Did Lisa Bluder, Jan Jensen and Iowa Basketball Change the Course for Women's Basketball?

MelroseHawkins

MelroseHawkins

Well-Known Member
We all know the story of CC playing at Iowa and now possibly changing the way the women's game is played into the future. How cool it was that Iowa with coach Bluder, Jensen and the staff may be credited with this shift on the level of Michael Jordan or Steph Curry as far as changing the way the game is played along with young girls mimicking the style of play.

Along with CC, Iowa could be included in the history books being instrumental in changing the evolution of women's basketball to a more exciting style. Pretty cool.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
We all know the story of CC playing at Iowa and now possibly changing the way the women's game is played into the future. How cool it was that Iowa with coach Bluder, Jensen and the staff may be credited with this shift on the level of Michael Jordan or Steph Curry as far as changing the way the game is played along with young girls mimicking the style of play.

Along with CC, Iowa could be included in the history books being instrumental in changing the evolution of women's basketball to a more exciting style. Pretty cool.
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Everyone should be so thankful that Clark played for them. Cause had she gone to ND or Uconn they woulda put a leash on her and I'm sure she woulda been a dang good player still. But we wouldn't have gotten half of what we did. She got to have the freedom to see how good she could be and the coaching and direction to help it happen. The stars had to align to make it happen that's for sure.

It'll be interesting to see if more coaches are open to a more wide open style of play or not. Fans obviously love it. But It also takes the right type of personnel to do it. It's tough to teach the unselfish pass first mentality though. Bluder/Jan obviously encourage it but Clark still had to have it to begin with. It also goes without saying her vision and ability to set up teammates. The angles she provides prior to making passes so often goes unnoticed. How she'll position herself while running full speed with her eyes up is special. As crazy unique as her outside shooting is her passing to me is her best attribute as a player. If she were to only be pass first PG she'd still be a HOFer in my book
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Everyone should be so thankful that Clark played for them. Cause had she gone to ND or Uconn they woulda put a leash on her and I'm sure she woulda been a dang good player still. But we wouldn't have gotten half of what we did. She got to have the freedom to see how good she could be and the coaching and direction to help it happen. The stars had to align to make it happen that's for sure.

It'll be interesting to see if more coaches are open to a more wide open style of play or not. Fans obviously love it. But It also takes the right type of personnel to do it. It's tough to teach the unselfish pass first mentality though. Bluder/Jan obviously encourage it but Clark still had to have it to begin with. It also goes without saying her vision and ability to set up teammates. The angles she provides prior to making passes so often goes unnoticed. How she'll position herself while running full speed with her eyes up is special. As crazy unique as her outside shooting is her passing to me is her best attribute as a player. If she were to only be pass first PG she'd still be a HOFer in my book
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She understands the game so well she moves defenders to space the floor for certain plays or pick/rolls or to create a better passing lane. This is the stuff that often goes unnoticed by the casual fan who only look at buckets and reads the stat line after games. She also has a HUGE effect establishing the pace of the game, pretty much making the other team have to play fast and defend the full court. She puts sooo much pressure on the defense it's crazy and so fun to watch. She's mentally so much ahead of the other players which allows her to play fast. Her Fever teammates are getting used to that now and why they are so effective now.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
It'll be interesting to see if more coaches are open to a more wide open style of play or not. Fans obviously love it. But It also takes the right type of personnel to do it. It's tough to teach the unselfish pass first mentality though. Bluder/Jan obviously encourage it but Clark still had to have it to begin with.
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I'll scream this from the mountaintops. I guess, never having watched the WNBA, I didn't know what I was in for. And I couldn't vocalize why I find it....not all that entertaining. Until someone pointed out, that the WNBA is essentially the extension of historical U-Conn and contemporary SC basketball.

Height. Strength. Ideally a shooter in there somewhere. And grind away. And win trophies.

If the other team has more height, and more strength and a decent shooter they will beat you 9 times out of 10. We know for a fact, that the ONLY way to beat the tallest of the tall, the strongest of the strong (SC) is to beat them with speed, transition, and ball movement. There's only one team that has done it in two years. A scrappy, fast moving team with a record breaking point scorer and a court vision and you can at least go .500 against SC. Something nobody else has done in eons. If I'm a crap team in the WNBA, I'm going to embrace this.

USA hockey proved it in 1980. Chris Makepeace did it twice. Once in Meatballs when Bill Murray turned him into Woody the Wabbit and also in My Bodyguard when Adam Baldwin taught him how to break Matt Dillon's freakin nose. I guess there's the Bad News Bears too, but I should probably stick to actual sports, not movies.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
She understands the game so well she moves defenders to space the floor for certain plays or pick/rolls or to create a better passing lane. This is the stuff that often goes unnoticed by the casual fan who only look at buckets and reads the stat line after games. She also has a HUGE effect establishing the pace of the game, pretty much making the other team have to play fast and defend the full court. She puts sooo much pressure on the defense it's crazy and so fun to watch. She's mentally so much ahead of the other players which allows her to play fast. Her Fever teammates are getting used to that now and why they are so effective now.
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That's the part that I was a bit worried about in early season games. I just didn't see her disrupting them. A lot of high risk passes that didn't pan out. FTR...I do not believe all her passes are dropped by teammates/etc. Sure, one or two. Same thing happened in college. There's still quite a few where I'm like "damn, she just looked sorta panicky and trying to hard and just threw it away on some pipe dream". Same as in college.

But, what I see now way more often either in games or highlights is where she just 'flipped the court'. Just in seconds, changed everything about the way the defense was going to try to defend. Or just outright exploited a defense that took their foot off the gas or decided to look up from their book for a second.
 
