IOWA CITY — Of the four major sports at Iowa, the NCAA’s new age-based model to allow student-athletes to use five years of eligibility over five years could potentially have the biggest immediate impact in women’s basketball.
And the best player on Jan Jensen’s Hawkeye team indicated she would use that new rule to stay in college an extra year.
Ava Heiden, Iowa’s star center going into her junior season, said after a June 25 practice at Carver-Hawkeye Arena that she was enthusiastic about the NCAA’s ruling and would likely play another three years at Iowa.
“Three more years? I feel like I’m a freshman again. It’s so much longer to go,” Heiden said. “But it’s also a great thing to look forward to, because I get to play around these guys for longer and keep those friendships alive and just grow together as people and a team. I think I’d stay.”
Certainly, Heiden could have a WNBA decision in about 21½ months after her fourth year. She’s that good, having ascended to a first-team all-Big Ten Conference season as a sophomore. The nimble and athletic 6-foot-4 Oregon native scored 55 points in Iowa’s two NCAA Tournament games. For the season, she averaged 18.0 points and 7.2 rebounds while shooting 64.1% from the floor.
But Heiden is also wired a little differently — not entirely focused on basketball, with bigger-picture goals. She is a well-rounded person and outstanding student. Heiden is a double major in finance and risk management.
“Jeez, I’d get grad school paid for. That’s something that’s a big goal for me, education,” Heiden said. “Might as well utilize that and keep staying in great shape and playing basketball for a team that I love and coaches that I love.”
If Heiden were to stay for three more years at Iowa, that would open up a wider window to accomplish the coaching staff’s goals of returning to the Final Four in the post-Caitlin Clark era. Iowa went 27-7 last season and was a No. 2 seed in the NCAAs but lost to Virginia in the second round.
With a junior-led roster next season — Heiden, Taylor Stremlow, Dani Carnegie and Chit-Chat Wright all going into their third years — it was thought that Iowa had a nice two-year window of opportunity ahead. A three-year window would be a huge win, although Jensen isn’t spiking the basketball at that thought just yet.
In today’s pay-for-play world where athletes can become free agents after every season, she knows that retaining a roster is a huge, high-priced challenge in college sports.
“You’re just operating that hopefully you get all these people for that extra year,” Jensen said. “… I don’t think anybody’s really had a deep dive into the conversations. I’d love it if we could be really good, and you could hold your team. But we’re living in the most unique times. Everything is kind of a year-by-year basis. I think it’s promising.”
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 31 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.
This article originally appeared on Hawk Central: Ava Heiden wants to play at Iowa for 3 more years. That’s huge | Leistikow
Reporting by Chad Leistikow, Des Moines Register / Hawk Central
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chad Leistikow, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
