There are very few players anywhere close to Caitlin Clark’s level. The fans expectations for this season should have been lower, period. We have an outstanding freshman class and will add more outstanding recruits next year. Jan will get us back to the top of the Big Ten.
Jan Jensen = Angie Lee
- Thread starter LeonBeiderbecke
- Start date
It is very much an open question whether Jan can recruit and coach well enough to compete at the top of a wildly-improved and increasingly athletic Big Ten. With the exception of Addie Deal, the reality of Iowa’s recent high school recruiting does not match the local hype.
Layla Hays was a top 25-30 recruit prior to her injury, forcing her to miss the entire 2025 summer circuit. To keep the program momentum Jan needs an excellent 2026 recruiting class. Way too early to write Jan’s obituary.
Very heartedly agree. Was going to ask why he was so certain Jan can lead us back to the top. Then I realized he must be a relative.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're implying here by, "With the exception of Addie Deal, the reality of Iowa’s recent high school recruiting does not match the local hype."
Why only "local hype?"
I believe the locals are going off of the recruiting rankings put out by national ranking systems. Are you saying Jan did not have a hand in recruiting these last two top 10 - 15 classes?
2024 Recruiting Class:
2024 women's college basketball recruiting rankings: Updated top 25 classes
"No. 9 Iowa"
2024 women's college basketball recruiting rankings: Updated top 25 classes
We break down the top 25 recruiting classes after the early signing window.
2025 Recruiting Class:
The Top 2025 Recruiting Classes: Where Each Program Stands Post-Signing Day
"10. Iowa"
The Top 2025 Recruiting Classes: Where Each Program Stands Post-Signing Day - Jr. All-Star Basketball
With National Signing Day now behind us and most players signing yesterday, here are our current 2025 Recruiting Class Rankings! With a few Top 100 […] More
jrallstar.com
2025 NCAA women's basketball recruiting: Top 25 post-signing window classes
"15. Iowa Hawkeyes"
Tennessee, Kansas break into top half of girls' recruiting class rankings, LSU stays No. 1
With commitments during the early signing window, Tennessee and Kansas broke into the top 10 of these expanded girls' high school basketball recruiting class rankings.
Class of 2025 NCAA Women's basketball: College Recruiting Class Rankings by World Exposure Report
"15. Iowa Hawkeyes"
Class of 2025 NCAA Women's basketball: College Recruiting Class Rankings by World Exposure Report
1. LSU Tigers No. 6 F Grace Knox No. 11 PG Divine Bourrage No. 12 G ZaKiyah Johnson No. 32 G Isabella Hines
www.worldexposurereport.com
I also did a comparison thread of the ranked recruit talent pre-Clark and post-Clark that shows how we have recently recruited higher ranked players.
Be mindful that these are not locally ranked players, they are nationally ranked players by 8 recruiting sites.
Thread: Recruiting Players: 8 Years of Rankings (2 Years Prior to Clark, The 4 Clark Years & 2 Years After Clark)
Bottomline: You can see an improvement every year from Clark's 1st year ('20-'21 Player) which had 3 top 100 avg ranked players to 12 top 100 avg ranked players for the '25-'26 season.
Recruiting Players: 8 Years of Rankings (2 Years Prior to Clark, The 4 Clark Years & 2 Years After Clark)
The purpose of this exercise is 3 fold: 1) Had a problem properly evaluating player rankings from one site to another. It was frustrating trying to get a good handle on some players. Ex: Teagan Mallegni was rated 29 on one site and not rated on another site of 150 players. Makes you scratch your...
iowa.forums.rivals.com
Now whether Jan can coach these higher ranked players back to the top again is a wildcard question still outstanding. I can say, if Jan doesn't change her "deer in the headlights" offense, as I call it, I see very little chance of that happening. She needs to get the offense back into better read and react rhythm and momentum as we've seen in the Clark years or she can kiss her top rated recruits goodbye, imho.
Addie Deal specifically said she loved the fast paced offense the Hawks have run for ~the last 10 years and what brought her to sign with Iowa.
I'm hoping Jan is seeing many deficiencies with these upperclassmen role players without Clark and that is the only reason she's operating in this gawdawful offense she has now and she reverts back to the faster pace when Guyton gets going or Addie Deal comes on board.
I do not necessarily agree. It's like we lost a combo of Steph/jordan in one player. Add Kate Martin who would be like a journeyman nba guy, and Molly Davis, and this team was going to take a massive step back on offense. About what I expected. I’m not sure if Bluder could have done any better. Then again, maybe she could have. If so, I’d doubt much better.
