Jan Jensen to Put Own Stamp on Iowa Basketball

The biggest move in Jan Jensen’s coaching career could have been miles away from her home.

Instead, it’s 20 feet or so down the hallway at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Jensen, an assistant under Lisa Bluder in her 24 seasons as Iowa’s head coach, was officially introduced as Bluder’s replacement on Wednesday.

Bluder, the winningest coach in Iowa and in Big Ten history, announced her retirement on Monday afternoon. Jensen’s hiring was announced less than a half-hour later.

There won’t be any significant changes, Jensen said, to a program coming off back-to-back appearances in the NCAA tournament national championship game. Yes, maybe there will be some new looks here and there — Jensen promised there might be some full-court pressure defense — but this, she said, was about the same culture that Bluder, Jensen, and the rest of the staff have built during a run that includes 18 NCAA tournament appearances, including 14 of the last 16.

“The same vision that I had working with Lisa will be continuing,” Jensen said. “You want to do it at a high very level. You want to do it with integrity, never compromising your values, and you want to put a product on the floor that's fun to watch and fun to cheer for and fun to play. That will remain the same.

“Now, how we do it, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. We've had pretty good success. But I'm going to put my own little stamp on it.”

The offseason was already going to be about transition. The Hawkeyes lose three starters, including Caitlin Clark, the two-time national player of the year who ended her career as college basketball’s all-time leading scorer and captivated a nation, but especially a local fan base that led to a season of sellouts at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“This year was going to be a lot different in the sense of rebuilding in the sense of graduating seniors, including a generational player like Caitlin,” Jensen said. “There were fans who came for Caitlin. A lot of people came for Caitlin, but they stayed for Hannah (Stuelke), they stayed for Syd (Affolter), they certainly stayed for Kate (Martin) and Gabbie (Marshall). I think they stayed for what this team and culture is.

“I want to chase greatness. My expectations of the players are going to … they've been to back-to-back-to-back conference tournament championships. They've been to back-to-back national championship games. I'd like to think they're coming in with a mentality, little chip on their shoulder, because most everybody else is going to say, ‘Hey, you lost all that.’”

The change in coaches came quickly, a time frame that will become all-too-common now in a college world where players can hit the NCAA’s transfer portal with no penalty on leaving. Jensen said she and Bluder worked the phones with the returning players, incoming players, and future recruits all day Monday once the news broke of the changes.

Everyone, it seems, is staying, including the coaching staff of Abby Stamp, Raina Harmon and Tania Davis.

“We kind of had a little time frame,” Jensen said. “We knew we were up against the clock, though, because we knew when that release came out but you had to take it because people find out they're going to process in different ways. So it was intensity, and you're balancing we had a couple of our phones going and trying to just assure and reassure and took as much time with everybody as needed, reach recruit, and I can't thank the parents enough.

“These young women that are going to play for us. I can't thank the young women themselves enough; they were so gracious, and they processed with us, and by the end of the day, including our players, I think I probably talked for … geez, from 3 p.m. until about 10:30 p.m. non-stop of just trying to make sure everybody could ask as many questions and feel comfortable.”

Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz was certainly comfortable with the decision to elevate Jensen, rather than conduct a national search.

“This is a seamless passing of the baton,” Goetz said. “Everything we needed in the next leader of this storied program was right here.”

Jensen has been well-known nationally as one of the sport’s best assistant coaches and recruiters, a “post whisperer” who boosted the careers of national player of the year Megan Gustafson and All-American center Monika Czinano. And with that reputation came numerous head-coaching offers throughout the years.

“There's been double-digit opportunities,” Jensen said. “Everybody is strategic. You get to a certain point in the interview process. Kind of like recruiting, if you feel like they're not in, then you shift. I'd say there was two, maybe three where I was like, ooh, kind of like, ‘Maybe that's the one, maybe I should go.

“But this doesn't work out often. You can take this risk and stay and stay and stay and then you don't get the opportunity.”

The opportunity came, and Jensen knew the answer.

“At the end of the day,” she said, “this is where I want to be.”