Iowa enters the post-Caitlin Clark era with lower expectations and a new coach. The players see an opportunity

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Caitlin Clark's era in Iowa ended with her as Leader in NCAA Division I total points and the Hawkeyes are in back-to-back national championship games and are the hottest ticket in women's basketball.

Clark recently completed her first professional season as WNBA Rookie of the Yearand Iowa starts over Head coachnew Point guard and significantly lower expectations.

Jan Jensen, the longtime assistant who took over from the retiring Lisa Bluder in May, delivered a simple message to her players as summer conditioning began: “We’re next.”

“Coach J always says it,” said Hannah Stuelke, the team’s leading 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 list Top 25 of the previous season as the team that receives the most votes among the unranked.

Iowa went 109-30 with four NCAA Tournament appearances, three Big Ten Tournament titles and a shared regular-season championship in Clark's four years. Your 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.

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 in 24 years with 18 NCAA appearances. Jensen, who had been with Bluder since his time at Drake in the 1990s, was named head coach on the same day.

It's a big change for a program that has been a beacon of consistency under Bluder, and the success of the last four years with Clark has raised questions about how good the Hawkeyes can be without her and the others.

“I think everyone wants to be the New York Yankees, right?” Jensen said. “It's been kind of fun being the favorite the last couple of years, with these 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 Americans are always rooting for the underdog.”

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

Olsen, who ranked third nationally at Villanova last season, 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 players that the departures of Clark, Martin and Marshall will free up playing time for others.

“There are new roles, a few more recordings,” Jensen said. “A couple more big defensive jobs they could get now. And I love seeing them bend over backwards and be ready to hopefully surprise some people.”

Kylie Feuerbach, a fifth-grader fighting for a starting spot, sees a great opportunity.

“But nothing can be taken for granted,” she said, “and we have to earn it.”

The Hawkeyes are still popular. All home season tickets are sold out for the second year in a row.

Feuerbach said Jensen led the team to the front of Carver-Hawkeye Arena one day to illustrate the size of the crowd that had come.

“Coach J had us sit pretty high up in one of the seats and she just explained to us in perspective which arena we were sold out at,” Feuerbach said. “And it really drives home how special it really is that there are so many people who want to come and watch us every single game.”

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

“I 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 so than for Iowa at the start of the 2024-25 season.

“And I think if everyone would just let this year's team be this year's team — and not the one at home — and not (project) what they should do or could be,” Jensen said. “But just let these people ponder and they start to figure it out, (and) I think they can really have a good level of success.”

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