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I don't think very many fans came into the season thinking Iowa would make a big tourney run, but the bar for top 25 team is not so high if you are watching a lot of NCAAW games. There are freshmen in the conference making some noise, but as good as Iowa's young players might be, it's not them at the moment. Players, the system, or time? That's a valid question.
You can have lower expectations for the Hawkeyes but still expect to see a team that looks on the same page, fundamentally sound, and improving. If Jensen is planning on playing fast in the future, no reason why this season can't be used to get players ramping up to that offense. They should have a year of experience with it starting year two. And the coach should coach them up to it, or just experience more growing pains transitioning your play style every year. Maybe the coaches and team will come around to it, but I'm not sure what it will take.
I've watched the teams coming up on the schedule play. Nothing easy coming up.
You can have lower expectations for the Hawkeyes but still expect to see a team that looks on the same page, fundamentally sound, and improving. If Jensen is planning on playing fast in the future, no reason why this season can't be used to get players ramping up to that offense. They should have a year of experience with it starting year two. And the coach should coach them up to it, or just experience more growing pains transitioning your play style every year. Maybe the coaches and team will come around to it, but I'm not sure what it will take.
I've watched the teams coming up on the schedule play. Nothing easy coming up.
Correct. Lower expectations for me meant a NCAA Tournament lock that was hopefully ranked.
In addition to Addie Deal, Journey Houston and 6’5” Layla Hays are excellent talents coming in next season and will complement the strong freshman class that is playing this season.
I agree some 6' or taller guards and forwards that can drive and finish would be great. Syd and Kylie can drive, but too many times they get in the lane and stop and then the TO happens.
One thing about message boards- only 5 % of the fan base is on them, but 80% of those are batshit crazy most the time😊
Thought I'd pass along some of Jan's thought's that pertain to my prior comments above.
Listened to Jan on the last Hawk Talk today. She seems to be saying the right things that I want to hear. She talks about playing fast when she can depending on personnel. So there may be some hope yet??? Btw, Rob Brooks sucks as an interviewer.
Women's Basketball | Hawk Talk with Jan Jensen | 01.13.2025
Jan: "I'd love to do is do the fast break right ... in my perfect world I love to break. I love to go fast and I believe in in some time we will be that type of scoring team again. Right now uh we're we're our strength I felt earlier when I watched this in the summer was defensively. I think that remains to be true. I think the reason we're almost could have, would have, should a lot of these games is because of the defense and if I get our offense just a little bit better um I think we can see success in a lot of these Big 10 games."
Well she is talking all the right things. It's a matter if it translates to the court on game day now.
Jan Jensen talks losing streak, previews Nebraska
It's important that Jan hasn't totally abandoned the fast break/pace according to her comments above. Because right now, Jan's offense is swimming up stream when trying to score. It's the worse possible offense to have to go against the grain causing excess friction because it's easy to scout. Hey, whenever the passer gets that "deer in the headlights" look to pass it into the post, we're going to steal that lob. Too much broadcasting of your intentions.
The reason you implement the read and react system properly is because it helps you to swim downstream in scoring points. There's less friction because it's harder to scout your intentions and the ball moves more freely from player to player to get an easier score. I sure hope this comes back sooner rather that later.
Am I the only person that sees a lack of basketball fundamentals for a college team?
The thing I see, is that the players will get the ball up court, but instead of continuing to the hoop (pass or dribble) for any transition, they are stopping and waiting. I don't see any reason for them to take the pressure off defenses this way, but that is apparently what they are being coached to do. I'm not sold on the thought that they can't get points that way. Keeping them from it psychologically is just stunting their growth.
So maybe it sounds like she's saying the right things in that she would like to play faster, but is saying they can't do that now the right thing? I dunno. Seems like she's starting out as a very reactive coach, allowing the opposition to dictate the game.
She flat out said she can't motivate a player. Huh? I hope that was at least meant to be a backhanded statement made to motivate a player. Somebody on staff has to motivate certain players because not every athlete's personality works the same way.
She's going to have to come around to these things. Just hope it's sooner than later. I found this latest Hawk Talk interview a little disappointing.
So maybe it sounds like she's saying the right things in that she would like to play faster, but is saying they can't do that now the right thing? I dunno. Seems like she's starting out as a very reactive coach, allowing the opposition to dictate the game.
She flat out said she can't motivate a player. Huh? I hope that was at least meant to be a backhanded statement made to motivate a player. Somebody on staff has to motivate certain players because not every athlete's personality works the same way.
She's going to have to come around to these things. Just hope it's sooner than later. I found this latest Hawk Talk interview a little disappointing.
Playing fast doesn’t always mean fast breaks.
