Joseph Cress/For the Register / USA TODAY NETWORK
There is a new coach, almost totally new roster and many changes for the Iowa women’s basketball program.
Jan Jensen is as Iowa as it gets.
She’s from Kimballton, Iowa, where members of her family run Lugger’s Tavern, a local bar with memorabilia from Jensen’s career including her retired No. 13 jersey from her playing days at Drake in Des Moines.
It was at Drake that Jensen was coached by Lisa Bluder, who was hired before the Jensen’s senior season. From there, Jensen went on to lead the nation in scoring in her final year with the Bulldogs before eventually joining the staff as Bluder’s first assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.
Bluder asked Jensen to join her in Iowa City after accepting the head coaching job at Iowa in 2000, an offer made more difficult when Drake expressed interest in her for the head coaching position Bluder had just vacated, per the Daily Iowan.
Ultimately, Jensen went with Bluder and joined the Hawkeyes. Over two decades have passed since then and the duo have led Iowa to new heights while changing women’s basketball forever with the arrival of Caitlin Clark.
Now, as the head coach, Jensen will lead the Hawkeyes through the departure of two program legends in her longtime mentor and Clark.
She tears up a bit at Big Ten Media Days when she’s asked about the moment she found out that she’d be the next head coach at Iowa, a call from athletic director Beth Goetz at night.
“I just sat in silence for a while and just thought about the journey,” Jensen said. “A lot goes into that moment.”
Coaching with her best friends for decades was special to Jensen, she said. Between the title game runs, the game at Kinnick Stadium and coaching Clark, Jensen was at Bluder’s side for every moment and every decision.
Now Iowa is her program. And it’s going to look a little different.
The staff knew they were going to have a hole at point guard. With Clark constantly being on the court for four years, it was hard for coaches to pitch other guards coming in to back her up. So when Villanova’s Lucy Olsen entered the portal, she became an immediate priority for the Hawkeyes.
“They were my first call,” Olsen said. “You could just feel the energy through the phone, how positive they were, how family-like they were. You can just feel the awesome atmosphere that Iowa has to offer.”
Olsen felt the fanbase’s impact almost immediately. After getting off a plane to move into Iowa City, she stopped by Chick–Fil-A for some food and got out of her car to get her order from inside. A fan saw and waved to her from the window and said “Hey! You’re Lucy Olsen! You’re the new Hawkeye!”
Olsen isn’t Clark, and she knows that. She won’t try to be either, no deep threes that fans in Carver-Hawkeye Arena have grown used to over the years.
“I feel like my game is more midrange,” Olsen said. “I’m just gonna try to work my butt off and do anything I can.”
The way Olsen plays, scoring and creating fits in well with what the Hawkeyes already do, Jensen said. Now it’ll be on the two of them, Jensen and Olsen, to help lead Iowa into a post-Clark future.
