Iowa coach Lisa Bluder talks with her assistants during an NCAA Tournament second-round game against Creighton on March 20, 2022 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)
Jan Jensen Reveals Keys to Lisa Bluder's Success
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Jan Jensen played basketball for Lisa Bluder at Drake. She’s now Bluder’s associate head coach at Iowa.
So Jensen has first-hand knowledge of what makes her coach-turned-boss so successful.
“Lisa simply loves to compete and loves to win,” Jensen said.
Bluder does know something about winning. The 2019 Naismith Coach of the Year picked up her 234th Big Ten victory on Saturday against Minnesota, passing C. Vivian Stringer as the league’s all-time leader.
“Fair, intense, competitive and always pushing for greatness,” Jensen said of Bluder, a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year. “She always holds her players accountable to do all they can to be their best.”
Jan Jensen
Iowa assistant coach Jan Jensen claps during pregame introductions before an NCAA Tournament second-round game against Creighton on March 20, 2022 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)
Lisa’s won 471 games at Iowa, passing Stringer as the program’s winningest coach in 2014. She has 827 victories overall in a career that started at St. Ambrose in 1984-85, jumped to Drake in 1990-91 and brought her to Iowa in 2000-01.
Twenty-five 20-win seasons and 20 NCAA bids have come since she accepted the St. Ambrose job for $2,500 a year. She’s a $1 million coach now, but Lisa Bluder remains unchanged.
“Truly one of the most humble people in the game that I have ever met,” Jensen said. “From the day I met her as a young player through every huge win, every milestone, including becoming the all-time winningest coach in the Big Ten, Lisa has never, ever made it anything about her. Not once.”
Bluder arrived at Drake for Jensen’s senior season.
“I can still remember how it felt when she pushed and believed in me as a player,” said Jensen, who led the nation in scoring that season at 29.6 points a game. “I believed I could accomplish anything and we would all push through the proverbial wall. And even though just a “few’ years have passed, her passion in motivating her players has never lessened. Her players still believe they can achieve anything and they’re still pushing through walls. I think that sums up Lisa best.”
Jensen played a big part in recruiting all-Americans Megan Gustafson and Caitlin Clark, who have led the nation in scoring four of the last five seasons. But Bluder’s impact on their careers is unmistakable.
“She’s one of the best of all time,” Clark said after Bluder got that milestone victory Saturday. “That’s why I came here.”
Bluder has always been a coach who accentuates the positive.
“She’s masterful at highlighting a player’s strengths while minimizing their weaknesses,” Jensen observed. “She’ll address the weaknesses in the off-season. But during the season, she’ll find a way to put so much emphasis on the strengths that the weaknesses will typically fade into the background. This may seem insignificant. But I’ve always felt this to be part of her success. Many coaches get stuck on the weaknesses, and lose the strengths. Lisa rarely lets that occur.”
Pushing the positive has made Iowa’s program the envy of many.
“She has high expectations and works tirelessly to make sure her teams and players see themselves in the highest regard,” Jensen said. “She instills a confidence and a belief that propels her team to hopefully and typically meet their highest expectations. And even push a little bit higher. It’s Lisa’s constant push for “better’ and her intensity to never allow mediocrity that elevates all those around her.”
If her players hear Bluder say, “that’s pretty basketball” or “that is beautiful,” during a practice, they know it’s been a good day.
Bluder’s faith, in her staff and her players, has created a winning environment.
“That’s why her players and staff continue to believe and win,” Jensen said.
Off the court, Jensen said one of Bluder’s best traits is her humility.
“She has always deflected the praise and always taken all the blame, and then some, when success doesn’t come,” Jensen added.
Jensen will tell you she’s seen many assistant coaches change overnight when they become head coaches. They’ll expect someone to drive them on recruiting trips, or expect someone else to make a run to the concession stand.
Bluder still drives, still makes her own trip to the concession stand. Still sweeps a floor if it needs it, instead of telling someone else to do it. She appreciates her managers, her secretaries, her fans.
“No job is too small for her, and no accomplishment is ever hers alone,” added Jensen. “She has a wonderful way of getting everyone around her to feel truly vested. Lisa makes sure they know how important they are to the process.”
Jensen will tell you it’s authentic, not an act. Jan and Jenni Fitzgerald, who has also been on the Iowa staff since Bluder arrived, say that Lisa is the kind of person that everyone could sit down and drink coffee with.
“Because that’s how she interacts with everyone,” Jensen said. “Through good games and tough games, she is humble and authentic.”
Bluder uses a phrase that is the cornerstone of her program: Work hard, with Integrity, No excuses. WIN.
‘I’m grateful to work alongside her and to count her a best friend,” Jensen said. “And I’m forever proud to be a part of her staff and legacy. Here’s to all that is to come.”
