Iowa

Leistikow: The beauty of Iowa women’s basketball shines amid officiating chaos at Nebraska

Published

1 year ago

February 11, 2025

Leistikow: The beauty of Iowa women’s basketball shines amid officiating chaos at Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. − One of Lisa Bluder’s lasting legacies in 24 years as Iowa women’s basketball head coach was the mantra, “Everyone matters.”

From a generational superstar like Caitlin Clark to the medical staff to the men’s practice squad to the last player on the bench, Bluder reinforced the message time after time after time. And, the best part is, everyone bought in.

Everyone matters.

An example like Kate Martin will endure forever. She tore an ACL days before her Iowa arrival as a freshman in 2018, but she learned to pour into her teammates that first season that saw Megan Gustafson and the Hawkeyes reach the Elite Eight. She learned that her value that season was to be a positive teammate.

Her second season, she played sparse minutes. By the time Martin was a sixth-year senior, she was not only the team’s “glue” in back-to-back Final Four runs, she was the No. 2 scoring option behind Clark. Martin stuck with it and now, against all early odds, is sticking in the WNBA.

Clark spoke recently at her No. 22 jersey retirement about the team culture that’s been kept in place under the direction of Jan Jensen, Bluder’s longtime assistant and now first-year head coach. Clark was confident that success would be coming for this team sooner than later.

And the more this first season post-Clark and post-Bluder unfolds, the easier it is to see that this program is very much going in the right direction.

On a Monday night that saw repeated perplexing whistles and key Hawkeye players on the sidelines with foul trouble, “everyone matters” won the day.

And Iowa defeated Nebraska, 81-66, in a dominant performance before 6,535 fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

“If you’d have told me all that foul trouble in the first quarter … and we’re still going to come out of here with a win?” Jensen said. “Yeah, that was crazy.”

At one point, Nebraska had shot 23 free throws to Iowa’s six. The pinnacle of questionable calls was Addison O’Grady’s clean blocked shot on Alexis Markowski late in the third quarter, with Iowa’s lead at 52-43.

Quick sidebar: The Iowa team meets every day in a circle, another Bluder staple because it has no true top and bottom, no starting point and end point. Jensen has continued the circle tradition.

Iowa leaned on that circle mentality amid the foul adversity Monday.

“You’ve got to just stay in the circle,” said Lucy Olsen, who played all 40 minutes and scored a season-high 32 points. “You just laugh it off like, ‘It’s not really happening.’ … You can’t control what the refs are calling. So you just take a step back and just remember, stay in the circle, every huddle.”

Instead of getting overly animated on the sideline like she had during Iowa’s five-game losing streak, Jensen remained calm and encouraged her team to try to stop fouling and control what it could control, like defense, rebounding and following the game plan.

7 happy minutes from Jan Jensen after Iowa’s 81-66 win at Nebraska

The Iowa head coach saw her team play another complete game, this one avenging an earlier-season loss to the Cornhuskers.

“Every game is a different story,” Jensen said, “and you have to adjust.”

This game’s story was about Olsen, the fouls and … the young freshmen, who were thrust into key roles and looked like veterans on the Big Ten Conference road.

“That’s what I think was so fun about this win,” Jensen said.

Ava Heiden, a 6-foot-4 true freshman who had not played a minute in Iowa’s last three games, was suddenly on the floor late in the first quarter with O’Grady and Hannah Stuelke saddled with two fouls. She responded with six second-quarter points on 3-for-4 shooting and played good defense on Markowski, Nebraska’s top player.

Heiden stayed ready. She played ready, unafraid of the moment.

“The freshmen are here to serve the team,” Heiden said, “and I think we’re doing a great job.”

Iowa’s Ava Heiden was ready when number got called against Nebraska

The freshman contributed six key second-quarter points in Iowa’s 81-66 win at Nebraska with teammates in foul trouble.

What a quote. What a mature mentality as a freshman.

Heiden isn’t the only Iowa rookie who has had inconsistent playing time.

Some nights, Taylor Stremlow plays 26 minutes; other nights, she’ll play eight.