It looks like there is way too much thinking and not enough free flow
Maybe you didn't read the last two paragraphs I wrote or quite frankly maybe you didn't read much of what I wrote to understand the theme of what's needed to turn this sh*tshow around or at least get it going smoother than it is now. It precisely addresses this issue. The meaning of fast break/pace is fast break = full court and pace = half court. The whole point is to run them off the court from inbound or redound (fast break) to your bucket goes in (read and react = swim downstream = less friction = free flow = easier score). This is the whole point of playing fast. You play fast in the dribble or pass(es) up court and you play fast with your dribble and passes in half court to keep the defense off balance and it's harder to scout.
Now the problem with this team (specially the upperclassmen), as I see it, is they don't have good ball handlers who can dribble fast up court or half court and and they don't seem to have many good passers in any court. Thus, the reason they currently play slow and their focus is on defense to mitigate these offensive deficiencies. Guyton, to me, is our only hope of speeding up with this team and then it will still be somewhat limited because we don't have much for take charge (leadership) players in half court.
The other problem I see is Jan is in love with the post play as the centerpiece. I hope she comes around to seeing that is holding us back from having this free flowing offense. Yes, AOG got easy scores in non-conference play, but it doesn't work that well against bigger, stronger, faster and smarter P4 programs.
The whole point of posting the Hawk Talk was for one reason and that was Jan said she wanted to play fast when the personnel presents itself to do so. That's what I wanted to hear because that's what I was hoping that the current problem is the personnel is lacking the skills to do it efficiently.
You may be very correct on that in the end. It is still a fear of mine as well. My fear is if she doesn't change, we're going to lose recruits over it (possibly current after one year and future). Gotta believe she is smarter than this with all things she should have learned from just the past 2 years alone. My hope is she is trying her preferred method first and if it doesn't workout (which offensively it doesn't; defense is fine), she is smart enough to revert back to recent working model that does. She must back up her words when that personnel presents itself to play faster. It may not be in full swing this year, but when Addie Deal gets here she better have changed her tune by then or else I'm afraid all the momentum of the Clark years will be pissed away living in her post bubble.
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Most good teams have multiple girls that drive to the basket. We seem to be a team with a bunch of Gabbie’s - drive , stop, blackout, or turnover. Go watch iowa vs Indiana and count the number of times each team uses a drive to score, dish, get fouled.
Jan has gone out of her way several times this year to say things like "we lost a few goats from last year". That's the wrong mentality, I wouldn't bring up CC to explain any of the crap we've seen in some of these losses. You don't need CC or Kate Martin to make 7 of 10 at the line in a game, let alone a home game. And CC and Kate never decided who or when to foul strategically end of game, which you just utterly failed to do by not fouling and then letting the girl who has been beating you all night iso one of our players with 7 seconds.
Starting to feel like Jan is a better Robin than being Batman
I'm reminded of former assistant Dick Schultz following Ralph Miller in '70-'71, who despite losing John Johnson, Chad Calabria, Glenn Vidnovic, Ben McGilmer and Dick Jensen, still returned NBA-bound Fred Brown and Kevin Kunnert. Finished 9-15 overall, 4-10 in conference. That was a tough season, and a similar difficult adjustment for fans.
ETA - Dick is still alive, and living in Colorado.
ETA - Dick is still alive, and living in Colorado.
Jeeeebus Karry… you are never gonna see a Caitlin Clark again! She was a one of a kind!?
There are other players who will come along and do well but not a #22. Thus is a completely different team than the oast several year…. No Gabby, no Kate and no Caitlin.
Fans have their heads stuck too far up their butts to see clearly, sometimes.
Is Jan perfect? Nope. Neither was Lisa. Hopefully Jan learns and adopts to her role.
Sit back and enjoy the ride… be a FAN… not a critic! There is a difference.
Dude, reread what I said. I’m certainly not expecting another CC by any stretch of anyone’s imagination. I’m simply saying we don’t have anyone who takes charge at all. My references to CC were that perhaps they all got too used to her for 4 years and nobody WANTS to step up. It’s a very rudderless squad right now.
Coaches always look for leaders. You don’t think JJ and staff are not looking for someone to step up?
Got a mixed bag here so no one will be happy. However, at the end of the day what matters most is, are we moving in the right direction?
TLDR; Yes, we are moving in the right direction & there are positive signs to show for it. However, Jan made it more painful than it needed to be, imho.
Got to thinking after hearing Jan's Hawk Talk about she'd rather play fast than slow so I started looking back & adding up the puzzle pieces but they don't add up in my book. Meaning Jan erred on the wrong side of her business model from the start.
