An era ends and new one begins for Iowa basketball

Iowa basketball fans rode a roller coaster Monday afternoon.

First came the jaw-dropping announcement that Iowa women’s basketball Head Coach Lisa Bluder would be stepping down after leading the Hawkeyes for 24 seasons. For those of us who had just bid farewell to the senior nucleus of a team that reached the national championship game for the second-consecutive season, it was a lot to take in.

But within minutes, the university announced that Bluder’s longtime friend and assistant head coach Jan Jensen would take over as head coach. Anxiety subsided as Iowa fans learned the program would be in capable hands.

So we caught a breath and considered Bluder’s remarkable tenure at Iowa. Her announcement caught us by surprise. But it was a perfect ending to a storied coaching career.

Bluder’s final two teams reached the rarefied air of the national championship game. They came up short both times, but Bluder and her Hawkeyes took fans to a place they once only dreamed was possible.

The superlatives describing Bluder’s career could stretch from Iowa City to Des Moines, where Bluder built a successful Drake program and was offered the Iowa job in 2000. Jenson was a senior playing for Drake when Bluder arrived, and then became an assistant coach at Drake. When Iowa came calling, the basketball program got a package deal.

During Bluder’s run 22 of her 24 teams played in the postseason. She was named Big Ten coach of the year three times, and her teams won the Big Ten Conference Tournament five times, including the last three consecutively. Players she coached won the Naismith Player of the year three times. The two runs to the national title game were “magical,” Bluder said.

But for all those accolades and hardware, Bluder’s legacy will be the positive, team-oriented principles that formed the foundation of her coaching style. The cohesiveness, chemistry and friendships displayed by players on the court were a reflection of Bluder and a main ingredient in her success.

“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.,” Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz told The Gazette.

Bluder wanted to bring joy to Iowan’s fans. Judging by the packed arenas and the way her team elevated the popularity of women’s basketball, mission accomplished.

“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 told reporters this week. “But mostly I just want people to remember the way we played the game.”

No one will forget the Bluder era. And the Jensen era will be built on a solid foundation.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com.