Iowa Center Confirms Return For Sophomore Season

While Iowa Hawkeyes fans likely see the center position and think of Ava Heiden, this announcement is regarding Layla Hays.

Hays took to social media on March 31 to reveal she's planning on returning to the program for the 2026-27 season.

Knowing Iowa just lost three players to the transfer portal, it's great to hear they'll have the 6-foot-5 center back in the fold.

Hays appeared in 31 games during her freshman season and averaged 9.9 minutes per game. Now that Hannah Stuelke has graduated and Addie Deal is entering the portal, there will undoubtedly be a bigger role awaiting the Alaskan native in 2026.

Layla Hays Confirms Return to Iowa

💛 https://t.co/Qkq2mwFNjI
— Layla Hays (@LaylaHays2) April 1, 2026

Iowa women's basketball shared a post that pushed fans to watch Class of 2026 recruit McKenna Woliczko on ESPN for the McDonald's All-American Game. Hays posted "Let's go Mckenna!!!" which got a response "hope to see you back at Iowa next year."

Hays response was simple, "Yesss". Hawkeyes reporter Kyle Heusmann' confirmed she'd be back in the fold next season to which Hays responded with a yellow heart emoji.

Previously, there had been a report floating around that two to three more Hawkeyes players could be entering the portal. Thankfully, Iowa now knows that Hays isn't one of those players. Having already lost three to the portal, Hays would've been a huge loss as this team's bench is already quite depleted.

Layla Hays' Bright Future

Yessss
— Layla Hays (@LaylaHays2) April 1, 2026

One of the biggest issues in this era of college sports is that players don't want to sit around and wait. There's no loyalty anymore, no matter if it's an athlete's home state they are playing for or not. Callie Levin is a prime example of that. The Iowa native mentioned this was her dream school, but sadly, she wasn't getting the playing time she thought she deserved and that was a big reason for her departure.

For Hays, she knows she's still extremely young and can develop into a star under Jan Jensen. Jensen already made Heiden one of the premier players in the nation, so there's no reason to believe she can't do the same with Hays.

For what it's worth, Hays did see the court in Iowa's double overtime loss to Virginia in the NCAA Tournament. It was only one minute, but just getting out there is all that matters. Hays will come back stronger and better than ever for her sophomore season as this program continually develops recruits into top players.

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