One can see why it's was possible for Jan to select AOG at 5 over Hannah as she has made a lot of progress over last year. Jan took a gamble with this added progress that it could maybe translate into B1G play as well. This is where Jan made a miscalculation, imho, because it was Hannah's progress that was the key insight to look at here, not AOG. It's going to be hard for AOG in the B1G primarily coz she is so slow in other areas that it becomes a liability. +AH > AOG. Hannah's primary liability at 5 is her height, but we already have insight on how well that worked out last year (NATTY game).
This is the key. When Hannah had her injury & couldn't work on her 4 position jump shot as much as she needed in the off season it was a glaring sign that putting Hannah at the 4 was a long shot to workout. To me, Hannah's progress to stay engaged is much more valuable to the team than AOG's progress. At that point, why take a long shot over a known that worked last year? You look for known pillars or "anchors" to base your team around, not an unknown gamble at a long shot.
This was Jan's first puzzle piece to figure out. It's obvious Jan is a post nut so it also contributed to her clouded vision. She rolled the dice on AOG over Hannah at the 5. If I'm reading this right, Jan seems to have planted in her mind that she was going to try this for half a season or until Guyton emerged to see how it worked out no matter the results on the court. It's another gamble taken. She should have realized Hannah at the 4 & AOG at 5 was NOT the answer much sooner. Results showed that the team was ~regressing in pts scored with each passing game in B!G play. After the MD game, the post/lob experiment should of ended for good. Although, I would of liked it stopped sooner when TOs keep stacking up over this lob fest she was enamored with. Better yet, you just go for the fast paced half court offense from the get go coz you know that's where you're going to end up later in the season.
The next piece of the puzzle that seemed to trap Jan into a slower pace is Olsen/Guyton PG situation. Again, Jan had another unfortunate situation because of another injury. Lucy doesn't have the killer mentality & it's why she smiles a lot to cover up some of her skill & pressure deficiencies. Lucy has regressed under B1G pressure she didn't have earlier in the year. Plus, I'm sure she has added pressure of trying to fill some of CC's shoes by not disappointing fans. These things can compound quickly in a losing streak & her missed FTs seem to suggest that.
Jan says she likes to play fast. The problem is Lucy doesn't possess the skillset or the needed determination to play fast full court & Guyton was not available to take over the reigns yet because of her injury plus she had to slowly work back in over time. Meaning Jan had to make a decision to play fast or slow at the start of the season. It seems with AOG at 5 & Lucy at PG, full court slow pace won out. As the season went on into B1G play, the slower pace did not work out as Jan had hoped for. I say this because she kept on pushing this slow half court AOG button over & over again even with numerous TOs. The definition of insanity comes to mind here.
Luckily Guyton has put in her mins now & can step up to fill the role she has the moxie for with ~half a season left. I believe she just had her best game while Hannah probably had her ~best game of the season w/16 pts & 16 rebs at the 5. Believe this is what Jan is talking about when she says the team is closer to finding solutions to play better, than not, by playing faster coz the main puzzle pieces were flourishing more in this game than the prior 3-game regression.
More positives being overlooked in this loss. Believe Jan gets some credit back here & hopefully she can turn this team around now.
1) We won almost every major stat category against Nebraska, except for shooting %s. FT% was the big loser along with 3PT% & overall FG% was very close.
www.ncaa.com
2) We only had 13 TOs & 14 TOs in prior game. It was in an area that had been our biggest problem before. That's called progress!
3) SURPRISE! SURPRISE! We may have some leadership coming yet. Guyton emerging as the team leader? Jan said this in post game interview.
Guyton only had 1 TO in 25 mins this game & ZERO last game in 17 mins. With Guyton, we have the potential to play faster full court & that's exactly what we got this game. Really thought Jan would slog away in her half court lob fest a few more games until fans are totally disgusted & seats aren't fully filled at home.
4) Jan said they would play faster when the right players are in place. At least for this game, I think playing fast with only 13 TOs is a great start to this new focus. The positive part here is Jan backed up her word by playing faster & the team is closer to solutions, imho. I believe there's some truth to this now. We shall see in the coming games how true her intentions are towards playing faster for the rest of the season.
So now Jan is playing catch up with a faster paced offense that SHOULD have been the side she coveted in the first place in the half court offense even with Lucy & AOG together at the beginning of the season. Player combos she monkeyed around with for 1/2 a season in a slow paced offense may be totally different than in a face paced one. Some players may have better 3 pt rhythm in one sys over the other. This is the point of my rant against Jan for taking the slow paced route from the start. If she liked the fast pace & knew she would go to it when Guyton came back or someone else stepped up, then she should of started with that foundation & found the best combos for it when the season started. Never giving recruits an inkling that you went against the grain on why recruits came here in the 1st place. The crowds, the fast pace. This is what will keep recruits, get new recruits here by playing faster on both sides of the court (if you can, but in the half court for sure) that fans love to see & enjoy.
