Iowa Women's Basketball: Frontcourt Preview

Now for the second part of our Iowa women’s basketball preview, we take a look at the Hawkeye frontcourt group — the power forward and center positions. The group returns pretty intact, with two departures and one newcomer, but it’s still going to look different with one key position change. Before we dive into individual player breakdowns, we’ll start with a look at who departed and who returns.

Overview

The Iowa frontcourt is set to return one of two starters, with senior Hannah Stuelke starting 32 of 34 games game last season. Center Addi O’Grady (9.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg) departs after finishing with a career-best season last year, while AJ Ediger (2.0 ppg, 3.5 mpg) is now a grad assistant for UW-Milwaukee. Sophomore Ava Heiden is expected to slide into the starting center spot, while Stuelke will move to the power forward position. Sophomore Teagan Mallegni and four-star center Layla Hays will likely earn minutes in backup capacity off the bench. The Hawkeyes return 64.0% of starts, 68.9% of minutes played, 65.9% of scoring and 61.4% of field goals made from last season.

So, with that, let’s dive into the group and take a deeper look at the Hawkeyes frontcourt players…

Projected Starters

PF Hannah Stuelke (Sr)

2024 Numbers: 12.7 PPG, 7.7 REB, 2.2 AST, 27.5 MPG – 49.8% FG, 67.5% FT

Number to Know (7.7%): Over three seasons with the Hawkeyes, Hannah Stuelke has totaled 770 field goal attempts, but just 7.7% of them (59) have come from outside the painted area. Granted, she’s played the center position for the vast majority of her career, but now she’s going to have to extend her range, which means shooting more midrange jumpers and three-pointers.

Quote from Assistant LaSondra Barrett: “I watched her from far away (at GT), but I think she’s growing more so with, she’s been such a role player, kind of a Robin option, and now she is the option. She’s been comfortable shooting the three ball, wanting to shoot it and knocking it down. She’s also really gotten comfortable in a leadership role, and I don’t think that’s something she’s had before. You’re seeing her be a lot more vocal on the sideline. Hannah’s been a joy to coach.”

“Her three ball, it’s still a work in progress, but the fact that she’s taking, she’s knocking it down. She’s able to make plays, she’s able to go off the dribble as well.”

“Coming back from Team USA and winning gold, you saw a totally different Hannah Stuelke and I think that USA experience gave her confidence to know she can play and beat the best in this conference.”

Season Outlook: Now is the time for Hannah Stuelke. She’s had a good career to this point — a starter on a Final Four team, a Team USA gold medalist — but it’s always felt like there was another level of her game that she hasn’t quite reached. As a senior and Iowa’s go-to offensive option, the Hawkeyes will largely go as far as Hannah takes them this season.

Last season, the hope was for Stuelke to move to the power forward position, but an offseason knee procedure kept her out of summer workouts and she didn’t return until the fall. That meant she missed all of her potential offseason development time. She started the year at the 4, with Addi O’Grady at center, but when Iowa fell to 2-3 in Big Ten play, Jan Jensen moved her back to the center position. Her assist rate nearly doubled to 15.7% and she averaged a career-best 7.7 rebounds per game, but her two-point percentage plummeted from 63.0% as a sophomore to 52.2% as a junior.

All of that is behind her now. Hannah spent the first half of the offseason winning gold with Team USA at the AmeriCup in Chile and when she returned, she got to work on her game. Let’s start with what she does well. Hannah is one of the best rim runners in the entire country, with 22.5% of her points coming in transition during her freshman and sophomore season. However, that number dropped to 9.4% last season, but the hope is that they’ll be able to play at a faster pace this season, with players like Chit-Chat Wright, Emely Rodriguez and Addie Deal.

The other area of her game that she already does at an elite level is rebound the basketball. She averaged 3.5 offensive rebounds per 40 minutes and ranked sixth in the Big Ten in defensive rebound rate (20.6%). Having that type of rebounding at the power forward position is a huge boost.

In terms of what Hannah has to do to get the Iowa offense operating at a high level this season? She has to play on the perimeter and be a capable shooter to stretch defenses, keeping them from clogging the paint. In three seasons, Stuelke is just 7 of 31 (22.6%) from three-point range, but the coaching staff has said she has been knocking them down in practice and scrimmages. She doesn’t have hit 30 threes, but she has to be able to hit the occasional three or midrange jumper to keep teams honest.

I’ve long been a Hannah Stuelke believer and have said several times that I believe she is capable of becoming a capable power forward. It’s about time to stop talking about it and find out if the answer is yes or no.

