Everything Jan Jensen, Lucy Olsen, Hannah Stuelke said after the Hawkeyes loss to Ohio State

After becoming just, the sixth double-digit seed to advance to the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament, the Iowa Women’s Basketball team saw their run come to an end on Friday night. The Hawkeyes scrapped and battled all night, but a pair of free throws with 6.7 to play from Cotie McMahon lifted the Buckeyes to a 60-59 win over Iowa. Jan Jensen’s squad will await Selection Sunday with a 22-10 overall record.

Iowa Head Coach Jan Jensen, point guard Lucy Olsen and center Hannah Stuelke met with the media after the game to discuss the loss to the Buckeyes and the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

INTRO STATEMENT: We’re disappointed, but I told the players in the locker room I just couldn’t be prouder of them. They just battled. We just came up a little bit short tonight. Unfortunately, it’s kind of been the story of our games the whole season. I think our Syd just told me it’s been nine losses by under 10, I do know that. So of course I do a lot of soul searching, just trying to get them over that finish line.

Ohio State, credit to Kevin and his staff. They’re always really good. They have a great team. I love their game plan. I just looked at the box score. The difference of five points in the first quarter — really weren’t very good in the first, but we won the second. Then in that second half, they won by one point in the third and they won – whatever, by one. I’m proud of them, and I love coaching them, and I’m so grateful that we get a shot at the postseason.

Q. Hannah, can you just kind of walk me through your vantage point of the late foul that was called against you on Cotie and also your final look there at the end.

HANNAH STUELKE: I don’t know, I didn’t want to foul there obviously, but I did. She made both of her free throws, kudos to her. I thought we got a great look in the end.

Q. Lucy, you’ve had a heavy workload on offense all season pretty much and even into the tournament. I don’t know if you heard what Coach said, but he kind of threw a different coverage at you in the second half, kind of more double teams. I just want to know from your perspective, what did you see out there in the second half to kind of limit you offensively?

LUCY OLSEN: I think we got a lot of good open shots. We just didn’t hit as many as we needed to. I missed a lot of layups. Yeah, their defense is good. I guess it threw me off a little bit. Just a few more makes, and that’s our game. Yeah, I don’t know, we got a lot of good open shots with the rest of my teammates, so I’m happy about that.

Q. Hannah, to start the second half, you had a couple of moments especially in the paint where you’ve been really good all season, where you were able to tie or even give your team the lead. It may not have been the outcome you were hoping for, but you were certainly a presence tonight with 14 points. Can you talk me through that a little bit?

HANNAH STUELKE: My teammates do a great job of getting me the ball when I need it. Yeah, I have great teammates, and I’m glad I got to experience this with them for sure.

Q. Hannah, Cotie during her post-game said that this game is always personal going up against you guys. Is it the same for you guys? Is this a rivalry that’s kind of budding in the women’s game a little bit?

HANNAH STUELKE: I think every game is personal no matter who we’re playing. We want to be us, and I think we need to focus on us a little bit more in this game. I don’t think — I wouldn’t call it a rivalry, but every game we have to show up.

Q. Jan, you’ve had a few points like this throughout the season where you kind of have conflicting emotions coming out of a game like this. How does this game and then this week become a beneficial experience for your team moving forward into the NCAA Tournament?

JAN JENSEN: I think it’s been much more positive than negative. I think they’ve showed up and they’re — I think our coaching staff is dynamite. The scouts were awesome. I thought we knew our personnel pretty well. I thought our defensive schemes; I think they were always in the moment.

It’s fun to be part of March. I think it’s fun — I still believe, even though we came up a little short, I think we’re one of the hottest teams. I was a little hopeful deep down in my heart that we’d maybe win one or two more and might have got to host, that’s been pretty fun and I don’t know if that’s possible or not. I’m a little disappointed. But I’m just so thankful that I get to coach them, and we’ll be in the NCAA Tournament.

So yeah, conflicted. You don’t like to lose. It’s so weird about sport, the difference — the euphoria of a win to the disappointment of a loss. But so many more positives out of this experience for sure.

Q. You had mentioned doing soul searching about some of these really close games. As a first-year head coach, even though you’ve been around for a long time, what does that entail for you, and how do you think you’re going to be doing it moving forward for the tournament?

JAN JENSEN: I think when you go, you kind of think your sets, sometimes you kind of go with who you think is going to hit the corner pocket. Then I’ll go back and think, oh, maybe we should have thrown it inside. Maybe we shouldn’t have driven it.

I’m guessing, Geno, if he loses a game or two, he might do that too. I guess I couldn’t — don’t know for sure. But I think anybody, in my opinion, worth their salt is certainly not going to look at everybody else and say, oh, she should have hit that. Oh, we should have done a little better at that. They should have done that and I think you’d better look first and foremost at the decisions you were making.

I don’t feel like — I’m not dismayed by it. I just wish we would have done this a little better, but I think it’s just sport. Last night I felt pretty good about what I called. This one, I’m like, oh, maybe I should have gone a different way in that last 6.8 seconds. I wouldn’t trade the experience; I wouldn’t trade the fun of trying to win it for sure.

