Caitlin Clark saw Final Four potential in Iowa, and the rest truly is history

DALLAS — As usual, Caitlin Clark saw something in basketball that others may not have.

Unlike many on the outside looking in, Clark viewed Iowa as a place where the women’s basketball team can go to Final Fours.

The Hawkeyes have had plenty of success over Lisa Bluder’s 23-year tenure as head coach, but getting where they’ll be Friday night when they face No. 1 South Carolina here in a national semifinal? That’s clouds lifting and a rocket taking off.

Last week marked Iowa’s fourth NCAA Sweet 16 appearance under Bluder since 2015. Her first 11 NCAA Hawkeyes teams didn’t get past the first week of the tourney.

Even with Clark, the Hawkeyes were stopped in the second round last year by Creighton. Did that suggest the Hawkeyes would always be a bit short of what it takes to be elite?

Or did Iowa’s coaches never stop pounding away, as teachers or recruiters? Yes, landing Clark from their backyard in West Des Moines made life a lot easier for Bluder and her staff. But a system was already in place for Clark to be Clark, for ballers to be ballers.

“I've been coming to the Final Four for a long, long time," Bluder said here Thursday, ”but my seats are finally going to be pretty good.“

That came from Bluder and her assistants being relentless year after year, honing their craft and pursuing players who are winners. Bluder and her assistant coach of those 23 years, Jan Jensen, sold Clark and subsequently changed the way their program is viewed.

Clark could have named her college. She saw herself blazing her own trail, not extending the dominance of someone else far from home. She also knew, however, she couldn’t go to Any School USA and vie for a national championship.

“How about that?” Jensen said. “How about the audacity of that kid to come in and say ‘No blue bloods, I like Iowa, I connected with the staff, and by the way, I want to go where I can get them back to the Final Four.’ Just put it out there Day 1.

“My friends were like ‘Heyyy,’ I said ‘I know.’ But to do it? That’s something.”

Clark saw that Iowa ceiling was higher than many realized. Before she got there, Bluder’s teams were playing at a pace and fluidity few teams in America rivaled. It needed an X Factor to get over the top.

Obviously, that’s National Player of the Year Clark. But without stellar, unafraid, well-schooled players surrounding her, Iowa is a one-woman show that doesn’t go to Seattle for a Sweet 16, let alone Dallas to the college game’s biggest stage.

Jensen was named this season’s WBCA Assistant Coach of the Year last week. She has been known for her work developing top-shelf post players, most recently the great Megan Gustafson and the great Monika Czinano.

But Jensen also never stopped throwing herself tirelessly into the wearying world of recruiting. The flights, the car miles, the calls, the texts, the scouting, the never-ending connecting — it’s hard work done where five-digit crowds aren’t watching.

Home state or not, Clark wouldn’t have given Iowa a thought had she not been convinced she’d be in a position to get here. Jensen helped Bluder do the convincing. Jensen surely could have been a Division I head coach years ago had that been her top priority.

“That’s what I hope will happen someday,” Jensen said.

“There are some people that aren’t wired to be head coaches. Now, I might be. I just like where I am.”

Plus, it took so much persistence and growth to get here, why leave when Clark has time left at Iowa, which could get right back to the Final Four a year from now?

“It seems a little surreal,” said Jensen, “having some great eras and some eras that weren’t as good, but then we started to get close and close. To finally break through, I just feel like it’s just a blessing.

“But it doesn’t mean we don’t want to win two more (games).”

Getting the first of those two, Friday against No. 1 South Carolina, would stand the sport on its head.

“I think you can be happy to be here, can be grateful for it, but can be up till 1:30 in the morning trying to figure out how to counter South Carolina’s size,” Jensen said.

“I always wanted to be busy on April 1 and close to it. Succinctly, I’m having a blast.”

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