Lisa Bluder found ‘good time to go out’ after 24 years at Iowa

WEST DES MOINES — When Lisa Bluder spoke at her introductory news conference in 2000, her daughter Hannah was on her lap.

Fast-forward 24 years, and Bluder was again with her oldest daughter Hannah — now Iowa’s director of basketball operations — Tuesday as they walked into Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“I said to her, ‘I wish I would have known that Ohio State was our last regular-season game,’” Bluder said in her first comments since Monday’s surprise retirement announcement. “And I wish would have known that West Virginia was our last game (at Carver). … To imprint that into your memory just even a little bit more, I wish I kind of would have known.”

It underscores the monumental nature of Bluder’s news on Monday of her retirement after winning 884 games as a head coach, including 528 at Iowa.

“Everybody’s been asking me about these Hall of Fame coaches that aren’t likely to work for forever,” Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz told The Gazette. “They went through an amazing run. … Maybe she doesn’t even recognize how many lives she’s touched. In this newfound freedom she’s going to have, I hope she takes time really to process what she’s done for so many people.”

Bluder, 63, tried “not to think about (the retirement decision) during the season.”

“Because during the season, I think if you start thinking about things like that, you’re taking your eyes off the goal,” Bluder said.

Bluder announced the decision on May 13 — about five weeks after the season ended with the loss to South Carolina in the national championship game.

“I wasn’t going to make a decision immediately following the national tournament,” Bluder said.

It helped to have “a few weeks to get away from it all,” which included a vacation to Arizona. The trip presented “some good opportunities to talk away from everybody” with her husband, David, about the decision.

There are many reasons for why now made sense for Bluder to step away.

Bluder mentioned the opportunity to travel while she and David are in good health. It will be an opportunity for her to see her son, also named David, play basketball at Grinnell College.

“I missed so many of my kids’ things, and it’s just time for me to be able to give time to them fully,” Bluder said. “And it’s a good time to go out too quite honestly.”

She is stepping away after helping the Hawkeyes become the first Big Ten women’s basketball program to go to the national championship game in consecutive years.

“Obviously everybody would like to go out on a high level,” Bluder said. “I always say in coaching it’s not if you’re fired, it’s when you’re fired. … It’s such a good feeling to take this team to the Final Four and to the national championship game. And I know that nothing can ever replicate that. It was pretty magical.”

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There will be a lot for Bluder to miss, too, starting with going to practice every day with the women on her roster.

“Being able to be around 18-to-22-year-olds that are so motivated and so excited and so positive — that keeps a person young, quite honestly,” Bluder said. “So I will miss practices. I won’t practice the road trips. Those are kind of grueling sometimes, but I will miss the players.”

Bluder’s legacy includes two appearances in the national championship game, three Big Ten Coach of the Year honors and three Naismith Player of the Year honors for her athletes. Her teams reached the postseason in 22 of her 24 seasons at the helm.

But what Bluder hopes fans remember most goes well beyond the on-court results.

“I hope that we brought joy to a lot of people and let them kind of forget about any troubles that they may have in their lives for a couple of hours on game days,” Bluder said. “But mostly I just want people to remember the way we played the game.”

That includes the joy and camaraderie that the Hawkeyes played with during Bluder’s tenure.

“So much can be accomplished if you put all your differences aside and you focus on the goal and you focus on the mission, and that’s what this team did,” Bluder said. “And that’s what was so much fun to be a part of.”

With 24 years as a head coach at Iowa and 40 years as a head coach overall, Bluder has seen a tremendous surge in popularity in the sport.

“I consider myself so blessed that I got to see this journey,” Bluder said. “People that are stepping in now think this is the way it was, and it wasn’t. So I think we have a different appreciation because we saw it from ground level to what it is now.”

Looking ahead, Bluder mentioned in her letter to fans that she’ll be transitioning to the role of being the “program’s biggest champion” as Jan Jensen takes over as head coach. Bluder said Tuesday she does not know yet what exactly her new role will look like.

“I’ll be at games,” Bluder said on Tuesday night. “So that will be very strange. But I was talking to some of my parents of recruits last night saying, ‘Hey, now we’ll get to sit together in the stands and break it down.’ … I’m going to be behind this program 100 percent forever.”

Bluder said she already received broadcast inquiries, but she is going to “kind of wait” before taking on any of those pursuits.

“I had that advice from Marsha Sharp,” Bluder said, referencing the retired Texas Tech coach. “She said, ‘A lot of people are going to come and ask you to do things, and just kind of wait and see what you really want to do. … Don’t jump on everything now or you’ll be overwhelmed.’”

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As for that morning walk into Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Bluder’s recently retired status still at least comes with building access.

“I showed up at work today, and they let me in the building,” Bluder said. “So I think it’s a good thing.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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