Aaliyah Guyton might be great one night (15 points in 30 minutes vs. Northwestern), off the next (1-for-9 shooting vs. USC).

Teagan Mallegni has continued to get chances in small doses. Monday, with Sydney Affolter in foul trouble, she played 10:42 and delivered a clutch three-point play in the second quarter.

Iowa turned a 24-24 tie into a 36-27 lead, with all four freshmen scoring a bucket apiece. That’s a testament to the work they’ve been putting in behind the scenes.

Afterward in the locker room, the team also roared to celebrate Mallegni drawing her first charge of the season.

“When they’re used to playing so many minutes in high school, and then they play eight … it’s hard for them to realize how great that eight is,” Jensen said. “And I thought that’s what was cool about (Monday), is that they got their opportunities … and then they were ready for the moment.”

That’s the mark of a good team, which Iowa is right now with five straight wins to follow its concerning five-game losing streak. The Hawkeyes (17-7 overall, 7-6 in Big Ten play) are now solidly in the NCAA Tournament field as long as they don’t collapse in their final five regular-season games. Up next: Thursday at home against Rutgers (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Plus), which is 2-11 in conference play.

“We talked about (playing) your best basketball in February,” Jensen said. “And so far, we’ve been showing that.”

The freshmen respect the veterans and are understanding of their roles; the veterans such as Olsen and Affolter appreciate what they’ve seen from the rookies. After Affolter’s 3-pointer late in the third quarter pushed Iowa’s lead to double digits for the first time, Stremlow was one of the first players off the bench to give her a chest bump.

“They’re special,” Olsen said of the freshmen. “They show up every day, no matter how many minutes they play. It’s confusing as a freshman. You never know if you’re going to get in.

“We all have trust, every time they come on the floor. We know they’re going to try their best, and they’re good basketball players, too.”

Everyone matters.

Jensen has talked often about how close she thought this team was from breaking through, even amid the five-game losing slide that saw the Hawkeyes repeatedly find frustrating ways to collapse.

Now this team has reached a point where everyone knows their roles, where everyone’s comfortable in their roles … and that allows everyone to play freer and looser. That’s what a true team is all about.

We saw that with Olsen’s magnificent night, with 12-for-20 shooting, six rebounds and seven assists. We saw that with Taylor McCabe, the junior who didn’t play a year ago at Nebraska and this time knocked down five 3s and scored 17 points against her home-state team.

Nebraska native Taylor McCabe showed out for Iowa, her big contingent

The Iowa junior had her best game against the Cornhuskers, draining five 3-pointers in the second half Monday in Iowa’s 81-66 win.

The vibes are good with Jensen and the Hawkeyes entering the home stretch, and the confidence is justifiably high.

“Our ceiling is so high, and I think that we’re hitting it in stride, right at the right time,” McCabe said. “You just see it every day in practice, too. Those members of our team that don’t get in to play as much, they’re getting better, and so they’re raising everybody else to keep getting better.

“And we’re just all gradually moving up that ladder. I really think that we’re just going to do some damage down the stretch.”

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 30 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group (free for subscribers) at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.

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Iowa

No. 3 Michigan holds off a late run by Iowa, beats the Hawkeyes 71-68

Published

4 hours ago

March 6, 2026

Press Room

No. 3 Michigan holds off a late run by Iowa, beats the Hawkeyes 71-68

IOWA CITY, Iowa — IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Morez Johnson Jr. and Yaxel Lendeborg scored 16 points apiece, and Aday Mara had two tiebreaking shots in the final 1:22 as No. 3 Michigan defeated Iowa 71-68 on Thursday night.

The Wolverines (28-2, 18-1 Big Ten) were held 18 points below their season scoring average, but managed to hold off the Hawkeyes (20-10, 10-9) in the closing seconds.

Iowa went on an 11-1 run to tie the game at 64 with 1:56 to play before Mara banked in a shot before the shot clock expired, putting Michigan in front again. After Iowa’s Cam Manyawu scored inside to tie the game at 66, Mara, who finished with 14 points on 7-for-10 shooting, scored off a lob with 43 seconds left to put the Wolverines ahead to stay.

