Iowa coach Lisa Bluder speaks with her team during an NCAA Tournament game against Georgia on March 19, 2023 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)
Lisa Bluder Much More than Final Four
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IOWA CITY, Iowa - Lisa Bluder is not a me-first basketball coach. She doesn’t play to the camera, cry for attention or wear gaudy outfits that create a buzz on Twitter.
She’s just a coach. And a damn fine one at that. A coach who has won more than 800 games and done it with style, class and a team-first approach.
It feels like her immense success has flown under the radar for years, not appreciated as much as it should be. But her players are the ultimate judge and jury in the only school of public opinion that counts.
“She’s one or the best of all time,” Caitlin Clark, Iowa’s standout guard, said of Bluder.
In a 39-year career that is Hall of Fame worthy, Bluder will be coaching in college basketball’s ultimate destination for the first time on Friday. The Final Four.
That’s quite a statement for someone who got her first head coaching job at St. Ambrose in 1984-85, for $2,500 a year. On Friday, Bluder’s Hawkeyes will meet defending national champion and top-ranked South Carolina in a national semifinal. An upset victory would snap the nation’s longest winning streak at 42 games and put Iowa in the title game for the first time ever.
Clark has brought unprecedented attention to the program. She deserves every accolade that’s come her way. I just hope Lisa Bluder receives plenty of attention this weekend as well. She was the Naismith Coach of the Year in 2019, and is a finalist for the award again this season.
A three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, she’s coached her teams at St. Ambrose, Drake and Iowa to 26 20-win seasons, and 21 NCAA Tournaments. Her teams have won 849 games. Her 23-season mark at Iowa is 493-248. Bluder has recruited and developed five of the last six Big Ten Players of the Year in Megan Gustafson (twice), Kathleen Doyle and Clark (twice.) Gustafson and Clark were consensus first-team all-Americans. Gustafson (1,001) and Clark (984) rank one-two in Big Ten history for points scored in a season.
Bluder replaced C. Vivian Stringer as Iowa’s all-time winningest coach in 2014. Earlier this year, she passed Stringer to become the all-time leader in Big Ten victories. Shortly after reaching that milestone I asked associate head coach Jan Jensen to describe Bluder, who she played for as a senior at Drake and has been on her Iowa staff since 2000-2001.
“I’m grateful to work alongside her and to count her as 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.”
“All that is to come’ proved to be a school-record 30 victories. A generational talent in Clark who has helped grow the women’s game and the stature of Iowa’s program. And the ultimate reward for a coach who’s been running her own program for nearly four decades: a trip to the Final Four.
Bluder has gotten there with a keen eye for talent, an ability to focus her team on the goal at hand and a love for offense. Her teams play an entertaining style of up-tempo basketball.
She has also been a staunch advocate forwomen’s basketball, a sport that has improved significantly in the last decade. The growth of the game today must please her significantly.
Every coach has their own style. Stringer’s 1992-93 team Final Four team at Iowa got there by leading the nation in defense, allowing just 54.3 points a game. Bluder’s team did it by leading the nation in scoring at 87.6 points a game.
Stringer took three programs - Cheyney State, Iowa and Rutgers - to the Final Four. She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2009.
Some day, let’s hope Bluder joins Stringer in the hall of fame. To be eligible, “a coach must be either fully retired for four full seasons or, is still an active coach, have coached as either a fulltime assistant or head coach on the high school and/or college and/or professional level for a minimum of 25 years. That person will then be considered for Enshrinement in the sixth year of retirement or 26th year of active coaching.”
Reaching a Final Four, after two Elite Eights and four trips to the Sweet 16, will only enhance Bluder’s qualifications, as impressive as they are.
But she won’t stand on a soapbox and campaign for herself. That’s not Bluder’s style. She’s too busy molding her team into just that - a team. A team that can have a superstar and still play as one. A team led by a coach who doesn’t feed her ego with each victory. A coach who is as unselfish as a player who makes a play for a teammate.
“Lisa is truly one of the most humble people in the game that I have ever met,” Jensen said.
The Final Four might be the brightest shining moment of Lisa Bluder’s career, but it’s clearly not the only one.
