between Bluder retiring and Jensen being hired as her successor — a no-brainer for athletic director Beth Goetz to promote Bluder’s 24-year sidekick. She’s a true extension of the established foundation of the women’s basketball program.
“This is a seamless passing of the baton,” Goetz said at Jensen’s introductory press conference. “Jan models daily what it means to have a tireless work ethic, to lead with compassion and fiery passion and to be confident in who you are and how to go about chasing your dreams. Everything we needed in the next leader of this storied program was right here.”
There were several positive outcomes that came with Jensen’s promotion — the main one being that not one player entered the transfer portal. It’s been a common theme that tends to follow a coaching change, but not then.
In fact, the only roster change that happened through the transfer portal was the addition of Lucy Olsen, the third-highest scorer for the 2023-24 season behind Clark and Juju Watkins and the No. 1 rated player in the portal.
And because Jensen was the main recruiter throughout the Bluder era, she still retained the five committed freshmen that included four top-100 players in Ava Heiden, Aaliyah Guyton, Teagan Mallegni, Taylor Stremlow, and Callie Levin.
This year’s team was relatively young compared to last season’s team. And while the 2024-25 season was far from perfect, the Hawkeyes managed to see huge lengths of success.
“Obviously, building a new team and that chemistry, it’s gonna take a while,” Affolter told Scott Dochterman of The Athletic. “It definitely took longer than we would have wanted or anticipated. But I think we’ve done a great job.”
Jensen started the season 8-0, the best start to a coaching tenure in program history. Iowa showcased a versatile offense in its exhibition game against Missouri Western, with all 11 eligible players scoring in the 110-55 victory against the Griffons.
“I am grateful to have a team that did what they should’ve done tonight,” Jensen told HawkeyeSports after the game. “It’ll be a different feeling when the games count, and when we start playing our caliber of players, but I’m grateful to have this win.”
Jensen’s first win as a head coach, while not counted in the Hawkeyes’ record or standings, set the tone for an electrifying start to the season. Iowa averaged just shy of 78 points per game in the first eight games of the regular season, all while holding opponents to an average of just over 58 points per game.
By December, however, the pressure was piling on, and cracks were starting to show. While fans knew that this season would have ups and downs, the Hawkeyes’ first loss on Dec. 7 to a toughened Tennessee squad was cause for concern, specifically the Lady Vols’ 11-1 run over the contest’s final three minutes and 30 Iowa turnovers.
If December was a slap to the face, January came as a sucker punch. The Hawkeyes dropped five straight contests, none of them by more than eight points. Even though Iowa was favored against teams like Illinois and led squads like Nebraska and Oregon, all three of these games ended with losses.
“The Big Ten season’s a long season,” fourth-year Olsen said after the 62-57 loss to Illinois on Jan. 9. “There’s a lot of teams in there. Got to take every game one by one.”
Despite their spirit being far from broken and the optimism sticking around, the Hawkeyes’ postseason ambitions were in jeopardy. Iowa needed to turn things around, and it did just that.
A 24-point blowout on the road over Washington. A 76-69 upset over No. 4 USC on the same day that Clark’s No. 22 jersey was raised to the rafters. An 81-66 redemption at Nebraska, where Olsen scored 32 points. These moments were the Hawkeyes getting back on their feet, and as postseason play drew nearer, Iowa seemed to be back on track.
“We had a lot of those adverse moments, but growing is usually painful,” Jensen said after the Hawkeyes’ 20th win on March 2, an 81-66 triumph over Wisconsin. “If you use it right, the beautiful part can come, and this is, I think, a really beautiful part.”
Iowa had a lot to unpack after a tumultuous regular season, but per Jensen’s advice, the Hawkeyes grew from what had previously held them back, besting Wisconsin again and upsetting Michigan State, a previous loss, to reach the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.
“We’ve worked a lot in practice in different situations, so I think that’s helped,” Olsen said after Iowa bested the Spartans, 74-61. “Then all the games that we lost previously, we learned a lot of lessons from that as well. We didn’t want to lose that game. I think we all came together collectively to make sure that didn’t happen again.”
Although the Hawkeyes fell by a point to Ohio State in the following game, their turnaround had qualified them for March’s big event, and Iowa took the floor with vigor to start the NCAA tournament, beating 11th-seeded Murray State, 92-57, on March 22.
When the Hawkeyes’ season came to an end in the second round of the NCAA tournament against Oklahoma on March 24, Jensen’s first year was in the books: 23-11 overall, a breakout season for Olsen and the freshmen, and proof that Iowa women’s basketball is still on the map.