Again, it's going to take sometime to bring this fast pace into a better place coz she monkeyed with lineups mostly in a slow paced half court offense. They've pissed away the preseason & 1/2 a season on a failed slow half court system that in my estimation was a serious piss-poor decision. I don't know how this thinking can keep or get people like Addie Deal with such a stale & boring piece of crap that was presented to us. Jan brought these fiery flames upon herself with these misguided calculations.
That being said, what I'm hoping for now is that Jan has learned a valuable lesson & at the same time she has made some progress in two major areas.
1) The prior major issue was TOs & they have at least gone down to a reasonable or acceptable amount for the last 2 games.
2) Jan said she likes to play fast & in this last game there was a noticeable uptick or two with that game plan.
That's called PROGRESS folks! So don't tell me she is not trying to fix things.
We need to see this progress because I'm afraid Addie Deal won't like what we've seen recently prior to Nebraska game. This game gave me hope that Jan saw the writing on the wall if she continues down the slow path. Again, I scratch my head on how she stayed with the post focus so long & thought this had any merit for recruits or fans to stay engaged with her gamble.
Now if Jan stays this course & errs on side of playing towards future starting player strengths, like she should from the very start, think we win more games this season than people are seeing right now. Can't say how many wins because Jan has some work to do to reconfigure this team for the faster pace. Will Guyton emerge as the leader? Think she does. How much will that inspire the team to dig deeper? We don't know as this is all new & a wildcard at this point.
Nebraska game was a start in the right direction which matched her intentions on Hawk Talk. She has a chance now to rekindle the fire & put positive momentum back into the mix again. If Jan stays this course, Addie Deal is more likely to stay on board with us. How it fares with 2026+ recruits is a whole different animal. Think Jan needs to pull off 1 or 2 highly ranked upsets to inspire these highly rated 2026+ recruits to keep looking at us. Upsets may or may not be in the cards for us as it depends on how much traction she can get out of her players with the faster pace before we play them. There is at least some hope now that it may be possible because most of those high ranked opponents are at home yet. I'd stay positive for now coz it seems the most important major change needed just happened in our favor. Thus, Jan is moving in the right direction as she stated she would do. I find that highly encouraging as a fan & as a recruit that her words match actions.
We still need to see more positive results from it, but I believe this gives us the best chance to see positive results than what we've seen recently prior to the Nebraska game.
TLDR; Yes, we are moving in the right direction & there are positive signs to show for it. However, Jan made it more painful than it needed to be, imho.
Got to thinking after hearing Jan's Hawk Talk about she'd rather play fast than slow so I started looking back & adding up the puzzle pieces but they don't add up in my book. Meaning Jan erred on the wrong side of her business model from the start.
One can see why it's was possible for Jan to select AOG at 5 over Hannah as she has made a lot of progress over last year. Jan took a gamble with this added progress that it could maybe translate into B1G play as well. This is where Jan made a miscalculation, imho, because it was Hannah's progress that was the key insight to look at here, not AOG. It's going to be hard for AOG in the B1G primarily coz she is so slow in other areas that it becomes a liability. +AH > AOG. Hannah's primary liability at 5 is her height, but we already have insight on how well that worked out last year (NATTY game).
This is the key. When Hannah had her injury & couldn't work on her 4 position jump shot as much as she needed in the off season it was a glaring sign that putting Hannah at the 4 was a long shot to workout. To me, Hannah's progress to stay engaged is much more valuable to the team than AOG's progress. At that point, why take a long shot over a known that worked last year? You look for known pillars or "anchors" to base your team around, not an unknown gamble at a long shot.
This was Jan's first puzzle piece to figure out. It's obvious Jan is a post nut so it also contributed to her clouded vision. She rolled the dice on AOG over Hannah at the 5. If I'm reading this right, Jan seems to have planted in her mind that she was going to try this for half a season or until Guyton emerged to see how it worked out no matter the results on the court. It's another gamble taken. She should have realized Hannah at the 4 & AOG at 5 was NOT the answer much sooner. Results showed that the team was ~regressing in pts scored with each passing game in B!G play. After the MD game, the post/lob experiment should of ended for good. Although, I would of liked it stopped sooner when TOs keep stacking up over this lob fest she was enamored with. Better yet, you just go for the fast paced half court offense from the get go coz you know that's where you're going to end up later in the season.
