Women's Basketball: Iowa a special place for women’s coach

IOWA CITY — Lisa Bluder has made three stops in her head coaching career. All were for long periods of time, and she has had success at all three places.

But being the women’s basketball coach at Iowa is something different from her first two stops.

“To me, it’s personal,” Bluder said this week as she talked about the Hawkeyes preparing for her third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. “This is home. Not too many coaches get to come home.”

Bluder grew up in nearby Marion, played at Northern Iowa, then went into coaching — first as the head coach of NAIA power St. Ambrose before moving on to Drake.

She has won wherever she has gone. She took St. Ambrose to four national tournaments, including two appearances in the NAIA final four. Her 10 seasons at Drake included five 20-win seasons in her last six years.

She has won 188 games in her 10 seasons with the Hawkeyes and ranks second on the school’s all-time wins list behind C. Vivian Stringer. The two will meet Saturday when Bluder and the Hawkeyes face Stringer and Rutgers in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

That stability throughout her career has helped Bluder establish relationships that, in turn, have led to landing some of the best talent in the state.

Still, her career with the Hawkeyes has had some bumps. Her 2006-07 team went 14-16, yet she said she never felt pressure.

“If you have a bad year, people get on you,” Bluder said. “You have to be resilient with that.”

This appeared to be a season headed for trouble when Iowa started Big Ten play by losing six of its first seven games. Injuries took their toll on the Hawkeyes, who played most of the Big Ten schedule with only eight scholarship players.

But Iowa responded by winning 11 of its last 14 games, with two of those losses to conference champion Ohio State. That netted the Hawkeyes a No. 8 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Bluder has won without sticking to one particular system. She has changed her teams’ style of play repeatedly.

“I get bored,” she said, smiling. “And I think the kids get bored. I like to tweak things.”

• NOTES: Three in-state teams — Iowa, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa — are in the NCAA tournament. “That speaks volumes for the kids in the state,” Bluder said. “Every one of those rosters is dotted with Iowa kids.” Bluder has four scholarship players from Iowa: Trisha Nesbitt (Ames), Kelly Krei (Iowa City), Kelsey Cermak (Norwalk) and Jaime Printy (Marion). ... The Hawkeyes will play their 33rd game this weekend, which might make it easier for Theairra Taylor to get an injury redshirt. Taylor played in 10 games this season before suffering a knee injury. She will have to petition the NCAA to get an additional season.

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