By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Prior to the start of this women’s college basketball season, I said on the Hawk Fanatic radio show and podcast that Jen Jensen’s first season as the Iowa head coach would be a success if Iowa made the NCAA Tournament.

I’m sticking to that statement, and even with Iowa just 2-3 in conference play and coming off back-to-back losses for the first time in over two years, now is not the time to panic, or to make sweeping changes, or to start questioning Jensen’s coaching acumen.

Now is the time for Iowa to start shooting better from 3-point range, and from the free throw line, and to stop having so many turnovers.

If you were foolish enough to think that Jensen would just pick up where her legendary predecessor, Lisa Bluder left off last season, then that’s on you.

It would have been tough enough replacing former key players Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall and Molly Davis.

But throw in the greatest offensive player in the history of women’s college basketball in Caitlin Clark and the challenge facing Jensen this season becomes almost insurmountable in some ways.

Iowa fans were spoiled over the past four seasons as Bluder and Clark helped to lift the program to unprecedented success, with a lot of help from teammates and assistant coaches.

The fact that Iowa finished as the NCAA runner-up in each of the past two seasons might never happen again.

You certainly hope that it does, and there are signs that it could happen again as Iowa continues to recruit at a high level.

The challenge facing Jensen this season is to keep it from becoming a rebuilding campaign.

And there is only one way to do that, which is to make the NCAA Tournament.

Iowa doesn’t have to win a conference title or make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament to validate Jensen’s first season.

Just make the NCAA Tournament this season and that would qualify as a success because you have to be realistic.

I predicted before the season that Iowa would finish 10-8 in conference play, and that record still is within reach. But it would sure help if Iowa were to beat Indiana on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Turnovers have been a huge problem in each of Iowa’s four losses this season. But maybe that should have been expected since Clark had the ball in her hands so much of the time as a scoring point guard.

Clark’s aggressive and creative style of play caused her to commit a lot of turnovers, but she also absorbed turnovers for her team.

She kept other players from committing turnovers because the ball was in her hands so much of the time.

The current Iowa players, which includes four freshmen in the rotation, still are tying to figure out how to play without Clark, and it isn’t easy.

Freshman point guard Aaliyah Guyton made her first career start in Thursday’s loss at Illinois, but she committed four turnovers in the first half.

In fairness to Guyton, she is just a freshman and she’s s coming off a knee injury that ended her senior season of high school just about a year ago.

Iowa’s veteran players also struggled on both ends of the floor against Illinois.

Jensen said after Thursday’s loss that she still believes in her team, but she also identified a trouble spot.

“We’ve got to develop a little bit of upperclassmen leadership,” Jensen said. “I think that is what we’re missing.”

Senior guards Syd Affolter and Kylie Feuerbach and senior center Addi O’Grady all have had their moments this season, just not enough of them.

Affolter had her knee scoped in September, so it was reasonable to believe that she might need some time to adjust to playing without Clark and without the other key players that have moved on.

Jensen also said after Thursday’s loss that Affolter has been battling the flu.

“I’m hoping this is one of our lower points,” Jensen said. “There are a lot of big games left. Sometimes you get to a point where it’s like, ‘Whoa this is reality now. It’s my job as a junior, it’s my job as a senior to kind of lead them through it.’ Syd had the flu. She wasn’t her best self tonight, but she gave us what she could.”

Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen has probably been Iowa’s best player, but even she has struggled with her shooting in recent games.

Olsen seems to fit nicely with the team on and off the court. She plays with a smile on her face and she plays within the framework of the offense.

But it would be asking a lot from Olsen to be the team leader in her only season on the team.

Iowa needs the seniors that have been in the program for multiple seasons to be the leaders, with help, of course, from Olsen.

Iowa also needs All-Big Ten junior forward Hannah Stuelke to be more consistent on offense because she is too talented and too important to the team to not be.

Of Iowa’s four losses this season, Thursday’s setback in Champaign is by far the worst. It’s a game that Iowa could have won and probably should have won, especially since Illinois was missing two key players.

However, it’s hard to win when a team only scorers six points in the final seven minutes, which is what happened to Iowa on Thursday.

There were times when Caitlin Clark refused to let Iowa lose, but she also had her spectacular skills, her moxie and her competitiveness to help her rescue victory from defeat.

But Iowa even lost once at Illinois with Clark on the team.

Iowa still has 13 conference games remaining, so this team is nowhere close to defining itself because it’s still trying to find itself.

So again, now is not the time to panic. But now is the time to start playing better, so there is no reason to panic.

 

Indiana (11-4, 3-1) vs. Iowa  (12-4, 2-3)

When: Sunday, 2 p.m.

Where: Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

TV: Peacock

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

All-time series: Iowa leads, 56-23, and has won five of the last seven matchups. Indiana’s last win in Iowa City came on Feb. 7, 2021.