Iowa begins post-Caitlin Clark era with lower expectations and a new coach. Players see opportunity

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Caitlin Clark era at Iowa ended with her as the NCAA Division I overall scoring leader and the Hawkeyes playing in two straight national championship games and being the hottest ticket in women’s basketball.

Clark recently finished her first pro season as the WNBA rookie of the year, and Iowa starts over with a new head coach, new point guard and considerably lower expectations.

Jan Jensen, the longtime assistant who succeeded the retired Lisa Bluder in May, delivered a simple message to her players as they began summer conditioning: “We’ve got next.”

“Coach J says it all of the time,” said Hannah Stuelke, the team’s top returning scorer.

The Hawkeyes will play without Clark for the first time since March 6, 2020, when they host Missouri Western in an exhibition Wednesday night.

After spending all of last season in the top 10 of The Associated Press poll, they are one spot outside the preseason Top 25 as the team receiving the most votes among the unranked.

Iowa went 109-30 in Clark’s four years with four NCAA Tournament appearances, three Big Ten Tournament titles and a shared regular-season championship. Her 3,951 points stand as the most ever by a women’s or men’s DI player in the NCAA. Her 1,293 field goals and 548 3-pointers are women’s records, as are her 480 points in NCAA Tournament games.

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The Hawkeyes also lost sixth-year guard Kate Martin and fifth-year guard Gabbie Marshall, two starters who played key roles in Iowa’s postseason runs.

Bluder retired in May after winning 528 games with 18 NCAA appearances in 24 years. Jensen, who had been with Bluder since their days at Drake in the 1990s, was named head coach the same day.

It’s a lot of change for a program that has been a mark of consistency under Bluder, and the success of the past four years with Clark has given way to questions about how good the Hawkeyes can be without her and the others.

“I think everybody wants to be the New York Yankees, right?” Jensen said. “It was kind of fun to be that the last couple of years, the favorite with those mature teams and the longevity, with Caitlin and Kate, Gabbie, in that starting lineup. But it’s also fun to be the underdog. I think a lot of America always cheers typically for the underdog.”

Still, there will be times when it feels like it will be hard to move on without Clark’s presence. The first two questions Stuelke and new teammate Lucy Olsen got at the Big Ten media days were about Clark, and at the Hawkeyes’ media day, Jensen fielded questions about Clark’s impact on the program.

Olsen, who was third in the nation in scoring last season at Villanova, is one of six newcomers. Stuelke and guard Sydney Affolter, who will be out for the first few weeks of the season as she recovers from offseason knee surgery, are the only returning starters.

Jensen has stressed to the players that the departures of Clark, Martin and Marshall will open playing time for others.

“There’s new roles, a few more shots,” Jensen said. “A few more big defensive assignments that they may now get. And I love to see them leaning in and being ready to hopefully surprise some people.”

Kylie Feuerbach, a fifth-year senior contending for a starting spot, sees a huge opportunity.

“But nothing’s a given,” she said, “and we’re going to have to earn it.”

The Hawkeyes are still popular. All season tickets at home are sold out for the second consecutive season.

Feuerbach said Jensen led the team to the top of Carver-Hawkeye Arena one day to illustrate the magnitude of the crowds that have shown up.

“Coach J had us sit up pretty high in one of the seats, and she just kind of explained to us, put into perspective, the arena that we’re selling out,” Feuerbach said. “And it really does put in perspective and how special it really truly is that there’s that many people that want to come and watch us every single game.”

Jensen said she tells the Hawkeyes to focus on “the windshield” and to forget about the “rear-view mirror.”

“I just keep reminding them to embrace this moment and who they are,” Jensen said.

Every season is a new beginning for every team, but never more than for Iowa as it goes into 2024-25.

“And I think if everybody will just let this year’s team be this year’s team — and not the one back there — and not (project) what they should do or could be,” Jensen said. “But just let this kind of all ruminate and let them kind of start figuring it out, (and) I think they can really have a nice level of success.”

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