Iowa WBB Summer Practice No. 2: Notes, Nuggets & Second Impressions
On Tuesday morning, the Iowa women’s basketball team—led by second-year head coach Jan Jensen—opened its doors to the media for the second of four summer open media practices. Although there still weren’t a ton of live scrimmage reps, the intensity level was definitely up a notch from what it was last week. Here’s hoping that the drill reps will give way to some more scrimmage reps for the final two open media practices.
Anyway, let’s dive right into some thoughts on what I saw with the Hawkeyes…
- Four-star freshman center Layla Hays had a particularly strong practice. She, along with Ava Heiden, began our practice observation hour over on the far court working with Jan Jensen and assistant coach Randi Henderson on post moves, as well as short corner and elbow jump shots. That’s pretty clearly been a focal point for those two so far this offseason. Later, Hays was working with some of the guards, going through some drills and she had a really solid set of reps when they worked on post entry passes. Made some nice catches on entry passes, finished strong at the rim and overall looked good. She’s going to have some reps and some plays where she looks like a freshman, but the potential is clear with her. It would be a giant plus if she could carve out some minutes this season because her size and frame is a different look for opponents from Heiden and Stuelke.
- We are months away from Jan Jensen settling on a starting lineup, but I had a lineup thrown out to me by someone close to the program that Wright-Deal-Rodriguez could be the starting backcourt, with Kylie Feuerbach coming off the bench and playing near starter or full starter minutes. Again, it’s a way too early discussion, but I thought it was an interesting comment.
- Speaking of Emely Rodriguez, assistant coach LaSondra Barrett spoke with the media today and mentioned that Texas and NC State, amongst others reached out to her when she was in the transfer portal. I’ve hinted at it a bit, but I think she could end up being a really underrated transfer addition in the Big Ten. She really fits the small forward mold, as her size and strength allows her to battle for rebounds and get downhill through contact on drives. Emely just has that mix of forward and guard skills that you look for at that spot in the lineup. Her jump shot efficiency will be the determining factor in just how underrated of an addition she ends up being.
- Got to talk with Ava Heiden after practice. She reiterated what she said at the end of last season, that her postseason performances really proved to her that the work that she did all season would pay off. Really working on her jump shot and is even stepping out to the three-point line. Said that she’s been working with former Hawkeye and Iowa City Liberty girls’ basketball coach Jaime Printy Brandt on her shot. Once again, in what I saw, thought she had a decent day shooting the midrange jumper. Finished up practice with a highlight play, shot faking at the free throw line and driving to the rim against the gray squad defense.
- Also got to hear from Chit-Chat Wright for the first time in an Iowa uniform. She’s going to be a fun one to talk to. She said her biggest focus right now is on trying to figure out what her role is on this team and what the coaching staff needs her to bring to the floor to help win games. Wright goes from a true freshman at Georgia Tech to a freshman at Iowa in the sense that everything for her is knew just like it would be for a freshman, but she said making the NCAA Tournament last year and getting to start was huge for her experience wise. Said she knows what it takes to get to that point and even as a sophomore she can help instill some of that into the freshman.
