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. Its 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.
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.
