When the Iowa Hawkeyes fell to the South Carolina Gamecocks in the NCAA championship in March, the team faced more tough news in the months that followed. While it was expected that Caitlin Clark would leave for the WNBA, only a few anticipated that alongside Clark’s April draft into the WNBA, Iowa Head Coach Lisa Bluder would also announce her retirement after 24 years at Iowa. Many people speculated that Lisa Bluder’s retirement was a direct result of Caitlin Clark’s departure, but it turns out that wasn’t the case after what Bluder’s successor Jan Jensen has revealed.

Recently, Jan Jensen, the Iowa current head coach has shed light on how events actually unfolded post the Iowa Hawkeyes’ NCAA heartbreak. “When the run was so fun and then we went on the wooden, you know, Award Tour with Caitlin and then the draft and all the things it got push back right, and so I think by that time um, nobody was thinking about, you know, anybody retiring,” said Jensen via No Cap Space WBB.

However, it didn’t go the way everyone thought as Jensen later revealed what Lisa Bluder said while talking about her retirement. “But when Lisa went on vacation, I think the sweetest thing she said when she came back and told myself and Jenny actually was she said, ‘it just dawned to me I just want to be a mom, ‘” said Jensen. The retired Iowa head coach is a mother to three kids and her son David Jr. Bluder is a senior player at Grinnell College, an academic high school. 

Jensen elaborated on Lisa’s decision and mentioned, “Every coach will tell you it’s not a complaint, it is just facts. You, you watch everybody else’s kids play more than your own and you don’t really see a lot of the morning YMCA leagues for your little guys.” When Lisa Bluder decided to step down from her role as head coach, the responsibility fell to Jan Jensen, who had been Bluder’s trusted assistant.

A coach and player bond: Lisa Bluder and Caitlin Clark’s admiration towards each other