Things to Watch: Iowa WBB open media practices

On Thursday morning, the Iowa Women’s Basketball team—under the direction of second-year head coach Jan Jensen—will open the practice gym to the media. In the past, opportunities to view practice have been restricted to the final 15 minutes prior to players being made available for interviews. Last season, that changed a bit, as the media was able to watch an hour of practice on two occasions. However, this week’s open practice will be the first of four times in June/July where Jensen and the Hawkeyes will allow members of the media to observe a full hour-long portion of practice.

Open media practice schedule: June 26th, July 1st, July 8th, July 22nd

It will be a great chance to get our first few extended looks at the 2025-26 Hawkeyes—a team with a handful of new faces and plenty of intrigue. I’ll be tracking many things over the next month, including development of players, how the newcomers are fitting in and what the rotation may look like when the regular season rolls around. That being said, here are five storylines I’ll be tracking across the open practices.

1. Can Hannah Stuelke make the transition to playing full-time power forward?

This one will have to be put on hold for the first couple of open practices, as Hannah Stuelke will be in Santiago, Chile with USA Basketball for the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup. However, her development this offseason will be critical for the Hawkeyes to reach their full potential this coming season, so when she does return, there will be plenty of eyes on her.

The premise is pretty simple. With Ava Heiden seemingly on a crash course for the starting center position, the coaching staff needs a Hannah Stuelke that is capable of playing the majority of her minutes at the 4 spot. That doesn’t mean she needs to become a stretch 4 that makes 40 threes in a season, but she has to have a reliable jump shot, as well as the ability to put the ball on the floor and get to the basket with perimeter drives.

She did make some progress in a couple of areas last season, improving her free throw percentage by 4.6%, as well as going from 2.01 assists per 40 minutes as a sophomore to 3.23 assists per 40 as a junior. Still, it’s the 20.3% (12/59) career shooting percentage on shot attempts outside the paint that raises some concern for her ability to play power forward at the level Iowa will need to pair alongside of Ava Heiden in the frontcourt. That being said, it was, perhaps, a good sign that Stuelke made the 12-player AmeriCup roster, as Reagan Beers and Audi Crooks both made the roster, meaning that Hannah was almost certainly selected as a forward.

2. First looks at transfers Chit-Chat Wright and Emely Rodriguez

There has been film watching, stat breakdowns and lots of speculation about how transfers Chit-Chat Wright and Emely Rodriguez will help the Hawkeyes this season, but we still haven’t even seen them on the floor with the team in live action.

For Chit-Chat, her playmaking ability and flare with her game is on display when you flip on the film from last season at Georgia Tech, while the numbers were above average given her lowered usage rate. I’ll be watching to see how her game fits in with the rest of the roster and whether or not my speculation that she could be a breakout player this year is warranted.

As for Rodriguez, she posted solid numbers as a true freshman for a UCF team that, frankly, wasn’t very good and that factor is likely why her shooting efficiency was lower than you’d like to see. The coaching staff brought her in because she is a small forward capable of creating off the dribble and getting on the glass. If she displays both of those characteristics and can show consistency with her shooting, Iowa will have someone that can feel comfortable with either in the starting lineup or coming off the bench as a 6th player.

3. Will Addie Deal be ready to start on day one?

Everyone had Addie Deal penciled in as a starter before she arrived on campus and while I do expect her to be in the starting lineup when the season opener rolls around, there’s still plenty to evaluate as we go through open practices.

The biggest thing that I will be looking for is whether or not she looks the part when going through live reps. How comfortable does she look handling the ball, facilitating and taking shots within the offense? It’s also not set in stone whether she would start as on off-ball guard or as the point guard, so that’s worth keeping an eye on as well.

I fully expect the answer to be yes to most, if not all of the Addie Deal related questions, but the buzz that followed her from Mater Dei to Iowa makes her one of the biggest storylines this summer.

4. How does last year’s freshman class look as they transition to sophomore year?

The headliner here without question is Ava Heiden. Her postseason performance at the tail end of last season showed that the future is bright for her and that bright future could very well arrive right away for her sophomore season. The biggest thing to watch with her is consistency with the midrange jumper and refining her play around the basket. If she can utilize the midrange shot the way that Addi O’Grady did last season, Ava has the potential to be a dangerous player this year.

While Heiden steals a good bit of the attention, there’s three other players transitioning into their second season with the Hawkeyes. Taylor Stremlow was able to bring a spark off the bench on several occasions and earned some extra floor minutes because of it. Consistency with her jump shot and limiting turnovers will be things to watch with her, while she could jump into a leadership role with Syd Affolter now on the coaching staff. Meanwhile, Teagan Mallegni was one that stood out in last summer’s open practices, but it didn’t quite materialize in the regular season. All the tools are there for her to be a valuable option off the bench. I expect her to look different this summer and carry that into the season.

I will also be keeping an eye on Callie Levin. She was banged up at different points last season and appeared in just ten games but is always in the gym working on her game. If her game can take a jump it will just be another depth option at guard for the coaching staff to work with.

5. Does the rotation start the shake out and take shape by the end of July?

Let me preface this by saying that it will only be the end of July when the media observes their final practice session and that’s still going to be north of 100 days until the season opener. That means we will still be a long way of knowing the starting five and the exact rotation, but we should be able to project some things based on what we see over the course of a month.

Right now, prior to seeing any practice reps or scrimmage time, I would project a Wright-Feuerbach-Deal-Stuelke-Heiden starting five, with Rodriguez and McCabe as the first two coming off the bench. Maybe that feeling stays mostly the same, but it could also easily change. Is it possible that Addie Deal wins the starting point guard job? Does someone not listed in that top seven make a case for a bigger role? There’s a lot of questions marks and things to be sorted out and not all of them will be answered by next month, but there should be a bit more clarity about what the Hawkeyes are working with and how the pieces fit together.