Q. I wanted to ask about Ava, but just real quick, you were mad about something on the inbounds with like .7 left when Hannah was cutting across. What was going on there?

JAN JENSEN: I can’t say a whole lot, but I think the situation on the other end before that happened, I thought that was kind of an unfortunate way to have to shoot free throws with six seconds left. Been there, done that a few weeks ago.

Then this one, when Hannah was trying to run, before we just got the ball handed, in my opinion, she was being held all the way. When she was being held, instead of handing the ball, it was like (indicating) kind of told her not to get held. I thought maybe we could have had a holding foul and we could’ve maybe shot a free throw.

I’m not criticizing. I don’t want to be in trouble but that’s why I was hot because she couldn’t even get set to go. In that type of situation, part of the play when you’ve got .7 seconds, the timing has got to be perfect. So then when you can’t get the jump on the play, it just kind of takes the rhythm out of it.

Q. Regarding Ava, she obviously gives you — it was a great tournament for her, but it gives you a little interesting thought process, I guess, going into the next round because it seemed like you were trying to figure out how to use her more.

JAN JENSEN: Yeah, that’s the thing. It’s usually been more of a lineup issue, what type of post we’re playing. If we need a little bit more bounce or I need a little bit more size, think Lauren Betts size versus Petty, versus a VanSlooten last night.

Ava’s been coming, right? In my opinion, in my coaching career, whatever chair I sit on, the timing of when you kind of unleash can make all the difference. If you’re a freshman and has to play, it’s different because you’re playing with — I think Olivia Olson, one of my faves in the conference from Michigan, she gets to play a lot differently than a lot of them because she’s starting and so is Swords and it’s a different feel. But when you’re jockeying for position and trying to get someone ready to go when it’s money time, to me that’s the hardest part. If you do it right, that will usually come up big for you. I think Ava’s done a lot, and she’s showed she’s ready for the moments.

Q. Again, I’m just asking about a defense again. In the first half, they did a lot of press. Also in the second half. But they focused more on Lucy in the second half. When they’re kind of taking the most consistent offensive weapon out of the game almost, how do you kind of adjust to that, especially down the stretch in a close game like that?

JAN JENSEN: I think Lucy did a good job of handling it. We forced some shots in the first half, but I think we got tremendously good looks. Unfortunately, Taylor McCabe was just really cold. I’ll take Taylor McCabe just about every day. I’ll take Kylie Feuerbach in that corner pocket that last 40, 50 seconds left.

So, I think we’re usually more than that. I think Lucy was a little bit colder too. She tried to attack some, just didn’t hit some. I think, if we wouldn’t have got other looks, I’d have been a little bit more — you know, felt more pressed with that. I think it was a good decision by them, but I think we still could have found a way to win the game.

Q. Jan, how well positioned do you think your team is for this tournament? Certainly, some of your players have been down that road, but this is going to be a different kind of NCAA Tournament.

JAN JENSEN: I think we’re about as good as this group can be because I think back where we were when we hit the West Coast road trip. We were in the middle of that adversity where we lost a few in a row. I remember looking at their eyes, we were at a Seattle University. We just lost by one point at Oregon. We didn’t have Hannah in that game. Boy, it was tough sledding, right, for everybody to get up and get on the plane and fly up to Washington.

But we had a really good meeting, and I just kept saying, hey, we’re closer than we’re farther. I think what they’ve been through, if you can come through adversity and look back on it and really look at where you’ve grown and have more success than not, I think you should feel really good about getting to play in the Big Dance.

The story of this particular team is the difference is we just don’t have that consistent go-to situation at the end of the game. This particular time, it was defense by Kevin McGuff, but we’ve kind of been all over the board. So maybe that’s come into play.

I think these guys should feel really good. It was big shoes when they all started. Their shadows were looming. Non-con went pretty well, hit a little rockiness, but boy, I think we should feel pretty good going into the tournament. But as I felt every year, where we’re No. 1 seed or whatever we get, it’s all about the matchups.

You face a team that you just know you don’t click as much with, then it gets to be a little bit harder. I’m just thrilled we’re going to see our name pop up, really feel grateful for that. These kids deserve it. They’ve battled.

Q. I know you’re someone who kind of doesn’t like to look into the past too much. I know you kind of just like to coach in the moment, control what you can control, but moving further into March, I should say, moving into the NCAA Tournament, which a month or two ago was even in question. What’s the one thing you kind of want to see from this team, and what’s one way you think maybe tonight ties into that? Something that you think can be improved upon or even just keep doing to get you guys more success.

JAN JENSEN: I think it’s just the little consistency on offense. I credit Ohio State a lot. Their defense kind of speeds you up, but we missed a lot of layups. A lot of times we missed some layups throughout the year at key times, but we just go too many minutes at times, which is harder to score.

That’s one thing I keep looking at, different actions. I want to see our offense get a little bit more consistent, and we’ll be working on that. I think I need to just be a little bit more physical and I think now we can kind of work on ourselves again. You can’t work on yourselves too much when you’re preparing for the next opponent. So offensively consistent, and I’ve just got to get us a little bit more physical to finish layups.