IOWA CITY — Given all the unknowns and intrigue surrounding this Iowa women’s basketball team, the questions are abundant from those invested far and wide.
So what do you do when there are a million inquiries?
Have a mailbag, of course.
So welcome to the Iowa women’s basketball mailbag, which we’ll run throughout the year starting with this preseason edition. Here, we’ll address topics covering just about everything a basketball campaign can spit out.
To submit questions, join Chad Leistikow’s Hawk Central text group and respond whenever there are requests for questions. It’ll work similarly to the text-group football column Chad writes weekly during the season.
With that, let’s get to your questions.
Who will be the go-to player late in possessions or in late-game situations?
A great question that likely won’t fully reveal itself until Iowa gets in the flow of the season, and after coach Jan Jensen sees how this group reacts to pressure situations.
Still, there are a few ways this could go.
Early on at least, if the Hawkeyes need a big bucket in a tight game coming down the stretch, Hannah Stuelke feels like option No. 1. Jensen talked a lot at media day about how with such a young group, the few veterans Iowa does have on this team will be asked to shoulder a hefty load right out of the gates. As for what that means regarding who a last-second play will be drawn up for, Stuelke seems to be the least risky answer to start. If a trey is needed in a similar spot, Taylor McCabe is the top priority shooting it.
Now, Jensen obviously hopes more late-game reliability reveals itself along the way. It pretty much has to if Iowa wants this season to end in a respectable spot. And the goal for any coach is to have everyone on the floor in tense moments mentally ready to deliver the dagger.
Young weapons Chit-Chat Wright and Addie Deal, both of whom have yet to soak in the controlled chaos that is Carver-Hawkeye Arena on gameday, are atop the list of players whose confidence should ascend as the big moments appear. Those two guards will have a lot of responsibility right off the bat and should feel way more comfortable handling it as the year goes on. Jensen needing either of them to deliver in the clutch at some point this year feels inevitable.
Who will the starting 5 be? Seems crazy that Addie Deal won’t start, but also kind of crazy for her to start over Kylie Feuerbach or Taylor McCabe?
Definitely a lot of directions Jensen could go here. And don’t be surprised if there is ample lineup tinkering, especially early on. As far as opening night against Southern goes, I think you’ll get Wright, Deal, Kylie Feuerbach, Stuelke and Ava Heiden as the first starting five.
Jensen already knows McCabe is comfortable coming off the bench and can do so productively without viewing a starting-lineup omission as a downside. The sharpshooting senior came off the bench in 15 of Iowa’s 34 games last season, averaging 6.7 points and two 3-pointers per game. Jensen knows her veteran guard will be in the right headspace to deliver whether her name gets called during introductions or not.
As for Deal, pay attention to what her early workload looks like. She’ll likely be an opening-night starter, but don’t expect Jensen to overload her right away given the depth the Hawkeyes possess. Deal does have lofty expectations and deservedly so as a 5-star prospect. However, her freshman status will inevitably be a hurdle to some degree. How Deal handles that adversity will reveal a lot about the path this first year will take.
And remember, as cliché as it is, who is on the floor to finish close games is way more significant than who starts the games. Assuming Iowa gets a tense affair early — whether against pesky non-conference foes Drake (Nov. 13) and UNI (Nov. 16), or possibly at the WBCA Showcase in Orlando (Nov. 20-22) — who Jensen has on the court down the stretch will show where her trust lies with this young roster.
I know there are a lot of similarities — both in philosophy and in practice — but now into her second year, what are one or two major differences between how Jan Jensen coaches compared to Lisa Bluder?
A great question because you’re right, there is obviously a ton of similarity in how they coach basketball and grow young women. But there is one differentiation, and it’s probably a big reason why Bluder retired when she did. The same can be said for older college coaches who’ve gotten out of the game within the last five years.
The NIL world is an exhausting one.
Jensen certainly doesn’t love every element of the current recruiting scene, where dollar signs and money-making opportunities probably dominate conversations more than culture and cohesion. But it’s clear the 56-year-old coach knows that leaning into it all is the most reasonable path to success, both on the high-school circuit and in the transfer portal.
Jensen has already acquired several significant pieces who, as much as they loved Iowa for all the intangibles, likely wouldn’t have picked the Hawkeyes without a strong NIL offer on the table. Whether that’s right or wrong, it’s just the reality of college athletics these days.
“In this era, it’s definitely more transactional,” Jensen said at Iowa’s Oct. 14 media day. “You all know it. It’s portal. It’s rev share. It’s this and that. So to remain true to who we are, I think a lot of us in coaching, it’s a challenge because everybody has camps. They’re coming in and they’re wanting to see things for their individual end. It’s a whole new era. But I’m glad. I think we’re doing a good job with it. But it is hard.”
We’ll never know entirely how Bluder, 64, would’ve handled the NIL world. She had only three seasons in it, at a time when Iowa’s roster had barely any turnover in the Hawkeyes’ march to consecutive national championship games. Several prominent college coaches who had been at it for decades like Bluder — people such as Nick Saban, Jay Wright and Tony Bennett — passed on the NIL takeover despite their coaching success to that point. At least to some degree, it’s likely that factored into Bluder’s retirement decision as well.
Jensen will be the first to tell you she’s not down with all the collegiate advancements of the last few years, and the NIL era undoubtedly makes it tougher for programs like Iowa to tout culture over dollars. But what’s clear is that Jensen remains all-in on finding the perfect balance to keep this train rolling.
Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Dargan Southard’s preseason Iowa women’s basketball mailbag
Reporting by Dargan Southard, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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