By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – As you watch 6-foot-4 Iowa freshman center Ava Heiden race down the floor with the speed of a guard, and maneuver past defenders with lightning-quick post moves, it’s easy to wonder why she hasn’t played more this season.

It’s easy to second-guess first-year Iowa head coach Jan Jensen for how she has used Heiden this season.

Hindsight has a powerful influence and right now those questioning Jensen’s use of Heiden have it based on how well Heiden played in Iowa’s three Big Ten Tournament games, especially games two and three against Michigan State and Ohio State.

Heiden scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds in Friday’s 60-59 loss to Ohio State in the quarterfinals, and the day before that, she scored a career-high 11 points and had four assists and two steals in a win over Michigan State in the second round.

Heiden clearly showed that she belonged and why she was ranked among the top 50 players nationally as a high school senior in Oregon.

She was a four-star recruit and the first player from Oregon to sign with Iowa, so that brought with it a lot of hype, intrigue and expectations.

Fans, and even some in the media, have been clamoring for Heiden to play more this season.

But her minutes have been sporadic and hard to predict.

Heiden played at least 10 minutes in 11 games during the regular season, fewer than five minutes in six games, and there also were six games in which she didn’t play at all.

Jensen has acknowledged that it’s been a struggle for her at times to figure ways to get Heiden playing time, along with fellow post players Hannah Stuelke and Addi O’Grady.

Stuelke is one of the best players on the team and she twice has earned All-Big Ten honors.

She only stands 6-2, and is probably better suited to play power forward, based on her height.

But Stuelke seems more comfortable in the post, so Jensen has mostly split minutes between her and the 6-4 O’Grady, who has quietly had a solid senior season, shooting 64.1 percent from field in the regular season and scoring in double figures in 18 games.

Jensen addressed the use of her three post players following the Ohio State loss on Friday.

“It’s usually been more of a lineup issue, what type of post we’re playing,” Jensen said. “If we need a little bit more bounce or a little bit more size.”

Jensen has earned the right to be trusted in this case, even with hindsight.

She isn’t called the Post Whisperer for nothing. Jensen earned that nickname for the long and distinguished list of post players that have thrived under her tutelage, a list that includes the late Jamie Cavey, Megan Gustafson and Monika Czinano.

Following the win over Michigan State on Thursday, Heiden described her freshman season as a roller coaster with a lot of ups and downs, which is typical for a freshman, sometimes even for a four-star.

To go from playing high school basketball in Oregon to playing in the Big Ten is a significant jump.

Heiden has gone from being usually the best player on the court in high school to being just another player in college, but a player with enormous potential.

Heiden and O’Grady are similar in height, but their games are much different as Heiden relies on her speed and quickness to make an impact, while O’Grady relies more on her strength and on her incredible accuracy and efficiency.

It’s easy to forget with Heiden ascending that O’Grady scored in double figures in eight of the first nine games this season, including a career-high 27 points in a win over Drake in the fourth game. She also scored 18 points in wins over Virginia Tech and Northern Iowa and she had a stretch in conference play in which she scored in double figures in seven of 10 games.

O’Grady has earned the right to play this season, and some of her minutes have come at the expense of Heiden.

But as Iowa now starts preparing for the NCAA Tournament, it seems likely that Heiden’s playing time will continue to increase because she showed in the Big Ten Tournament that she is ready and able to meet the challenge.

To have Heiden, Stuelke and O’Grady all available in the post might make it hard for Jensen to distribute playing time, but it’s also a nice problem to have.

Jensen has had the luxury of being able to be patient with Heiden, though some fans probably would say that Jensen has been too patient with Heiden.

Jensen evaluates her post players every day in practice and every decision Jensen makes from a personnel standpoint is based on what she thinks gives Iowa the best chance to win.

Maybe it’s just a case in which Heiden needed some time develop, and with O’Grady holding her own, Jensen played it safe for a while.

Jensen’s approach seems to be working considering how well Heiden is playing right now.

Heiden might have lost some confidence if she had played significant minutes early in her freshman season, but struggled because she wasn’t ready for that responsibility.

And while everybody wants to play, the team always comes first and Iowa’s post players embrace that mentality.

O’Grady’s played fewer minutes than usual in the Big Ten Tournament because Jensen went with Heiden, who had the hot hand.

But O’Grady stayed positive on the bench because that’s how a team-first player reacts in this kind of situation.

We might look back at the 2025 Big Ten Tournament as being Ava Heiden’s breakthrough moment as a Hawkeye.

She and her team, which has won 10 of its last 13 games, are peaking at the right time.

So perhaps some of the credit, rather than criticism and second-guessing, should go to the Post Whisperer.