Hawkeyes' Jan Jensen begins to find answers

IOWA CITY — When wondering how this Iowa women’s basketball team will evolve in the post-Caitlin Clark era, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the head coach is also trying to figure it out.

Jan Jensen, in her 25th Cy-Hawk game but initially in the head coach’s seat, was looking for answers Wednesday night. After being hesitant to use their bench in last weekend’s ugly loss to Tennessee in New York, Jensen and her staff agreed they need to trust their talented freshmen more. And with Iowa jumping to a quick 16-6 hole at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and playing behind Iowa State for most of the evening, Jensen had plenty of room to experiment. She made 14 substitutions in the first quarter alone.

Jensen was looking for any lineup combination that could click.

And finally, with 8 minutes and 3 seconds left, she found the best solution.

“The unique thing about coaching is you can have a pretty good game plan,” Jensen said after Iowa’s 75-69 win over the Audi Crooks-led Cyclones. “But you really have to read it and feel it.”

Let’s set the stage.

Iowa had rallied from a 56-46 deficit on the strength of three 3-pointers – two from former Cyclone Kylie Feuerbach, one from senior Sydney Affolter – to take a 10-0 Iowa lead. But after officials ruled that Addi O’Grady intentionally fouled Crooks before Feuerbach’s second three-pointer tied the score at 56-56, Jensen replaced 5-foot-10 guard Taylor Stremlow for center O’Grady for a 6-4 lead. The Cyclones now led 59-56.

Jensen’s off-the-cuff thought: Trying to match size Crooks at 5th was a consistent net loss. Up to that point, Crooks had scored 27 points over O’Grady and Ava Heiden combined and could have scored much more if her free throws (3 of 10) had gone down.

So at 6-2, Hannah Stuelke moved from the 4th to the 5th position – the position she played primarily last year in Iowa’s racehorse, guard-focused lineup led by Clark. And for the first time this season, Jensen Affolter placed 4th.

“I wanted to break up and watch (Crooks) with Hannah again,” Jensen said. “And Syd is our buddy.”

The idea was to use Stuelke, a more athletic forward, as a front guard for the imposing 6-3 Crooks. This made post-entry feeds much more sophisticated. In one sequence, Stuelke fended off two consecutive lob attempts. In some cases, the rowdy Stremlow would come out from behind Crooks and pound on the basketball.

Crooks was held up until two pointless layups in the final 28 seconds of the fourth quarter to finish with a game-high 31 points.

Jensen used only six players in the final 8:03: Lucy Olsen (25 points) at the 1, a mix of Feuerbach and newcomer Aaliyah Guyton at the 2, Stremlow at the 3, Affolter at the 4 and Stuelke at the 5.

Stremlow was a standout all night long with her defense. Affolter delivered her best performance of the season (16 points), including two strong left-handed drives to the post that cut Iowa State’s lead to 59-58 and then to 61-60. And it was Affolter’s sweet dish to Stuelke that gave Iowa a 62-61 lead with 4:24 left.

Up to that point, Iowa had only led for 19 seconds. It wouldn’t run again.

“We were on the ground most of the game, but we were never out,” Affolter said. “We never thought we would lose this game.”

Guyton made sure of that.

With Iowa’s lead at 68-63 and less than a minute left on the clock, Jensen trusted Guyton – in just her fifth career game and first truly decisive moment – to make a big play. Olsen threw away the first play after seeing an unguarded Guyton on the left wing. She fearlessly buried a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left.

On a night where Jensen didn’t initially have all the answers, two true freshmen showed why they deserve plenty of playing time in the future.

Stremlow posted six points, five rebounds and two steals, but those statistics don’t do justice to the fire she lit off the bench. Guyton made the most of her 7:21 of playing time, burying both 3-pointers for six points with a team-high rating of plus-10. This season, Guyton is 8 of 10 from deep (80%).

Four days after the humiliating 30-turnover loss, Iowa only had nine. Jensen learned more about her team, which moved to 9-1 with Sunday’s Big Ten Conference opener at undefeated Michigan State (9-0).

“I think I kind of learned what I was hoping to learn,” Jensen said.

She saw a team quickly turn around a tough loss earlier this week.

“I thought, ‘All right. I think we have something for this rivalry,” Jensen said. “But I was glad it would be home.”

Speaking of which, Jensen was reminded of the tremendous home-field advantage Iowa can have in close games. Carver-Hawkeye’s atmosphere rivaled some of the last few seasons in big games with Clark and Co.

Iowa has a lot of home business to take care of in order to return to the NCAA Tournament and potentially compete for a host spot (in the top four).

Jensen told Olsen earlier this year, “You won’t believe what it’s going to be like” when the games get bigger at Carver-Hawkeye. Olsen realized Wednesday that her coach was right. It was so loud that she couldn’t hear some of her teammates’ screen calls on defense.

“It was really fun,” Olsen said. “I’ve never experienced anything like this.”

This Iowa team is far from a finished product. But on Wednesday there were more clues about what these Hawkeyes could be.

They have a really good point guard in Olsen, who is now averaging 19 points per game and is becoming more comfortable as the alpha of the team.

With Stuelke (13 points, nine rebounds) they have an outstanding forward who feels completely comfortable at the 4 or 5.

Affolter looks like Affolter again after her slow recovery from knee surgery.

And some of these newbies can actually play. Heiden managed a few blocked shots. Teagan Mallegni will be the next to break out. But that evening, Stremlow and Guyton proved that they belong.

“A lot of different people bring energy off the bench,” Olsen said. “Those two just came in with a lot of fire and it lit up the rest of us too.”

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