Iowa HC Jan Jensen shares transition from Caitlin Clark to Lucy Olsen and transfer portal strategy

Iowa women's basketball coach Jan Jensen admitted that the transition from Caitlin Clark to Lucy Olsen is difficult, especially as Clark had guided the Hawkeyes to back-to-back national championship games in four seasons.

However, the acquisition of Olsen from Villanova means a lot for Jensen, as she's also transitioning from being the right-hand woman for longtime Iowa coach Lisa Bluder to leading the team to the new era.

Jensen talked about her offseason during the Big Ten Media Roundtable on Wednesday at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. The longtime assistant coach for Lisa Bluder described how grateful she's to acquire the prolific Villanova guard to mitigate the production the Hawkeyes would miss after Clark moved to the WNBA.

"We needed a point guard. It was harder to get one after Caitlin Clark (left). Even when she was playing definitely hard, we didn't know if she was going to use her fifth year or not," said Jensen during the Big Ten Media Roundtable [8:45-8:53].

One of her offseason tasks is to get someone to replace Clark, and she got one in Olsen, who was third in the nation in scoring, behind Clark and USC's JuJu Watkins.

Jensen talked with Olsen and her parents about how the Hawkeyes have become not just a top-notch women's basketball team but a great place for student-athletes as well.

"So we're really grateful that we got Lucy Olsen. It's going to be interesting as we continue to traverse this journey of how to use it and what philosophy you can continue," the Iowa coach said. [8:55-9:10]

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Iowa HC Jan Jensen explains her transfer portal recruitment philosophy

During the roundtable discussion, Iowa women's basketball coach Jan Jensen explained her philosophy on recruiting players via the transfer portal. She found the process interesting but stayed on what the team believed, which is to get players based on the needs of the team.

"I think the transfer portal is really interesting because there's no right or wrong way of which to use it. Our philosophy has been to use it strictly for need-based not necessarily to get better right away based not one is more right than the other," Jensen said. [7:49-8:11]

The first-year Iowa coach also had an opportunity to explain her thoughts about the conference expansion. She pointed out that the inclusion of four former Pac-12 schools — Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington — into the group makes the Big Ten Conference stronger and tougher to win.

"I think all of us in the Big 10 what we love about it is you know there's not a cupcake in the Big 10 and inviting those folks in I mean it's no different than getting ready to fly to you know play Maryland we're going to have to bring our same for everybody in this league," she said. [1:34-1:55]

Iowa opens its season with an exhibition game against Missouri Western at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa on Oct. 30 before starting its regular season at home against Northern Illinois on Nov. 6.

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Will the Iowa Hawkeyes sustain their two-year run of getting to the national women's basketball final without Caitlin Clark? Let's know your opinions in the comments section: