By John Bohnenkamp

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Jan Jensen isn’t interested in talking about the what-ifs.

Iowa’s women’s basketball team has played itself into a good spot to get into the NCAA tournament, so that isn’t a concern for Jensen in her first season as the Hawkeyes’ head coach.

What she doesn’t want to think about at the moment is Iowa’s seeding possibilities in the Big Ten Tournament, because there’s a lot that can happen in the final three games of the regular season.

The Hawkeyes (18-8 overall, 8-7 Big Ten) are in 11th place in the conference heading into Sunday’s game against No. 3 UCLA at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. They are a half-game out of ninth place, which would keep them out of the first day of the conference tournament and would mean they only have to win four games in four days to win the title.

So when her son brought up to her this week all kinds of different things that could happen as the two watched the USC-Michigan State game, Jensen didn’t want to hear it.

“It was just funny, he was like a little nutty professor, just throwing out scenarios,” Jensen said, laughing. “And finally, I was like, let’s just bank this conversation, and let’s try to pull off the upset at UCLA.”

Her son figures the best seed might be the 12th, because it could offer perhaps the easiest path through the weekend in Indianapolis.

“He was prognosticating on his own what it would mean, like what he knows of our team versus what seed that he would prefer to be,” Jensen said. “So it was actually really fun. And I usually don’t have many nights off. We then finally ended it, because then I started getting too nervous.”

It is part of life in the monster power conferences now, Jensen said, especially in the 18-team Big Ten.

The only thing Jensen is worried about at the moment is beating UCLA (25-1, 13-1) in Sunday’s 1 p.m. game.

“If we can have a really great ending to the season, which I really believe we’re going to have, you need that mindset,” Jensen said. “So everything we’re doing is to take care of today, right. Everybody’s going to talk about where you’re going to be in the Big Ten standings, if you win this one, lose that one. But really, the Big Ten is so incredibly even.”

It’s why Jensen didn’t want her team stewing too much over last Monday’s 86-78 overtime loss at Ohio State. She gave her team back-to-back days off as a reset for the rest of the season.

“Over the years, if you can give them a back-to-back break, sometimes for the body, it can be good, but even mentally, it’s good,” Jensen said. “Because at this point, a lot of it is you just got to get the job done. Your base is there. I think sometimes a break is just what the doctor ordered.”

“So late in the season, we’re exhausted, just like everybody else is, and having two days off back-to-back is just life-changing,” forward Hannah Stuelke said.

“Very timely,” center Addison O’Grady said.

Sunday’s game will be a reunion for O’Grady with UCLA’s Lauren Betts — the two played on the same team at Grandview High School in Colorado.

“It’s kind of crazy not to be the tallest girl in my high school,” said O’Grady, who is 6-foot-4 while Betts is 6-7. “Like, even outside of basketball, just us, like walking around in the hallways, I think it was a really good confidence boost for both of us not to feel like we stood out too much because we both had each other. Playing basketball together was just crazy, because who has two 6-4 plus people on their team. It might bring me back a little bit to high school days, and