‘I want to give it my all': Kylie Feuerbach back with a purpose for her sixth season

It’s been a long and sometimes winding journey for Kylie Feuerbach during her collegiate career. From starting her career at Iowa State to transferring to Iowa to tearing her ACL, Feuerbach finally found some normalcy last season for the Hawkeyes, starting all 34 games. Fully healthy and with the largest role she’s ever had on a team, returning for her sixth and final season of eligibility ended up being a pretty easy choice.

“Going into last season, I knew I had that extra year, and I didn’t want to necessarily say I was going to take it, but I knew in the back of my mind that I was most likely going to (take it),” said Feuerbach on Thursday. “I just love playing at Iowa, playing for the Hawkeyes, just a phenomenal program and I’m surrounded by great girls…The fact that I get to play another year of college basketball, I just love it so much, and I knew, in the future, I would regret it.”

Although Feuerbach hangs her hat on the defensive end of the floor, she found some consistency with her shooting over the second half of last season. With a defined role for the first time in her time at Iowa, Kylie got things rolling, averaging 7.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals over the final 17 games of the season. She shot 36.4% (20/55) from behind the arc during that stretch, including five games with multiple made threes.

“A lot of unseen hours that go into the gym and putting in that extra work, feeling that trust and confidence as the season progresses,” said Feuerbach. “Sometimes it takes time to get into your role and know where you are on the team. Knowing my position over that second half (of last year), I just knew I had to step up in different ways.”

“I’ve faced a lot of adversity over the years, so I’m always ready to go with whatever minutes I have, but having a set role, and knowing where my minutes are going to be that definitely helps.”

As she said, that increased production late in the year didn’t come by accident. A combination of an expanded role and extra hours in the practice gym began to pay off. The challenge now is making sure that she hits the ground running this season and Kylie says she’s taking the right steps to make sure she can do that.

“Just getting my extra shots, but on top of that, asking either some of my teammates or the practice players to guard me and having that aggressive aspect,” said Feuerbach. “That’s something I need to focus on, finishing through contact, but when you have this break, you don’t always have that game experience. We do scrimmages weekly but just doing those extra things that I can do on top of whatever we’re asked.”

“She started to become much more consistent last year, and I think it was when she took a little bit of the pressure off,” said head coach Jan Jensen. “She’s so explosive, she’s incredibly athletic and she’s got a heck of a first step. I love her attacking the basket and if we can continue to get that from her, then if they sag off her a little bit, her three ball has gotten so much more consistent.”

On the defensive end of the floor, Kylie has some unfinished business to attend to, after getting left off the Big Ten All-Defensive Team a year ago. She was one of the top players in the country at drawing charges and consistently turned defense into disruption—holding elite scorers like Juju Watkins and Olivia Olson, amongst others, in check.

“Defense, that’s just my cup of tea. I love, love, love defense, and I love being asked to guard the best player. Having that high intensity, stopping them in whatever way they can,” said Feuerbach. “I want to continue bringing that intensity on the defensive end this year…that’s just something that I love doing.”

Her role this season, will be to carry over that momentum she built on the offensive floor last season, while continuing to be a constant thorn in the side of the opposing star player on the defensive end.

“Just her wisdom in six years, everything from her maturity,” Jensen said. “What she’s been through, what she’s seen, her road getting to this spot, is huge for us for leadership.”