Iowa had chances to tie the game on back-to-back possessions, but missed three shots on one of the possessions and lost the ball on another after a turnover by Tavion Banks with seven seconds left.

The Hawkeyes had a final chance to tie the game after Lendeborg made two free throws with four seconds remaining, but Bennett Stirtz’s 3-pointer try was long.

Elliot Cadeau added 11 points for the Wolverines, the Big Ten regular-season champions.

Stirtz led Iowa with 21 points. Manyawu had 14.

Michigan had a 38-25 rebounding edge on the Hawkeyes.

The game was tied at 30 at halftime. Michigan shot 50% from the field, but committed 12 turnovers that Iowa turned into 16 points.

The Hawkeyes were 11 of 31 from the field, with Stirtz especially struggling to make shots. Stirtz, Iowa’s leading scorer this season, made just one of his first nine shots, then hit back-to-back 3-pointers in a 27-second span to give Iowa a 30-28 lead.

Up next

Michigan: Hosts No. 8 Michigan State on Sunday.

Iowa: At No. 9 Nebraska on Sunday.

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Iowa

Iowa women’s wrestling star Kylie Welker on competing for official NCAA championship

Published

16 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Iowa women’s wrestling star Kylie Welker on competing for official NCAA championship

Wrestling-Women

March 5, 2026

Iowa women’s wrestling star Kylie Welker on competing for official NCAA championship

March 5, 2026

Kylie Welker chats with NCAA Digital’s Sophie Starkey about the success of Iowa women’s wrestling and the possibility of winning the inaugural NCAA sanctioned championship.

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Iowa

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Published

1 day ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Iowans who commit multiple serious crimes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a “three strikes” bill passed by House lawmakers.
Republicans said the bill would keep Iowans safe and “prioritize victims and public safety over criminals.”
A nonpartisan state agency says the bill would disproportionately impact Black Iowans and could require the state to spend millions to build a new prison.

Repeat offenders convicted of multiple serious crimes would receive a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a bill passed by House lawmakers.

House lawmakers debated for more than an hour about high costs, lack of prison space and the bill’s impact on Black Iowans before voting 68-23 to pass House File 2542, sending it to the Iowa Senate.

Seven Democrats, including Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.

“It will put public safety first,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “It will ensure that the debt to victims and society is paid. It will prioritize victims and public safety over criminals. It will establish real and effective deterrence that is nonexistent in our current system. It will reduce chaos and violence in our society.”

Here’s what to know about the bill.

What would the House Republican three strikes bill do?

Iowans who accumulate three strikes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, with no parole, under the bill.

That would replace Iowa’s current law that says habitual offenders must serve a minimum three-year prison sentence before they are eligible for parole.

All felonies, as well as aggravated misdemeanors involving sexual abuse, domestic abuse, assault and organized retail theft would be considered level-one offenses that are worth one full strike.

Other aggravated misdemeanors, as well as serious misdemeanors involving assault, domestic abuse and criminal mischief would be considered level-two offenses worth half a strike each.

Lawmakers amended the bill to remove theft, harassment and possession of a controlled substance from the crimes that would count toward a person’s strikes.

And the amendment specifies that the bill would only apply to convictions that occur beginning July 1, 2026.

If someone is arrested and convicted of multiple offenses, only the most serious charge would count towards the defendant’s strikes.

Convictions would not count toward someone’s total if more than 20 years passes between a prior conviction and their current conviction.

Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that only a violent crime would qualify as someone’s third strike, but Republicans rejected the amendment.

“The bill still scores murder, felony embezzlement and felony theft the same, even though they are very different crimes,” Wilburn said. “One point is one point and three gets you 20 years with no ability for parole or judicial discretion.”

Holt said the legislation leaves room for judicial and prosecutorial discretion.

“There are deferred sentences, there are plea bargains,” he said. “There is plenty of opportunity for grace and judicial discretion in the legislation that we are proposing.”

Bill could cost millions, require Iowa to build a new prison, agency says

A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it could cost Iowa nearly $165 million more per year by 2031 based on the cost of housing inmates for longer prison stays.

