IOWA CITY — One of the attractive elements of the Iowa women’s basketball program, even before the Caitlin Clark era cranked up exposure exponentially, was the togetherness and camaraderie that the teams showed year after year.
And now into her third offseason as the Hawkeyes’ head coach, Jan Jensen is feeling that program dynamic that she and Lisa Bluder crafted over 20-plus years being put to the test.
Can today’s professional landscape mesh with the traditional college model? Especially a team-oriented one like Hawkeye women’s basketball?
“It’s not the college days of yore,” Jensen said in an April 9 interview with the Des Moines Register. “I think people have to just reframe it. It’s truly a whole new landscape.”
Jensen’s raspy voice, having been on the phone constantly since the transfer portal opened on the morning of April 6, underscored the exhaustion that someone in her seat is feeling these days. There are nearly 1,400 new names in the portal, including five from Jensen’s 2025-26 Hawkeyes. Four or five per Division I team is about the average.
For a program that’s accustomed to zero or one outgoing transfers a year, this was unusual for Iowa. In explaining her big-picture view of things, Jensen gave the example of any person in a job who might receive a professional opportunity elsewhere with a new employer that can maybe offer longer lunch breaks, a better title and more pay.
“It doesn’t mean you didn’t enjoy your experience,” Jensen said. “It just means you got a job (offer) with better perks. And sometimes, that’s what is happening. The young people making these decisions, you hope they’re leaving for the best-case scenario.
“What is happening, unfortunately, is a lot of misinformation. There’s a lot of tampering. A lot of bad actors that want people to jump into the portal and chase the money.”
That’s where the exhaustion and portal pandemonium set in.
Even for players who choose to stay, the process is not what it used to be in today’s pay-for-play era of big-time college sports. For many players (and/or their parents and agent), having a scholarship is no longer enough. Jensen and all Division I coaches have to marry differing five- and six-figure player payments with their rah-rah locker-room dynamic.
Even if players are not supposed to talk about how much they’re making due to non-disclosure agreements, word inevitably gets around one way or another. And those numbers might not be accurate. None of this data is documented publicly, creating a Wild West of what’s fact or fiction, of what’s possible elsewhere and what’s actually not.
Jensen offered a few more big-picture thoughts.
“If you’re blessed to have good mentors in our lives, what did people teach us? Don’t chase the money,” Jensen said. “Make sure you choose a profession where you’re happy. Make sure you surround yourself with good people. Make sure that you’re making decisions on what’s real, what’s true. But in this world, a lot of what’s real and true … boy, it’s a lot to weather.”
What about Iowa’s portal departures of freshman Addie Deal, sophomores Emely Rodriguez, Teagan Mallegni and Callie Levin and junior Kennise Johnson?
“There’s a lot of transition for everyone. Fans, it’s not always what you think. It’s not always bad. It’s … a decision,” Jensen said. “Sometimes it’s mutual. Sometimes it’s very amicable. Sometimes it’s surprising. Sometimes it’s disappointing. But isn’t that life? You just have to navigate it and focus on who is on the team.”
Looking at Iowa, the five players who left were — at most — minor on-court factors for a squad that went 27-7 and finished second in the 18-team Big Ten Conference, behind national champion UCLA, and earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. As the Register interview continued, Jensen spoke directly about the two highest-interest departures and what’s coming next for her Hawkeyes.
Jensen offers thoughts on Addie Deal’s departure
Of the five portal entries, Deal’s garnered the most outside angst. And that’s understandable, considering Iowa started recruiting her out of California as a high school sophomore, worked to retain her after Bluder retired and Jensen took over … only to see the five-star prospect depart after one college season.
“I appreciate all of her hard work. I wish her the best,” Jensen said. “She’s got a great skill set. For whatever reason, it just didn’t work out.”
One of the most common complaints from Iowa fans after hearing the Deal news was that if Jensen had played her more, she wouldn’t have been prone to leaving so soon. Iowa instead rode the hot hand of Taylor Stremlow in the starting lineup during an eight-game winning streak.
Deal averaged 3.0 points in her final 14 games with the Hawkeyes, going 15-for-59 from the floor (25.4%) with 20 assists and 22 turnovers.
“I get it. But at the end of the day, we want to win more than anybody as a coaching staff,” Jensen said. “Our jobs are the ones on the line, per se.
“Based on all the data at hand, the analytics and just watching how things unfold, you’re just trying to play the best combination possible each game to give you a chance to win. That’s always going to be debatable if (playing time) was the reason or not the reason.
“I thought our development plan (for Deal) was great. As you stay in the program and continue to attack that development process, hopefully everybody continues to get better and gets an opportunity.”
The Deal saga this cycle definitely epitomized the push/pull that athletes and coaches are feeling in this new world.
Deal, understandably, wants to play more and probably will get more money elsewhere with her five-star stature carrying promise. From Iowa’s perspective, it made more sense to invest in proven returning production. Iowa was 0-3 in Deal’s three starts.
“When everybody’s playing for the good of the team and pushing the team forward, that’s when the magic happens,” Jensen said. “That’s the hardest part in this culture. The rules are set up that they’re forcing everybody into a pro model. But we’re still in college.”
Why didn’t Emely Rodiguez work out for Iowa?
The most confounding story among the five departures was forward Emely Rodriguez, even though it felt inevitable as early as December that she would not return as a Hawkeye. The UCF transfer arrived with much promise and upside. But her final Iowa minutes came during the season’s sixth game vs. Miami of Florida in a Thanksgiving-week tournament.