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C Ava Heiden (Soph)

2024 Numbers: 5.0 PPG, 2.6 REB, 9.7 MPG – 56.1% FG, 70.5% FT

Number to Know (2.94): Everybody talks a lot about what Ava Heiden can bring to the floor offensively, but she has a chance to give the Hawkeyes some rim protection that they haven’t had for quite some time. In mostly limited time last season, Heiden tallied 20 blocks over 273 minutes, averaging 2.94 blocks per 40 minutes, but also averaged an alarming 6.47 fouls per 40 minutes. Her defending and blocking shots without fouling will have to improve greatly, but she’s got the skills to be a good shot blocker. The last Hawkeye to reach 50+ blocks was Amanda Ollinger (55) during the 2019-20 season.

Quote from Assistant Randi Henderson: “Ava is extraordinary. Her athletic ability, her strength, her physicality, her ability and versatility to score in different ways, I think she’s going to be super impactful and important to our team’s success. The sky is the limit for her if she’s comfortable continuing to chase each year and keep getting better, her ceiling, I don’t know what that is.”

“She’s definitely put a lot of work at that 15-foot area. I think you’ll see that pay of going into this season and I think even her low block presence and finishes, all of those have gotten better. Her comfort and confidence is really good. She’s a sophomore, so she’s still learning what she’s capable of, what she should and shouldn’t do, but her practices have been tremendous.”

Season Outlook: I’ve said this in other pieces I’ve written, but no one on the roster went into the offseason with more momentum that Ava Heiden. She stepped up at the right time, averaging 31.2 points and 12.2 rebounds per 40 minutes, while shooting 68.9% from the floor over five postseason games. That included putting up 15 points and seven rebounds in her first career NCAA Tournament game against Murray State.

Despite the flashes she showed at the tail end of the season, it’s still fair to mention that she doesn’t have a whole lot of experience under her belt. She played just 272 minutes on the season, including 13 games with less than ten minutes and five games that she didn’t play at all. Still, she produced when she got the opportunity, averaging 8.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in games where she played 15+ minutes. The impressive part about that stat line? She still only averaged 16.2 minutes in those five games.

It wasn’t just the postseason stretch that has everyone excited for what she can do this season. Her skillset is impressive, with her ability to play back to the basket like a normal low block post player but also get out and run in transition. Her athleticism, paired with her height (6’4) plays on both ends of the floor, allowing her to rebound at a high-level, maneuver in the paint and block shots.

Along with sharpening her skills around the basket, the big key for Ava this season will be expanding her game to include the 13–18 foot jump shot that Addi O’Grady mastered last season. She was just 2/12 (16.7%) on shots outside the paint as a freshman but put a lot of work in on that part of her game this summer and looked much more confident in that shot during the practices that the media got to view.

The talent for Ava Heiden is undeniable, she’s got a great attitude and wants to get better. She’s got all of the tools to be an All-Big Ten center for the Hawkeyes. Is that this season? It could be. Grace VanSlooten and Gracie Merkle will be tough to knock off for potential First Team honors, but Ava is capable of finishing the season as a Second Team selection.

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Options off the Bench

PF Teagan Mallegni (Soph)

2024 Numbers: 3.2 PPG, 2.1 REB, 8.8 MPG – 34.4% FG, 22.8% 3PT, 78.3% FT

Number to Know (9.7): As a true freshman last season, Mallegni was held to a limited role, as she struggled to the shoot it from three-point range, but she showed herself as a more than capable rebounder. She averaged 9.7 rebounds per 40 minutes, finishing with 5+ rebounds in five games, including eight rebounds in eight minutes against Ohio State. The battle for minutes off the bench gets really interesting if Teagan can shoot it consistently from three, as she’d be able to play like a stretch four.

Quote from Assistant Abby Stamp: “She’s made a great jump, a huge jump. Certainly, she can shoot the ball, and she looks more confident in doing that. With her, we need her to be consistent in her three-point shooting, which is a strength of hers.”

“She has rebounded like crazy (in practice). She did well last year, but she has done a great job every single time in practice going up after those boards really hard. I think she’s being more physical, certainly on her takes, her finishes to the basket, and then on the defensive end as well. She’s steadily climbing the charts for us each day.”

“She’s showing up and that’s the biggest thing sometimes for the newcomers to learn. I know she would say it was hard for her last year, is just the consistency of effort that you have to have, the effort and focus every single day, especially when we get just 30 days to go up against ourselves and practice before we get to compete. She’s really been looking good in that area, as far as consistency and how she’s showing up.”

Season Outlook: I was and still am very high on Teagan Mallegni and what she can be for the Hawkeyes over the course of her career. She showed flashes during the summer, opened with 18 points in the exhibition against Missouri Western and then scored in double figures in two of the first four regular season games. Things went awry after that, as she played 10+ minutes in just seven of her final 24 games and shot just 22.8% from three-point range for the season.

