Jamie Cavey Lang, former Iowa women’s basketball player and color commentator, dies at 41

IOWA CITY — Jan Jensen still vividly remembers the conversation, and the couch, in the living room of the Cavey family home in Mechanicsville.

“Just the greatest people,” Jensen recalled Monday. “There was Jamie (Cavey), those big, brown eyes and that post body, sitting on the couch. She didn’t know if she could make it at this level, but Lisa (Bluder) and I were pretty sure she could be good if she worked at it.

“Jamie came to Iowa a little uncertain, but she left as one of the most efficient players we ever had.”

A member of the Bluder’s first women’s basketball recruiting class at the University of Iowa and that era’s first successful post project, Jamie Cavey Lang died of cancer Saturday.

She was 41.

“Jamie was a character, the life of the party,” said Bluder, who retired last spring. “She loved to have fun.

“When we went to go visit her toward the end, she would say, ‘No sad eyes. No sad eyes.’ We had to have happy eyes around her.”

Visitation will be 4-7 p.m. Thursday at The Celebration Farm, located 4696 Robin Woods Lane NE, Iowa City. Funeral Mass will be 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Mary Catholic Church, Solon.

After leading North Cedar to the Class 2A state championship as a junior in 2000, Cavey Lang played for the Hawkeyes from 2001 through 2005.

“We had just gotten here, and we needed bodies,” Bluder said. “Jamie was a tall post presence, and she lived near Iowa City. We thought she had a chance to be good. She was gifted, but she wasn’t skilled yet.

“She was going to go to Illinois State. Obviously, she had a very good career here.”

At Iowa, Cavey Lang compiled 1,265 career points (27th in program history), 506 rebounds (31st) and 94 blocks (eighth). She was a two-time all-Big Ten performer, earning second-team honors as a senior, and was a member of NCAA tournament teams in 2002 and 2004.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts and a master's degree at Iowa, and later played professional basketball in Europe.

Eventually, she spent seven seasons alongside play-by-play announcer Rob Brooks as women’s basketball color commentator on the Hawkeye Radio Network.

She was on the call throughout Iowa’s Final Four run in 2023, before her cancer diagnosis.

“More than anything, Jamie was one of those people that you instantly liked,” Brooks said. “Her personality came across in our broadcasts; she was very enthusiastic and very energetic.

“With Jamie, what was going to happen was going to happen. When Caitlin (Clark) made that shot to beat Indiana (in 2023), I thought Jamie was going to jump on the court.

“There was nothing fake about her. She loved Iowa women’s basketball. She loved the coaches and the players, and they loved her right back.”

Cavey Lang did return for one game last season, when Clark became the leading scorer in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history.

“I think she felt well enough to do more games last season, but she used every ounce of energy into being the best mom and wife she could,” Jensen said.

“She loved — capital ‘L’ — her family and friends, and she was so full of life and fun.”

Cavey Lang is survived by her husband Mike, children Vincent, Bennett and Sydney, parents Patrick and Pam Cavey, siblings Ann (Jack) Jameson, Kelsie (Chad) Dotterer and Jason (Stacey) Cavey, grandmother Sharon Mertka, father- and mother-in-law Ken and Jayne Lang, sisters-in-law Amie (Joe) Stewart, Melissa (Mark) Storm, Abbie (Eric) Mahoney and Chantelle (Bob) Foote, and many nieces and nephews.

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