The Register’s Dargan Southard did a good job capturing the entirety of Rodriguez’s strange Iowa saga in his article confirming her transfer-portal entry. In a nutshell, there was a wild in-game decision vs. Baylor, a mysterious back injury, a brief team suspension … and Jensen continuing to bring her along on road trips even though there was no chance she would play.
“She was a little behind, and then the injury happened, and she just never really got cleared to be a part of things,” Jensen said. “I’m very proud that we continued to hopefully train her and treat her back and get her strengthened through whatever decision she was going to make. At the end of the day, it was best that she chose to go find another stop. Hopefully she’ll find the right match this time that can really help her.”
On both sides, this was a portal mismatch. Rodriguez’s improvisational style didn’t fit with Iowa’s more structured system. And Jensen found comfort leaning on Hannah Stuelke and Journey Houston at the “4” spot, though she certainly could have used a shot-creator like Rodriguez, too.
Regarding why Rodriguez didn’t work, Jensen used the analogy of a burly construction worker who can “carry whatever equipment you need,” she said. “But if it’s not really working, he’s got to go to a different construction site.
“(Maybe) he doesn’t feel as fulfilled. Or maybe he can’t do all the tasks, right? It doesn’t mean it’s all terrible. We just need to find a different construction site. You can’t always know. You can’t always be 100% right.”
Ava Heiden’s return story leads Jensen’s core six
Losing players gets headlines. The new players who arrive will get headlines. But current players who are staying deserve headlines, too. Maybe this cycle will help all of us not take those things for granted going forward.
On that note, Jensen said there was zero drama or uncertainty about whether sophomore All-Big Ten center Ava Heiden would return. Heiden came into her postseason meeting and was laser-focused on how she could improve.
“I’m just really grateful. She is so driven. She has found her spot,” Jensen said. “When you find your spot and trust the process, a lot of good things follow.”
In a college world without long-term contracts and unlimited transfers, those stories are becoming rare, or at least underappreciated.
Heiden’s sophomore season was incredible. She became one of the nation’s most dominant centers, less than a year after being a role player for the Hawkeyes. Heiden scored 55 points in Iowa’s two NCAA Tournament games.
“That’s your core piece. So many people are going to use that for leverage, whereas she was just, ‘I’m with you,’” Jensen said. “There are a lot of those stories that don’t get talked about.”
Also expected back are guards Chit-Chat Wright and Taylor Stremlow, forward Journey Houston and center Layla Hays, plus incoming freshman McKenna Woliczko (the No. 6 overall recruit in the Class of 2026). That’s a good six-pack starting point.
Jensen was especially excited about players entering Year 2 in the program — Wright, Houston and Hays — with hopes that they’ll experience jumps as Stremlow and Heiden did as sophomores.
“You look at a Kate Martin or a Gabbie Marshall in their progression, this new world doesn’t always allow that,” Jensen said. “I’m really excited to see the jump for Journey, with a lot of hard work (and) with Layla, with continued hard work. … They’re just great young women. That’s what I love. My team is built on great young women, first and foremost. To have that great nucleus coming back, that’s exciting for our staff.”
What positions is Iowa targeting in the transfer portal?
The Register has confirmed and reported a completed visit for Iowa State guard Kenzie Hare and ongoing/upcoming visits with Georgia guard Dani Carnegie (a first-team all-SEC player), Lindenwood guard Ellie Brueggemann (the nation’s top 3-point shooter) and Oklahoma State guard Amari Whiting. Carnegie will be a junior; the other three will be seniors.
There will be more names, too. But that’s an early indication of the feverish activity that is occurring … and why Jensen’s voice is a bit hoarse. While rules allow Iowa as many as 15 scholarships, a more realistic roster size after this cycle is 10 to 12, especially since there are no seniors on the current roster. Iowa needs to make room for the Class of 2027, which for now includes committed guard Jada Seubert from the state of Wisconsin.
“We’d certainly like to add three to four pieces, for sure,” Jensen said. “Then we’ll kind of see … if we want to add anyone else.”
Specifically, Jensen wants a true combo guard who can handle the ball so that Wright doesn’t have to play 35-plus minutes a game. Stremlow shouldered some of that load last season, but she’s more suited for a small-forward position.
Iowa desperately needs 3-point shooting, too, a glaring hole that popped up in the double-overtime loss to Virginia in the NCAA Tournament. The season-ending knee injury of Taylor McCabe underscored the Hawkeyes’ need for long-range effectiveness. Solving that would help loosen up room around Heiden. Two shooting guards would be ideal.
“If we can get that by committee, that’s when you’re really good,” Jensen said.
A power forward is desired, too, to give Iowa depth at the “3” and “4” spots and to take pressure off Woliczko.
The Hawkeyes are also aiming to replenish the locker-room positivity that players like Johnson, Levin and outgoing senior Jada Gyamfi brought.
“I want to start with really great people that match. That’s what we’re doing right now, vetting. We’ve had some great interest,” Jensen said. “The portal sometimes, everybody wants it to go really fast. The longer you can vet and really take the time and get kids to visit, that usually bodes pretty well.”
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 Des Moines Register: Jan Jensen talks Iowa women’s basketball portal exits, what’s next | Leistikow
Reporting by Chad Leistikow, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
