By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – When the Iowa women’s basketball team successfully recruited Ava Heiden from the state of Oregon, it didn’t just get a multi-talented 6-foot-4 post player, Ava’s parents and younger sister also decided to come along.

With her father working remotely, that made it easier for Heiden’s family to move halfway across the country from Sherwood, Oregon to North Liberty so they could be closer to their daughter as she navigates through college.

And it’s good that they did because Ava Heiden’s freshman season was rocky at times.

From a lack of playing time to just trying to figure out the college game, Heiden struggled to gain traction early on as a freshman.

She eventually had a breakthrough late in the season, performing well in the postseason, and that has fueled optimism for Heiden’s sophomore season.

Her parents and younger sister are now just a few miles away, making life off the court far more enjoyable, while opportunity awaits on the court.

“I’m definitely a family person, so it was helpful to be close to them and watching my sister go through her first year of high school and all that,” Heiden said at media day on Tuesday. “They were very helpful and I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Heiden said her family’s decision to move from Oregon to the Iowa City area was part financial. Her parents wanted to watch as many of Ava’s games as possible in college, but it wouldn’t have been easy traveling halfway across the country to do it, nor inexpensive.

“It was kind of out of the blue,” Ava Heiden said. “It was kind of like a stars-aligning thing just in my family. We kind of calculated the costs of what it would be like to come out here and stay in hotels and watch the games and travel back by plane, which is expensive.

“And then eventually we were like it would just be more cost effective if they moved out here, and then that worked out for the family well.”

Heiden’s father works remotely for United Health Care, which has its main headquarters in Minnesota.

“He’s actually closer to Minnesota, which is where their headquarters are,” Ava Heiden said. “So his company was like, yeah, that’s great. Let’s do it.”

Heiden had shown flashes of her potential during the 2024-25 regular season, but it wasn’t until near the end of last season when she really started to make a impact.

She scored at least 10 points in three straight games to close the season against Michigan St., Ohio State and Murray State.

Shew scored 15 points against Murray State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, becoming just the fifth Hawkeye freshman since 2009 to score at least 15 points in an NCAA Tournament game.

“When I did get that opportunity in the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA, that was my opportunity and I prepared for it and that’s where I shined,” Heiden said.

It was suggested to Heiden at media day that it almost seemed as if a light bulb had turned on for her in the postseason.

But she had a different explanation.

“I think it was just all the work that I put in throughout the year,” Ava Heiden said. “When I went on that floor, from an outside perspective it probably looked like there was  light bulb. But I think that just throughout it was about just stacking progress little by little every single day.

“And so it may have seemed like a light bulb, but it was just constantly uphill progress, I guess, for me.”

And while nobody enjoys sitting on the bench, Heiden tried to make the best out of her situation by putting the team first and by having open lines of communication with the Iowa coaches.

Heiden was a four-star recruit in high school and was ranked 36th nationally in her class by ESPN.

So to sit on the bench was a new experience for her.

“No one likes it. But we talk about roles on this team, playing your role and every role is important,” Heiden said. “There’s not one that’s more important than the other. And so bench energy that’s just as important as playing on the floor. We don’t want one person to feel more or less than the other person.

“So, I think just waiting and knowing that my time would come was helpful for me, and just constant communication with the coaching staff helped me to where I was at the end of last year.”

Heiden has good quickness for a player her size and she runs the court like a speedy guard, making her a force in transition.

She also has added to her offensive game.

“I spent a lot of time working on mid-range shooting, so I’ve seen that increase a lot,” Heiden said.

Second-year Iowa head coach Jan Jensen, who works closely with the post players, said Heiden basically just needed some time to adjust to the college game, and to her role with the Hawkeyes.

“It was a little bit eye-opening, right, for Ava. But in a good way,” Jensen said., “When we’d have our conversations, she’s a really analytical kid, very intelligent, and was always wanting a certain formula. But part of basketball, it isn’t exactly a formula. There’s a little bit of feel, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

“Just getting in and honing the skills that are going to be needed at the position that she played, which we needed her back to the basket, we needed a little bit more consistency, and it kind of clicked around Christmas, and then she just went for it and used that kind of disappointment of which she wasn’t maybe playing as much as she’d like and she wasn’t quite as consistent.

“Then it kind of clicked for her. When it clicked, boy, she went gangbusters. She’s just a great young woman, and it was fun to see that growth. She had a great summer.”

Jensen has coached some of Iowa’s best post players, most notably former National Player of the Year Megan Gustafson and three-time first-team All-Big Ten selection Monika Czinano.

So, when Jensen talks about the potential of a post player, it carries a lot of weight.

“I do think she can be one of the great ones,” Jensen said of Heiden. She’s a hybrid; she faces a little bit more. She’s a little bit loose in the post. I don’t mind her to use like a quick dribble if she’s got a spinning one and in because she’s fast. So I’m really excited to see what she can do now that she has this confidence.

“But she had a heck of a summer. I’m really excited about her. And she can be a great mentor to Layla Hays.”

Layla Hays is 6-5 freshman center for the Hawkeyes, and is from Alaska.

She and Heiden spent the summer getting acquainted on and off the court and now they’re in position to give Iowa a nice one-two punch in the post.