Coach Jan Jensen: Reflecting on Chapter I, Writing Chapter II

495 days. That’s how many days it’s been since Jan Jensen was introduced as head coach of the Iowa Women’s Basketball team. The number, by itself, is a big one, but in comparison to the 8,790 days that Lisa Bluder held the title as head coach of the Hawkeyes, it’s nothing more than a few peanuts. Still, the memory bank that Jensen can draw from is not bare. She spent 31 seasons, at Drake and at Iowa, as an assistant coach under Bluder, taking little notes and lessons along the way.

All of that experience is valuable to an extent, but there is no substitute for coaching games. Just 10.5 months ago, Jan had zero coaching wins to her name. But she also had zero losses. Fast forward to now, and she has coached in 35 games. She might still be well short of the 782 games her predecessor coached at Iowa, but over the past year, she’s lived a million little coaching experiences. Those moments, stacked on top of each other, have helped prepare her for year two at the helm, leading one of the most popular programs in the country.

“I feel a lot more comfortable and confident in the role, and I just know what to expect now,” Jensen told HawkeyeReport during a sit-down interview in last week. “I think that was the thing last year, I knew what to expect, because I couldn’t have gotten much closer to the chair sitting next to Lisa (Bluder) all those years, but now knowing what it feels like to not be with Lisa and Jenni (Fitzgerald).”

“You go through that (for a season), knowing what it feels like. I think even more than not having my buddies around anymore, is just knowing what it feels like when the buck stops here (with me).”

Her second season should come with a bit more normalcy as well. In the case of the Iowa WBB program, normalcy is a subjective term, with the program’s popularity still peaking after the Caitlin Clark years yielded back-to-back Final Four appearances. Playing in front of a sold-out crowd for every home game is not normal for every program. That being said, last season brought many media questions, not only about Lisa Bluder’s retirement, but also, the departures of Caitlin Clark, Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall. There was also the seemingly never-ending avalanche of questions about every coaching first that she experienced. First win as head coach, first trip to Drake (her old home), first loss, first Cy-Hawk game, and so on throughout the entire year. All of those questions should subside this season, with the focus fully on this year’s squad.

“Now, we’re just into a little bit more normalcy. It’s just human nature, the immediate comparisons, and all the (coaching) firsts, but we didn’t have Caitlin, we didn’t have Gabbie, we didn’t have Kate, we didn’t have Lisa. Now you just kind of get to settle in because that gets more and more in the rearview mirror…it’s just nice to be a little bit more normal.”

Circling back to the idea that there’s no substitute for coaching games, there are a few things that Jan couldn’t fully prepare for as an assistant coach. Things that you can only experience in the moment as a head coach. Building a gameplan, deciding when to call timeout, when to sub a player, what play to draw up in crunch time—she had input on all of it as associate head coach. However, there’s a different vibe to it all when you go from advising on the call to making the final call.

“It was fun, it was challenging and that’s why you’re doing it. I enjoy collaboration, but I also understand the pace of which you have to make those (in-game) decisions. I learned a lot from Lisa on when she’d listen and wanted to listen (to advice) and when she was like, don’t, no one talk, and I think we got better as a staff as the year went on.”

While going through the trials and tribulations that come with being a first-year head coach—mistakes and all—Jan says she never questioned whether Lisa Bluder would have done things differently. It would have been easy to do that after their first loss of the season to Tennessee or when a five-game losing streak hit in January or when things fell apart in Norman against Oklahoma. That’s where her always forward-thinking mindset was most helpful.

“I think the reason why I’m sitting here is because I don’t spend a whole lot of time looking backwards. I’m just looking forwards and building on it. I didn’t really compare any missteps and I never wore that (doubt). I was never like, oh jeez, Lisa wouldn’t have done that, or we wouldn’t have done that last year. It was take what we had, what I did, what I called and taking it from that moment and not going back.”

While adjusting to life as the one calling the shots was a challenge for Jensen, she says that was not the part of the job that took the most getting used to. Instead, it was the weight of being the head coach of a program that has had so much support and so many eyes on it over the last few years. There was always going to be a certain level of pressure following in the footsteps of a legendary coach like Lisa Bluder. However, the Caitlin Clark years raised the bar. Now, Jan is also tasked with trying to take the program to the next level and show the many doubters that it is possible for Iowa to be a household name in women’s basketball. No one wants Jan Jensen to be successful in this role more than Jan Jensen herself.

“I think it’s just the weight of it. I suppose you can say the loneliness of it and that’s what every CEO tells you, right? It’s lonely when you get to the top. There’s only a weight because you want to do so well, I want to do so well for so many people, and really, I’m the last person (in charge) and I don’t mean that to be a pat on my back,” said Jensen. “I just feel so indebted to the fan base that stays with us, to the players that have held over the last couple years and to everybody who’s come before, we’ve really made something really special.”