FY 2027: $33 million
FY 2028: $66 million
FY 2029: $99 million
FY 2030: $132 million
FY 2031: $164.9 million

The agency said if the bill had been in effect between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2025, there would have been 5,373 people who qualified for the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.

“An increase in the prison population due to increased (length of stay) will require the DOC to build additional prison(s),” the agency states. “The size, security and other features that a future prison may require cannot be determined, but costs would be significant.”

The analysis noted that South Dakota appropriated $650 million last fall to build a 1,500-bed prison.

As of March 1, the Iowa Department of Corrections’ website describes the state’s prison system as being overcrowded by 25%, with 8,705 inmates compared to a capacity of 6,990.

The Office of the State Public Defender could see a projected cost increase of $1.6 million due to an increased number of trials resulting from the legislation.

But the agency’s estimates come with a caveat — the Department of Corrections did not respond to its requests for data.

“The LSA has not received a response to multiple requests for information from the DOC,” the note states. “Without additional information, the LSA cannot estimate the total fiscal impact of the bill.”

Holt called the fiscal note “an embarrassment to the Department of Corrections” and “an agenda masquerading as math.”

“It is clear, in my judgment, that because they did not like the legislation they went all out and extreme to create a fiscal note that cannot be taken seriously in its assumptions,” he said. “It assumes that nothing will change, that there will be no deterrent factor and that the numbers will continue as usual.”

Black Iowans would be disproportionately impacted by the law

The Legislative Services Agency analysis says the bill “may disproportionately impact Black individuals if trends remain constant.”

Of the 29,438 people convicted in fiscal year 2025 of felonies and aggravated misdemeanors that constitute a level one offense under the bill, the agency said about 70% were White, 22% were Black and 9% were other races.

Iowa’s overall population is 83% White, 4% Black and 13% other races, the agency said.

It’s not clear how the bill’s impact would change to account for the House amendment removing some crimes from counting towards the three strikes.

“Expanding three-strike laws will intensify disparities — and that’s what this statement shows — by mandating longer sentences, limiting judicial discretion,” Wilburn said. “We already have a habitual offender statute. We already have one in place. We have a 10-year low in recidivism in our correctional system.”

Rep. Angel Ramirez, D-Cedar Rapids, said California’s three strikes law, passed in the 1990s, worsened racial disparities, and “Iowa is about to repeat the same mistake.”

“I urge every member here, do not pass legislation that our own minority impact statement tells us will deepen inequality in our state,” Ramirez said.

Holt said minority communities in Iowa are impacted by crime and that the legislation “will make citizens of all colors safer.”

And he said the minority impact statement “tells only one side of the story, doesn’t it? It tells the criminal’s story. What about the victim’s story?”

“What about the mother who will continue to tuck her kids in at night and read them Bible stories because she never became the next victim of a violent career criminal?” he said. “Where is that data point in the minority impact statement?”

House lawmakers also approved separate legislation that would increase Iowa’s statewide bond schedule, Senate File 2399.

That bill passed on a vote of 74-19.

Iowans could see more information on judges’ rulings

Iowans would have access to more information about judges’ rulings ahead of the state’s judicial retention elections under a separate measure, House File 2719, which passed on a 73-19 vote.

The Iowa secretary of state’s office would be required to publish information including:

The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the state’s bond schedule
The frequency that the judge releases someone on their own recognizance for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense
The frequency that the judge’s final sentence is lower than statutory recommendations or a prosecutor’s recommendations
The number of times the judge issues a deferred judgement, deferred sentence or suspended sentence
The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed on appeal due to abuse of discretion or error of law
The average time it takes the judge to rule on a motion or case
The number of cases the judge has resolved compared to the number of cases on the judge’s docket

The data would have to be displayed with a five-year trend line beginning five years after the bill takes effect.

The Secretary of State’s Office would also be required to maintain a searchable database of all judicial opinions and orders for the judge’s current term and the preceding six years. The decisions would be redacted when appropriate.

And judges would have the opportunity to write a 2,000-word personal statement on their judicial philosophy or data trends present in their rulings.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.

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