April 7, 2024, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, Ohio. The Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team took the court to try and win a national championship, the first in school history.
This was familiar territory for the team. The location was different, but the stakes were the same on April 2, 2023. On that date the Hawkeyes fell to Angle Reese and the scrappy Louisiana State University (LSU) Tigers in the title game.
The 2023 game had several controversies and memorable moments. In the third quarter and as Iowa was mounting a comeback, Caitlin Clark was issued a technical foul for swåatting or slapping the ball back to the referee, putting her in foul trouble and impacting how aggressive she could be for the rest of the game. Following the game, Angel Reese, an amazing player and future WNBA star, memorably stalked Caitlin around the court, motioning to her ring finger, leading to speculation of a heated rivalry between the players. The truth was that both Clark and Reese are fierce and fiery competitors. Clark, no stranger to trash talking and on-the-court gestures to the competition, confirmed as much in the weeks following the game.
Caitlin Clark and the rest of the Iowa team, coached by the legendary Lisa Bluder, hoped the 2024 game would have a different outcome. They were set to face the South Carolina Gamecocks, the 2022 national champions, coached by the one and only Dawn Staley. Iowa had defeated the Gamecocks in 2023 on their way to that fateful showdown with LSU.
Iowa started the game fast, scoring at will in the opening moments. Iowa led by seven at the end of the first quarter, with Clark scoring 18 of the team’s 27 points, an NCAA record. The Gamecocks rebounded in the second quarter, taking the lead into halftime. They built on their lead in the third quarter, outscoring Iowa 19–13. In the fourth and final quarter of Caitlin Clark’s collegiate career, the Hawkeyes got within five points before South Carolina went on a seven point run, ending the game with the lead and the championship.
The Iowa Hawkeyes would finish as runners up for the second year in a row.
With Caitlin Clark and Kate Martin heading to the WNBA and senior stars Gabbie Marshall, Molly Davis, and Sharon Goodman on the way out, the team would look much different for the 2024/25 season. Then came the news that coach Lisa Bluder would be retiring after 24 years as the head coach.
Four starters, including the greatest athlete to ever take the floor in Caitlin Clark, and the head coach would all be gone. What would the Iowa Hawkeyes do if they were to try and maintain this level of success?
The Iowa Hawkeyes were not perennial favorites like LSU and South Carolina. But they had been steadily improving in the decade leading to the back-to-back national title appearances. Superstar Megan Gustafson played all four college years for Bluder, winning the Big Ten Tournament and advancing to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament in 2019. But their 2023 Final Four appearance was their first in over thirty years.
The Iowa team would need to rebuild, strengthen where it could and bring in new players and a new coach. Jan Jensen, who spent more than two decades as Bluder’s assistant coach, would be handed the reins as head coach. Lucy Olsen, an incredible player, transferred from Villanova to spend her final year of eligibility in Iowa City. Standouts Hannah Stuelke, Synder Affolter, Addison O’Grady, Taylor McCabe, and Kylie Feuerbach would all return and start. Players like Aaliyah Guyton, Taylor Stremlow, and Ava Heiden would round out the team. Coach Jensen had the pieces in place. Would the team make their way back to the national championship?
The Hawkeyes started the 2024/25 campaign by winning their first eight games before falling to top-25 ranked Tennessee on December 7, 2024. The Hawkeyes played well all season long and no opponent beat them by more than ten points in the regular season. They upset second-ranked University of Southern California (USC), led by the fantastic Juju Watkins on February 2, 2025 and had an amazing road comeback against Ohio State University after trailing by double digits late in the fourth quarter before falling to the Buckeyes in overtime. The Hawkeyes entered the Big Ten Tournament on a roll and won their first two games against Wisconsin and Michigan State, respectively. Ultimately, the Hawkeyes fell to the Buckeyes in the quarterfinal round of the tournament.
The game was decided by one point.
With the Big Ten Tournament in the rearview mirror and the NCAA Tournament selection looming, the Hawkeyes still have a chance to finish the season on their terms. So what does all of this basketball have to do with managing talent?
It’s simple, really. There will be times when we have great talent around us. There might even be times when we ARE the great talent. The thing you’ll notice about great teams though is that they have more than one talented player. Michael Jordan famously did not win an NBA Finals until Scottie Pippen joined the team and even then it took several seasons. Jordan’s rookie season was in 1984, Pippen’s in 1987. Their first NBA championship came in 1991.
Building a great team takes time. Even with Caitlin Clark, it took time to reach the top. In 2022, the Hawkeyes fell to Creighton University in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Clark’s sophomore year. Clark elevated the Iowa Hawkeyes to another level. But the team does not stop following her graduation from the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business.
No team can rely on one person. Caitlin Clark played with Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall, two outstanding players in their own right. Monica Czinano was such a rock for Clark that analyst Christy Winters-Scott started referring to them as “The Law Firm of Clark and Czinano,” referring to their fantastic partnership on the court. Soon fans could be spotted in the stands wearing shirts with the phrase, made possible by Iowa City retail staple RayGun. Clark is a next-level, generational, one-in-a-lifetime talent. But she was part of a team in southeast Iowa.
We cannot stop growing and improving our teams when we lose top talent. Caitlin Clark is one of the team’s strongest supporters, appearing at multiple games during the regular season. Clark was seated in the front row of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse (home court to Clark’s WNBA team the Indiana Fever) to cheer on her alma mater throughout the Big Ten Tournament. Clark wants the team to succeed.
Jan Jensen and the rest of the Iowa coaching staff, the students of the university, the alumni (of which I am a proud member — Go Hawks!), and all the fans were delighted by the four years we had with Caitlin Clark. But as her #22 jersey now hangs forever in Carver-Hawkeye Arena in the best city on earth, the show goes on. We might need to level set and redefine what success looks like. Only one team can be champion, but many teams have great seasons and achieve success.
And so it must be for you and your team. When we have the opportunity to exist with great talent, we must embrace and enjoy it! But when that talent inevitably moves on, for whatever reason, we have to look down the bench and ask one simple question…
“Who’s next?”
What do you think? Comment below and let’s talk about it. You can also listen to my conversations on topics like this on my weekly podcast Born to Yap, Forced to Work (available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify).
I’m a workforce development, culture, and leadership coach who has a decade of experience helping to build amazing teams and leaders. If you’re interested in working with me, visit my website to learn more: Longview Collaborative.
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What Iowa Women’s Basketball Can Teach Us About Talent Management was originally published in Never Stop Writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.