By Hawk Fanatic

Jan Jensen enters her third season as the Iowa women’s basketball coach with an impressive 50-18 overall record.

Her Big Ten record is an equally impressive 25-11, helped by last season’s 15-3 mark and second-place finish.

For Jensen to have averaged a program-record 25 wins over her first two seasons as Lisa Bluder’s successor is a terrific achievement.

But there is one area where Jensen comes up short, which is NCAA Tournament wins with Iowa failing to advance past the second round in each of her first two seasons.

Iowa once again looks built for success with most of its key players from last season returning, and with six new additions, including former Georgia guard Dani Carnegie and former five-star recruit McKenna Woliczok.

The Big Ten Conference held its annual media day event for women’s basketball on Wednesday in suburban Chicago.

Jensen was joined at the event by Iowa All-Big Ten center Ava Heiden and by Iowa point guard Chit-Chat Wright.

They all addressed multiple topics, including all of Iowa’s home games being sold out for a fourth consecutive season, and the goal of making a run in the NCA Tournament.

“I would say us finishing second in the Big Ten, one below what we wanted, but still pretty darn good,” the 6-foot-4 Heiden said Wednesday on the Big Ten Network. “I think being able to look back at the regular season was like, hey, look at all the stuff that we accomplished, how far we went, the teams we beat; that kind of gave us some pride on what we accomplished.

“And then the postseason gave us an edge for next year because we didn’t go quite as far as we wanted to. And we’ve got the talent this year and the depth this year, and so we’re getting ready for it.”

Other than how the 2025-26 season ended, and being on the wrong side of a couple blowout losses, it’s hard to find much wrong with Iowa’s performance last season.

The problem for Jensen, however, is that so much of the focus is on the NCAA Tournament, and right now she’s just 2-2 in March Madness, losing both times in the second round.

Iowa, as a No. 2 seed, was seeded higher than Virginia last season, and was also playing before a sellout crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and yet, the Cavaliers still prevailed 83-75 in double overtime.

It was a frustrating way for the season to end, but it now also serves as fuel for this season.

Hawkeye fans are obviously fired up and ready to embrace this team with all the home games sold out for a fourth straight season; a streak that started in Caitlin Clark’s senior season at Iowa.

“Being recruited, that was one of the big draws for me is the fan base, the support,” said Heiden, who is from Sherwood, Oregon. “A lot of schools don’t have that.”

The 5-4 Wright, who is from Atlanta, Georgia, transferred to Iowa after playing her freshman season for Georgia Tech in her home state.

She said the fan support was also a factor in her decision to be a Hawkeye.

“I would say during my recruiting process when I was in the portal, when I came, a lot of people Instagram tags, ID tags, Twitter texts coming from the fans already before I even committed was amazing to see,” said Wright, who started 31 games at point guard last season and led Iowa with 70 3-point baskets.

Jensen was Iowa’s main recruiter as Bluder’s top assistant coach for over two decades.

They landed a number of star recruits over the years, most notably, of course, Caitlin Clark, who would go on to lead Iowa to NCAA runner-up finishes in 2023 and 2024 while also becoming the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer with 3,950 points.

Clark now plays for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, which picked her first overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft.

Her alma mater, meanwhile, has continued to recruit at a high level, landing a five-star prospect in each of the past two recruiting cycles.

“I’d like to think it’s the consistency of our program,” Jensen said of Iowa’s recruiting success. “You think of the program, and I always consider Caitlin Clark; she’s put a lot of things on the map, certainly Iowa City.”

Jensen also credits former Hawkeye stars such as center Megan Gustafson and guards Kathleen Doyle and Sam Logic for helping to build the Iowa brand.

Iowa also has won at least 20 games in 10 consecutive seasons.

“So we had some stability there,” Jensen said. “But as more eyes have been on basketball, I think people have watched and they’ve watched that consistency, and I think people have enjoyed watching the teams.”