The next piece of the puzzle that seemed to trap Jan into a slower pace is Olsen/Guyton PG situation. Again, Jan had another unfortunate situation because of another injury. Lucy doesn't have the killer mentality & it's why she smiles a lot to cover up some of her skill & pressure deficiencies. Lucy has regressed under B1G pressure she didn't have earlier in the year. Plus, I'm sure she has added pressure of trying to fill some of CC's shoes by not disappointing fans. These things can compound quickly in a losing streak & her missed FTs seem to suggest that.
Jan says she likes to play fast. The problem is Lucy doesn't possess the skillset or the needed determination to play fast full court & Guyton was not available to take over the reigns yet because of her injury plus she had to slowly work back in over time. Meaning Jan had to make a decision to play fast or slow at the start of the season. It seems with AOG at 5 & Lucy at PG, full court slow pace won out. As the season went on into B1G play, the slower pace did not work out as Jan had hoped for. I say this because she kept on pushing this slow half court AOG button over & over again even with numerous TOs. The definition of insanity comes to mind here.
Luckily Guyton has put in her mins now & can step up to fill the role she has the moxie for with ~half a season left. I believe she just had her best game while Hannah probably had her ~best game of the season w/16 pts & 16 rebs at the 5. Believe this is what Jan is talking about when she says the team is closer to finding solutions to play better, than not, by playing faster coz the main puzzle pieces were flourishing more in this game than the prior 3-game regression.
More positives being overlooked in this loss. Believe Jan gets some credit back here & hopefully she can turn this team around now.
1) We won almost every major stat category against Nebraska, except for shooting %s. FT% was the big loser along with 3PT% & overall FG% was very close.
Out rebounded them (42-38)
More shoots (68-62)
More shoots at the free throw line (29-22)
More assists (24-20)
More steals (8-7)
Less TOs (13-16)
Shot a close overall FG% (44.1%-45.2%)
Nebraska vs Iowa Women's Basketball Game Summary - January 16th, 2025 | NCAA.com
Live scores from the Nebraska and Iowa DI Women's Basketball game, including box scores, individual and team statistics and play-by-play.
www.ncaa.com
3) SURPRISE! SURPRISE! We may have some leadership coming yet. Guyton emerging as the team leader? Jan said this in post game interview.
Guyton only had 1 TO in 25 mins this game & ZERO last game in 17 mins. With Guyton, we have the potential to play faster full court & that's exactly what we got this game. Really thought Jan would slog away in her half court lob fest a few more games until fans are totally disgusted & seats aren't fully filled at home.
4) Jan said they would play faster when the right players are in place. At least for this game, I think playing fast with only 13 TOs is a great start to this new focus. The positive part here is Jan backed up her word by playing faster & the team is closer to solutions, imho. I believe there's some truth to this now. We shall see in the coming games how true her intentions are towards playing faster for the rest of the season.
So now Jan is playing catch up with a faster paced offense that SHOULD have been the side she coveted in the first place in the half court offense even with Lucy & AOG together at the beginning of the season. Player combos she monkeyed around with for 1/2 a season in a slow paced offense may be totally different than in a face paced one. Some players may have better 3 pt rhythm in one sys over the other. This is the point of my rant against Jan for taking the slow paced route from the start. If she liked the fast pace & knew she would go to it when Guyton came back or someone else stepped up, then she should of started with that foundation & found the best combos for it when the season started. Never giving recruits an inkling that you went against the grain on why recruits came here in the 1st place. The crowds, the fast pace. This is what will keep recruits, get new recruits here by playing faster on both sides of the court (if you can, but in the half court for sure) that fans love to see & enjoy.
Again, it's going to take sometime to bring this fast pace into a better place coz she monkeyed with lineups mostly in a slow paced half court offense. They've pissed away the preseason & 1/2 a season on a failed slow half court system that in my estimation was a serious piss-poor decision. I don't know how this thinking can keep or get people like Addie Deal with such a stale & boring piece of crap that was presented to us. Jan brought these fiery flames upon herself with these misguided calculations.
That being said, what I'm hoping for now is that Jan has learned a valuable lesson & at the same time she has made some progress in two major areas.
1) The prior major issue was TOs & they have at least gone down to a reasonable or acceptable amount for the last 2 games.
2) Jan said she likes to play fast & in this last game there was a noticeable uptick or two with that game plan.
That's called PROGRESS folks! So don't tell me she is not trying to fix things.
We need to see this progress because I'm afraid Addie Deal won't like what we've seen recently prior to Nebraska game. This game gave me hope that Jan saw the writing on the wall if she continues down the slow path. Again, I scratch my head on how she stayed with the post focus so long & thought this had any merit for recruits or fans to stay engaged with her gamble.
