In shocking news out of Iowa City, long time Iowa Women’s Basketball coach Lisa Bluder announced her retirement today. The all-time winningest coach in Iowa Women’s Basketball, Lisa took 22 teams to the NCAA or NIT post-season tourneys in her 24 years. And of course led the Hawkeyes to back to back appearances in the National Championship game.
From Coach Bluder,
“It is with a range of emotions that I share with you today that I have decided to step down from leading the Iowa’s Women’s Basketball team after 24 memorable years. I informed President Wilson and Director of Athletics Beth Goetz of my decision, and I’m grateful for their unwavering support and offered my assistance in any manner in the future.
“It has been the honor of my career to be a part of the Iowa Hawkeye family, and to lead a women’s basketball team filled with so many talented and remarkable women.” She went on to say “there is never an ideal time to retire….but my belief in the foundation of this program, knowing that success is now an unrelenting component of women’s basketball at the University of Iowa gives me comfort as I transition to become the program’s biggest champion.”
Lisa graduated from Linn-Mar in 1979 and from the University of Northern Iowa in 1983. From there she spent six seasons as head coach at St. Ambrose in Davenport, before taking the head job at Drake from 1990-2000, before moving to the University of Iowa. Congratulations to Coach Bluder on her well-deserved retirement!
And her successor is familiar to Hawkeye Nation, Jan Jensen has been named as the new head coach of the Hawkeyes. Jan has been a top assistant at Iowa working with Coach Bluder for the past 24 years, congratulations to her as she now takes the top job. An introductory news conference for Coach Jensen will be held Wednesday at 1pm.
