By Susan Harman

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa women’s basketball team is coming off a season without precedent:

*A trip to the national championship game;

*A nationally televised upset of No. 1-ranked, unbeaten and defending national champion South Carolina in the semifinals;

*A school-record 31 victories;

*An average home attendance record of 11,143;

*Having a transcendent player who won all of the national basketball player of the year awards, who won the Honda Award for the most outstanding women’s college athlete regardless of sport, and the Sullivan Award for the nation’s top amateur athlete.

The fumes from a season like that can carry over, and Iowa’s sold out season ticket base is proof of that. But the fairy dust of 2022-23 can hold only so long.

Yes, the magical Caitlin Clark returns for her senior year along with fellow starters Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall.  That’s a pretty good start.

But center Monika Czinano and forward McKenna Warnock are gone and with them their combined 28 points, 12.4 rebounds, 74 starts and 57 minutes of play.

“I think there’s a number of options,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said when asked about filling those spots. “Addie O’Grady played some of her best basketball in the NCAA Tournament last year. At 6-4 she gives us a greater defensive presence in the middle.”

O’Grady, a junior, is joined by 6-3 redshirt junior Sharon Goodman, 6-2 junior A.J. Ediger, and 6-2 sophomore Hannah Stuelke. Stuelke will spend most of her time at power forward, but if Iowa chooses to go small in order to pick up the pace she can serve as the post.

“I think right now it’s just a great opportunity,” Ediger said. “We all share it, and we all push each other really hard in practice. And I think we all bring really different things to the table.

“I mean, Sharon could move a house by herself, and Addie’s arms go on for days. And I think I kind of bring more of an aggression towards it. So I think we all have very different styles of play.”

Goodman said the posts are working on consistency, knowing that Czinano’s efficiency around the basket (.674 shooting percentage) was otherworldly.

“We have always talked about Monika was big shoes to fill, and she was Monika and she had so many good skill sets,” Goodman said. “But we all have different levels of skill sets too. And we have different strengths that we bring that maybe Monika didn’t have.

“I do bring the strength to the post position that can get people off the block and make their positioning hard.”

Bluder said O’Grady currently is the frontrunner to start at center, a role she embraces.

“My goal is to take over Monika’s spot, and obviously I don’t have to be Monika,” she said. “She’s not me; I’m not her. But that is like the role that I’m trying to fill.”

O’Grady said she’s been working on conditioning. “Because I haven’t played a full game since high school really,” she said. “So conditioning a lot in the offseason working on my aggressiveness and assertiveness and just overall competence on the floor.”

Associate head coach Jan Jensen, the team’s post guru, said the situation is still a work in progress with each player having slightly different strengths.

“They’ve showed that they’ve really, really worked on their games,” Jensen said. “When I chart everything in practice, they are all pretty doggone close. So my approach at the moment is to make sure they’re all confident and know that anytime could be their time.”

A few minutes off the bench to spell Czinano is a whole different scenario than what they’ll walk into this season.

“The difference will be who can quickly get the mindset that’s needed,” Jensen said. “The mindset is different because you’re playing with a generational talent that sees things before others, that is oftentimes impatient, and will give you communication that is direct and we move on. And so when you’ve not been in the hot seat before, all of a sudden you can spend too much time processing.”

Jensen said that kind of mindset is not something you can practice like post moves around the basket.

“You’ve just got to click it over and when it clicks that, ‘Hey I’m the one,’ then good things are going to happen,” she said.

Bluder and Jensen both said Iowa’s scoring may be more guard-heavy this season with three returning starters and enviable depth at the position. The posts aren’t quite willing to concede that point.

“Yeah I think it’s too early to tell how the contributions will pan out during the games,” Goodman said. “Because, yes, Monika and McKenna were both big scorers and a big percentage of our scoring. But it will be fun to see how it all pans out. And I think that efficiency from us will come.”

Iowa’s first real game isn’t until Nov. 6, but the Hawkeyes will play host to the Crossover at Kinnick exhibition against DePaul on Oct. 15.