Now if Jan stays this course & errs on side of playing towards future starting player strengths, like she should from the very start, think we win more games this season than people are seeing right now. Can't say how many wins because Jan has some work to do to reconfigure this team for the faster pace. Will Guyton emerge as the leader? Think she does. How much will that inspire the team to dig deeper? We don't know as this is all new & a wildcard at this point.
Nebraska game was a start in the right direction which matched her intentions on Hawk Talk. She has a chance now to rekindle the fire & put positive momentum back into the mix again. If Jan stays this course, Addie Deal is more likely to stay on board with us. How it fares with 2026+ recruits is a whole different animal. Think Jan needs to pull off 1 or 2 highly ranked upsets to inspire these highly rated 2026+ recruits to keep looking at us. Upsets may or may not be in the cards for us as it depends on how much traction she can get out of her players with the faster pace before we play them. There is at least some hope now that it may be possible because most of those high ranked opponents are at home yet. I'd stay positive for now coz it seems the most important major change needed just happened in our favor. Thus, Jan is moving in the right direction as she stated she would do. I find that highly encouraging as a fan & as a recruit that her words match actions.
We still need to see more positive results from it, but I believe this gives us the best chance to see positive results than what we've seen recently prior to the Nebraska game.
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*errsGot a mixed bag here so no one will be happy. However, at the end of the day what matters most is, are we moving in the right direction?
TLDR; Yes, we are moving in the right direction & there are positive signs to show for it. However, Jan made it more painful than it needed to be, imho.
Got to thinking after hearing Jan's Hawk Talk about she'd rather play fast than slow so I started looking back & adding up the puzzle pieces but they don't add up in my book. Meaning Jan errored on the wrong side of her business model from the start.
One can see why it's was possible for Jan to select AOG at 5 over Hannah as she has made a lot of progress over last year. Jan took a gamble with this added progress that it could maybe translate into B1G play as well. This is where Jan made a miscalculation, imho, because it was Hannah's progress that was the key insight to look at here, not AOG. It's going to be hard for AOG in the B1G primarily coz she is so slow in other areas that it becomes a liability. +AH > AOG. Hannah's primary liability at 5 is her height, but we already have insight on how well that worked out last year (NATTY game).
This is the key. When Hannah had her injury & couldn't work on her 4 position jump shot as much as she needed in the off season it was a glaring sign that putting Hannah at the 4 was a long shot to workout. To me, Hannah's progress to stay engaged is much more valuable to the team than AOG's progress. At that point, why take a long shot over a known that worked last year? You look for known pillars or "anchors" to base your team around, not an unknown gamble at a long shot.
This was Jan's first puzzle piece to figure out. It's obvious Jan is a post nut so it also contributed to her clouded vision. She rolled the dice on AOG over Hannah at the 5. If I'm reading this right, Jan seems to have planted in her mind that she was going to try this for half a season or until Guyton emerged to see how it worked out no matter the results on the court. It's another gamble taken. She should have realized Hannah at the 4 & AOG at 5 was NOT the answer much sooner. Results showed that the team was ~regressing in pts scored with each passing game in B!G play. After the MD game, the post/lob experiment should of ended for good. Although, I would of liked it stopped sooner when TOs keep stacking up over this lob fest she was enamored with. Better yet, you just go for the fast paced half court offense from the get go coz you know that's where you're going to end up later in the season.
The next piece of the puzzle that seemed to trap Jan into a slower pace is Olsen/Guyton PG situation. Again, Jan had another unfortunate situation because of another injury. Lucy doesn't have the killer mentality & it's why she smiles a lot to cover up some of her skill & pressure deficiencies. Lucy has regressed under B1G pressure she didn't have earlier in the year. Plus, I'm sure she has added pressure of trying to fill some of CC's shoes by not disappointing fans. These things can compound quickly in a losing streak & her missed FTs seem to suggest that.
Jan says she likes to play fast. The problem is Lucy doesn't possess the skillset or the needed determination to play fast full court & Guyton was not available to take over the reigns yet because of her injury plus she had to slowly work back in over time. Meaning Jan had to make a decision to play fast or slow at the start of the season. It seems with AOG at 5 & Lucy at PG, full court slow pace won out. As the season went on into B1G play, the slower pace did not work out as Jan had hoped for. I say this because she kept on pushing this slow half court AOG button over & over again even with numerous TOs. The definition of insanity comes to mind here.
Luckily Guyton has put in her mins now & can step up to fill the role she has the moxie for with ~half a season left. I believe she just had her best game while Hannah probably had her ~best game of the season w/16 pts & 16 rebs at the 5. Believe this is what Jan is talking about when she says the team is closer to finding solutions to play better, than not, by playing faster coz the main puzzle pieces were flourishing more in this game than the prior 3-game regression.