Still, her early season success, though short-lived, was a glimpse at what they’ll be hoping to get from her this season. A player that can come off the bench to play either the 3 or the 4, while providing three-point shooting and good rebounding. When Teagan is on, she can fill it up fast — like her eight-point burst in 88 seconds against Drake that flipped a tie game into a 45-35 halftime lead. That’s the type of player that she can be for this team if it all clicks for her. The coaching staff has happy with the improvements she’s made and growth she has shown this offseason, so now it’s just a matter of translating that onto the court when it matters.

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C Layla Hays (Fr)

2024 Numbers (Wasilla HS): 16.2 PPG, 11.9 REB, 2.0 BLK

Number to Know (2): Megan Skouby (6’6) and Morgan Johnson (6’5) are the only two 6’5+ players that Iowa has had since 2006. Now, four-star freshman Layla Hays joins that group as the third player over the past two decades. The Hawkeyes have had an impressive run of centers over the years, but they haven’t had many that look like Layla Hays. Her size and skillset should be something that excites fans for her career at Iowa.

Quote from Assistant Randi Henderson: “Layla is a very hard working back to the basket post player. She’s going to bring some physicality that we need. She’s great with the use of her body defensively and offensively. I think you’ll probably see her scoring mostly back to the basket, low block area with some ability to shoot the 15-foot jump shot.”

“She was used to like triple and quadruple teams (in high school), but not the size and physicality of an Ava Heiden or even our gray squad guys, but I think one thing that is really cool about Layla is she’s not afraid of the work. She’s not afraid to learn and get better. We talk about having a short-term memory for mistakes and allowing room for growth, and I think she’s really starting to understand that.”

“There’s going to be a learning curve for her, especially when she starts playing games and it’s physical, but she’s strong, and she’s not afraid to fight in there. It will not be easy, but she will progress.”

Season Outlook: Layla Hay’s high school recruitment was an interesting one. Nearly all of her scholarship offers came in a single month after a breakout performance with TruGame at the ’23 Nike Nationals in Chicago — including her offer from Iowa. A four-star, #64 player in the country by Rivals, there’s no doubt more exposure on the Nike circuit would have net her an even higher ranking and even more offers.

One of the questions about her upon her arrival to Iowa City was, how ready will she as a freshman after going through her high school career in Alaska as the biggest, tallest and stronger player in every single game? Watching her during a couple of summer practices, it was clear that her game is a bit more polished than she got credit for, which gives her a chance to contribute right away as a freshman. There will be ups and downs, as there is for every single freshman, especially centers, but she’s more of a prototypical center compared to Ava Heiden, which gives the coaching staff two different looks to give opponents. Her size and strength will be important in games where Iowa needs more rebounding or defensive help.

There’s going to be an adjustment for her going from playing against Alaska high school centers to Big Ten centers. However, working against Heiden in practice has almost certainly helped accelerate that adjustment period. If Layla can provide steady backup center minutes, the Hawkeyes will have a really strong 1-2 combo at the post position.

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SF Journey Houston (Fr)

2024 Numbers (North HS): 20.0 PPG, 7.6 REB, 3.9 STL, 3.6 AST – 58.7% FG, 36.7% 3PT, 71.1% FT

– A top 25 recruit when she committed to Iowa as a sophomore in high school, dropped in the rankings after tearing her ACL. Barring an injury or a surprise, there’s not an obvious role for Journey as a freshman, but she has good size and did a little bit of everything at Davenport North. An underrated player for the future.

PF Jada Gyamfi (Sr)

2024 Numbers: 1.7 PPG, 4.1 MPG

– Gyamfi has appeared in 39 games as a Hawkeye, but has never been able to get any meaningful minutes. She totaled a career-high nine minutes against Toledo last season. Jada has been a cornerstone in the Hawkeyes off the court culture.

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Final Thought on the Hawkeyes Frontcourt

Let me try to capture the feeling of the fanbase when it comes to Iowa’s frontcourt before I give my final thought: excited, but unsure? There’s plenty of anticipation around the center position with Ava Heiden and Layla Hays, and many believe Teagan Mallegni is going to take a step forward as a sophomore. But even with all that optimism, there’s still a lingering question — can Hannah Stuelke truly play the power forward spot?

Personally, I don’t share that same level of unsureness that the fanbase does. An Ava Heiden and Hannah Stuelke frontcourt will be able to run and rebound as well as any frontcourt duo in the country. As for Hannah’s transition to the power forward spot? I think many people are underestimating her abilities and not giving her much of a chance. She doesn’t have to be Maryland’s Saylor Poffenbarger and make 30-40 threes. She just has to be the Hannah Stuelke that the coaching staff has seen in practice over the last few weeks. I’m excited to see where this group goes this season.