So much about sports is centered around the wins and losses, but it’s more than that. Carver-Hawkeye Arena has been sold out entirely for each of the past two seasons. A lot of that has to do with the wins and the success, but it also has to do with the fan base’s emotional connection to the team. While Jan wants to win a bunch of games, she also wants to continue to have a team that fans love coming to see play.

“My whole motivation is to keep stretching the standard and doing it where everybody can enjoy it, everybody can be proud of it, and everybody for a couple hours, no matter what they’re going through can be so vested. That’s the coolest part of what I get to do and what we’ve always gotten to do, but it’s the weight I’ve always felt, like man, I want people to always keep loving the moments they get to watch us play.”

For nearly every first-time head coach, there’s a moment where the basketball gods test their readiness for the job. A “so, you’re sure you want to be a head coach?” type of test. That test, for Jan, came back in January. A 12-2 start to the season had the Hawkeyes ranked inside the AP Top 25, but a five-game losing streak, including three losses by five points or less followed. Sitting at 12-7, Jan Jensen, for the first time in her life, was forced to answer media questions about why things had gone off the tracks. Some started to wonder if Iowa would even make the NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, social media was reacting just as you’d expect—ruthlessly. So much so that, after an OT loss to Nebraska, Jan’s son Jack told her not to look at Twitter when she got home.

“I think that was the hardest thing (the media questions and social media comments), but you can be pretty hard on yourself when you’re in this chair (as head coach) and when you’re in that dip. I just had to really guard against that thinking of you wanted to better coaching, you wanted to be better leading, you want to be better for your staff, you want to be better with how you’re handling that with your own family and you’re just constantly grading how you’re doing. Going through that, it was fatiguing because you felt like, well, pick an area you’re not doing so great right now.”

“With all adversity, whether it’d been as an assistant, way back in my playing days or as the head coach, it did make me better. After you get done with your little (moment of) under-confidence or your little feeling sorry for yourself, that’s when I went back in a little more forward thinking. What can we control? What can I get better at and what can I help us get better at? It’s those times where you’re refined that make you much sharper later.”

Backs up against the wall, in the midst of the program’s longest losing streak since 1999, the Hawkeyes finally put an end to the slide with an impressive 85-61 road win over Washington. Looking back on the losing streak and that Wednesday night in Seattle, when the losing streak was finally snapped, Jan says she was most happy with how she handled things with her team. Rather than making wholesale changes in the middle of the season, she stayed steady throughout knowing that the close losses would flip into wins if they just stayed the course.

“I probably did the best with the team, if I look back on it, I really believed we were so close…Lucy Olsen, she missed those free throws against Nebraska. So uncharacteristic and I really knew that I had to get them understanding that (those moments), that dip was not reflective (of who they were). I knew that if we just kept making slight tweaks and not blow the whole thing up, we’d be okay.”

“What I learned with that is to stay close to your people. We got really close as a team, myself and the team and I think that was the main thing. What I always had believed was really, really true…I’d say learning together and growing, but I learned that staying steady, which is what I’d always believed in, (if you do that) it usually will pan out in the end, and it did when we got through that stretch.”

The highlight of the season came just two weeks after the Hawkeyes losing streak reached five games, showcasing just how important it is to stay the course through stretches of adversity. After consecutive wins over Washington and Northwestern, JuJu Watkins and the fourth-ranked USC Trojans came to town for Caitlin Clark Jersey Retirement Day at Carver.

Despite closing as 14.5-point underdogs, the Hawkeyes mustered up some magic in front of the sold-out crowd of more than 15,000 and upset the Trojans 76-69. Less than 15 days after the proverbial sky was falling, Jan Jensen got herself her first signature win as a head coach.

“That (game) was awesome, and I’ll never forget that. You had the goat (Caitlin) back in the house, a couple of them (Kate, Gabbie, Monika). We went back to the days of when Caitlin was playing and we had celebrities (at games). David Letterman was there. You wanted to make sure you put your best foot forward and we had one of the nation’s best teams at the time (in town).”

She took an extra moment to appreciate the students that stormed the floor after the win.

“Just to have Carver feel like Carver was just a good confidence builder (after the losing streak). It was fun because we hadn’t really ever had a court storming and there was a small group of students, 50 to 100, but I remember that being so cool because it made me realize the arc of moving the needle for women’s basketball is that they were still there. They were still excited, and they loved Iowa basketball, and they were happy. They were there to see Caitlin’s jersey retirement, but the students that were on the floor, they were there to cheer for their team, and some were freshmen, and some were probably seniors, but that feeling that they were part of it, that was something that few people get to experience.”