More positives being overlooked in this loss. Believe Jan gets some credit back here & hopefully she can turn this team around now.
1) We won almost every major stat category against Nebraska, except for shooting %s. FT% was the big loser along with 3PT% & overall FG% was very close.
Out rebounded them (42-38)More shoots (68-62)More shoots at the free throw line (29-22)More assists (24-20)More steals (8-7)Less TOs (13-16)Shot a close overall FG% (44.1%-45.2%)2) We only had 13 TOs & 14 TOs in prior game. It was in an area that had been our biggest problem before. That's called progress!Nebraska vs Iowa Women's Basketball Game Summary - January 16th, 2025 | NCAA.com
Live scores from the Nebraska and Iowa DI Women's Basketball game, including box scores, individual and team statistics and play-by-play.
3) SURPRISE! SURPRISE! We may have some leadership coming yet. Guyton emerging as the team leader? Jan said this in post game interview.
Guyton only had 1 TO in 25 mins this game & ZERO last game in 17 mins. With Guyton, we have the potential to play faster full court & that's exactly what we got this game. Really thought Jan would slog away in her half court lob fest a few more games until fans are totally disgusted & seats aren't fully filled at home.
4) Jan said they would play faster when the right players are in place. At least for this game, I think playing fast with only 13 TOs is a great start to this new focus. The positive part here is Jan backed up her word by playing faster & the team is closer to solutions, imho. I believe there's some truth to this now. We shall see in the coming games how true her intentions are towards playing faster for the rest of the season.
So now Jan is playing catch up with a faster paced offense that SHOULD have been the side she errored on in the first place in the half court offense even with Lucy & AOG together at the beginning of the season. Player combos she monkeyed around with for 1/2 a season in a slow paced offense may be totally different than in a face paced one. Some players may have better 3 pt rhythm in one sys over the other. This is the point of my rant against Jan for taking the slow paced route from the start. If she liked the fast pace & knew she would go to it when Guyton came back or someone else stepped up, then she should of started with that foundation & found the best combos for it when the season started. Never giving recruits an inkling that you went against the grain on why recruits came here in the 1st place. The crowds, the fast pace. This is what will keep recruits, get new recruits here by playing faster on both sides of the court (if you can, but in the half court for sure) that fans love to see & enjoy.
Again, it's going to take sometime to bring this fast pace into a better place coz she monkeyed with lineups mostly in a slow paced half court offense. They've pissed away the preseason & 1/2 a season on a failed slow half court system that in my estimation was a serious piss-poor decision. I don't know how this thinking can keep or get people like Addie Deal with such a stale & boring piece of crap that was presented to us. Jan brought these fiery flames upon herself with these misguided calculations.
That being said, what I'm hoping for now is that Jan has learned a valuable lesson & at the same time she has made some progress in two major areas.
1) The prior major issue was TOs & they have at least gone down to a reasonable or acceptable amount for the last 2 games.
2) Jan said she likes to play fast & in this last game there was a noticeable uptick or two with that game plan.
That's called PROGRESS folks! So don't tell me she is not trying to fix things.
We need to see this progress because I'm afraid Addie Deal won't like what we've seen recently prior to Nebraska game. This game gave me hope that Jan saw the writing on the wall if she continues down the slow path. Again, I scratch my head on how she stayed with the post focus so long & thought this had any merit for recruits or fans to stay engaged with her gamble.
Now if Jan stays this course & errors on side of playing towards future starting player strengths, like she should from the very start, think we win more games this season than people are seeing right now. Can't say how many wins because Jan has some work to do to reconfigure this team for the faster pace. Will Guyton emerge as the leader? Think she does. How much will that inspire the team to dig deeper? We don't know as this is all new & a wildcard at this point.
Nebraska game was a start in the right direction which matched her intentions on Hawk Talk. She has a chance now to rekindle the fire & put positive momentum back into the mix again. If Jan stays this course, Addie Deal is more likely to stay on board with us. How it fares with 2026+ recruits is a whole different animal. Think Jan needs to pull off 1 or 2 highly ranked upsets to inspire these highly rated 2026+ recruits to keep looking at us. Upsets may or may not be in the cards for us as it depends on how much traction she can get out of her players with the faster pace before we play them. There is at least some hope now that it may be possible because most of those high ranked opponents are at home yet. I'd stay positive for now coz it seems the most important major change needed just happened in our favor. Thus, Jan is moving in the right direction as she stated she would do. I find that highly encouraging as a fan & as a recruit that her words match actions.
We still need to see more positive results from it, but I believe this gives us the best chance to see positive results than what we've seen recently prior to the Nebraska game.
