Photo: University of Iowa
(Iowa City, IA) -- Newly named Iowa women's basketball coach Jan Jensen says the program should not look that much different than what fans are used to during the Lisa Bluder era. Bluder announced this week she's retiring. A short time later Jensen, Bluder's long-time assistant coach, was named head coach. Jensen has been associate head coach for 20 years at Iowa.
"I am beyond blessed. I am beyond excited. I'm just in awe that I get to stand here in this capacity today," Jensen said Wednesday. "This city, this state, there's a lot of people that could take this job, but I promise you nobody loves this place as much as I do."
Jensen says Bluder has agreed to stay on as an advisor to the team. She says the rest of the coaching staff will remain in Iowa City too, and the players have agreed to stay with the program too. Jensen says one of her next tasks will be to find another assistant to fill her previous job. She says the culture and values will be the same as they have been during Bluder's tenure.
Jensen noted Iowa's recruitment of new players has expanded its footprint. She says there are two reasons for that, extra attention on a nation level due to players like Megan Gustofsen and Caitlin Clark, but also because of the expansion of the Big 10 conference.
She says the know this season was going to be a reset, after Clark's departure.
"I'm just excited about the change this year, and going thru a reset. Now we don't have someone who shoots from the parking lot, they actually shoot from the 3-point line. So we're going to figure that out all over again," said Jensen during today's news conference.