As an assistant coach, your role, for the most part, stays consistent throughout the season. When you’re the head coach, you’re in charge of everything that goes on within the program and that means juggling a hundred different tasks and thoughts at any given moment. Jan’s way of keeping up with everything and making sure nothing was missed? A notebook.

“That (idea) was mine. It just came at me so fast, and every coach will tell you, you don’t really have time to address it (at once), so I was like, I can’t do anything about this right now, but I could write down if I couldn’t take care of it on the spot and it was those little things that I wanted to address when it was calmer and if I had more time, and it just kept building.”

There wasn’t much organization—just a running list of seemingly scattered thoughts. Some were about practice; some were about what happened in the previous game, and some were logistical notes that the common fan would probably find to be pretty trivial. They were mostly critiques and rarely positive notes, but as the season went on, Jan says there were fewer and fewer notes.

“The only thing I wish I would have done differently; there were no topics. I should have had a page for strategy, a page for organization, a page for team. It was just random, but it was better than nothing.”

“Wasn’t really game-by-game, which maybe would have been a little better. It was mostly critiques. It was never like, hey you did great, which I probably should write that a little bit more, but mostly just things that I think would make me better, usually.”

She plans to upgrade her note taking this season, with the inclusion of some nice, positive notes this time around.

“This year when I do it, I think now, I’ll have more categories, and I might include a few more positive things in it, just what we did well. I just didn’t write that down as much.”

As significant as last year was, in terms of the change that the program experienced, it’s time to leave it in the past and move on to year two. And that sense of normalcy Jan spoke about earlier? It’s starting to take shape—not just in the rhythm of the job, but in the makeup of the team. There are a few veterans on the roster that played in the ’24 Final Four, but the majority of the team did not. With nine freshmen and sophomores on the roster, including three transfers recruited by Jan and her staff, a new foundation is being built. However, that new foundation doesn’t mean the expectations for the program will change.

“This year, we have nine freshmen and sophomores. They’re gifted, but I need to be a little bit more patient. I also think, with that patience though, is the balance of the demanding and the expectations. Last year, we all knew the expectation, and we had just off of another banner (Final Four) year. Now, there’s a lot more kids (on the roster) that weren’t part of that banner year.”

“That’s my challenge. To keep reminding them of the standard and why they really are so excited and proud to be here, but the work that it takes to get there. That’s the balance, because they’re eager, they’re working hard, but they’re young and we just haven’t had this type of team for a while.”

Because of the youth on the roster, Jan says the way that they set goals for the upcoming season could be different than in years past. Take a look back at the 2022-23 season or the 2023-24 season. One team was coming off a season where they finished ranked 8th and the other was coming off of a trip to the national title game. Both of those teams returned Caitlin Clark and others. This year, they’re as young as they’ve been in years, with nine underclassmen and are coming off a second round exit in the NCAA Tournament. There’s a certain standard they want to uphold as a program, but Jan says they may have to adjust how they define and pursue those goals.

“We haven’t started real practices yet and I’d like to get their feedback. We can say, let’s go to the Final Four, but it may not quite be that year, you kind of have to set a goal to a certain point and then you meet again and you say, this is where we are, what’s realistic here?”

“I’m debating now, with as young as we are, how do we want to do that? Are we going to go whole season, this is where we want to be at the end, or are we going to do it in segments of the season? I’ve done it both ways in my tenure here. The understanding is, we want to be a perennial Sweet Sixteen team and if you get to the Sweet Sixteen, in my opinion, then anything can happen from there.”

It’s one of those seasons where even the coaching staff isn’t quite sure what to expect and that’s not meant to be a bad thing. They’ve got a couple of veterans, but where they end up this year will mostly be dictated by what happens with the younger talent on the roster. A few of those players have some experience at Iowa, a couple have college experience at other schools and a couple have no college experience at all. The ceiling for this team is pretty high, but it’s not quite time to start placing expectations on them.

“I’ll know a lot more in a month because I like what I’m seeing so far. The summer was really good, but we start real practice on Monday (Sept 22) and I think with this particular team, we need to see them every day.”

The summer is for installation and culture building, while the start of preseason practice is when the mindset flips and the real preparation for the season begins. Jan says it’s time to put aside friendships and get after it each and every day until the season gets underway.

“We can trust that we like each other, and our culture is good. I think that’s what the summer is for, working hard and getting your system in. We like each other. We love each other. Now, we have to trust the fact that we love each other and now we’ve got to start kicking each other’s you know what. I think the daily process of that, that’ll help our young kids.”

The Hawkeyes will kick off the 2025-26 campaign with an exhibition game on October 30th against DII Ashland College at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. They open the regular season on November 3rd with a home matchup against the Southern Jaguars.