With the maestro CC leading the way, the Iowa offense was a thing of beauty when it was clicking on all cylinders. I haven't seen anything even close it in the W so far............yet. I'm surprised how many of the Fever still can't catch CC's passes, they are doing better. Sometimes I wonder how some of the players got to the W but as someone posted, size and strength have a lot to do with it.

With that said, I want to see how Iowa does this coming season before declaring they have changed the game of basketball. If they can come close to the last couple of years, then maybe.

It feels like this year's team has good talent. Lucy Olsen seems like the real deal (sorry Addie) and could go a long ways in determing how this team play out. But therer seems to be good veteran talent returning, I believe some of the newcomers could make their mark this year and if it all comes together this team could be really tough. If it is, then I might be willing to jump on the change bandwagon.

Here's some Hawkeye trivia in changing the game I'm sure only the oldest Hawe fans would remember. In the early 1940s (the war years) Iowa had an All-American from Diagonal (my hometown)> he was credited by many for introducing the jump shot into basketball. In the old days everything was a set shot. Dick was the first, or among the first, that started raising the ball above the head and jumping as part of the shooting motion. I knew Dick personally and we discussed it. He believed he did intracule the jump shot to college basketball. Could the women be making the same kind of impact? We'll see...........go hawks
 
dagdaj said:
I'll scream this from the mountaintops. I guess, never having watched the WNBA, I didn't know what I was in for. And I couldn't vocalize why I find it....not all that entertaining. Until someone pointed out, that the WNBA is essentially the extension of historical U-Conn and contemporary SC basketball.

Height. Strength. Ideally a shooter in there somewhere. And grind away. And win trophies.

If the other team has more height, and more strength and a decent shooter they will beat you 9 times out of 10. We know for a fact, that the ONLY way to beat the tallest of the tall, the strongest of the strong (SC) is to beat them with speed, transition, and ball movement. There's only one team that has done it in two years. A scrappy, fast moving team with a record breaking point scorer and a court vision and you can at least go .500 against SC. Something nobody else has done in eons. If I'm a crap team in the WNBA, I'm going to embrace this.

USA hockey proved it in 1980. Chris Makepeace did it twice. Once in Meatballs when Bill Murray turned him into Woody the Wabbit and also in My Bodyguard when Adam Baldwin taught him how to break Matt Dillon's freakin nose. I guess there's the Bad News Bears too, but I should probably stick to actual sports, not movies.
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dagdaj said:
I'll scream this from the mountaintops. I guess, never having watched the WNBA, I didn't know what I was in for. And I couldn't vocalize why I find it....not all that entertaining. Until someone pointed out, that the WNBA is essentially the extension of historical U-Conn and contemporary SC basketball.

Height. Strength. Ideally a shooter in there somewhere. And grind away. And win trophies.

If the other team has more height, and more strength and a decent shooter they will beat you 9 times out of 10. We know for a fact, that the ONLY way to beat the tallest of the tall, the strongest of the strong (SC) is to beat them with speed, transition, and ball movement. There's only one team that has done it in two years. A scrappy, fast moving team with a record breaking point scorer and a court vision and you can at least go .500 against SC. Something nobody else has done in eons. If I'm a crap team in the WNBA, I'm going to embrace this.

USA hockey proved it in 1980. Chris Makepeace did it twice. Once in Meatballs when Bill Murray turned him into Woody the Wabbit and also in My Bodyguard when Adam Baldwin taught him how to break Matt Dillon's freakin nose. I guess there's the Bad News Bears too, but I should probably stick to actual sports, not movies.
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The coach for U Conn put his ego ahead of what is best for women's basketball. I believe ESPN had a hand in it with the favorable broadcasts of UConn games. It is only recently that other teams have broken through and have been able to beat UConn. You can see the influence of his style of basketball in the WNBA by the number prominent UConn players on team rosters. Of the 12 WNBA teams, all the coaches want to play that plodding physical style, even Fever coach Sides. The difference now is Clark is pushing the pace and those bigs don't have the endurance for 40 minutes.

Quite honestly I think the physical play allowed is a reflection of UConn. When Clark began they warned her that the physical play would stop her. What they learned is that it doesn't work as well when you have to run wind sprints after each possession. It will be interesting to see if teams draft more 6'2'' forwards that can sprint and jump. Finding a point guard that can pass as good as Clark is the tough part.
 
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eyekwah said:
The coach for U Conn put his ego ahead of what is best for women's basketball. I believe ESPN had a hand in it with the favorable broadcasts of UConn games. It is only recently that other teams have broken through and have been able to beat UConn. You can see the influence of his style of basketball in the WNBA by the number prominent UConn players on team rosters. Of the 12 WNBA teams, all the coaches want to play that plodding physical style, even Fever coach Sides. The difference now is Clark is pushing the pace and those bigs don't have the endurance for 40 minutes.

Quite honestly I think the physical play allowed is a reflection of UConn. When Clark began they warned her that the physical play would stop her. What they learned is that it doesn't work as well when you have to run wind sprints after each possession. It will be interesting to see if teams draft more 6'2'' forwards that can sprint and jump. Finding a point guard that can pass as good as Clark is the tough part.
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Great point. I agree she is setting the pace each game and other teams can't do anything to slow her down and defend the full court very well.

What is amazing is CC has played prob the most games of competitive ball in one year than she ever has and still going strong. She's played a college season, a late post season run to the C-ship game and now the WNBA. It truly is amazing she still has her legs under her. Wait till she comes back from the break or wait until next year when she just has to play the WNBA schedule.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
It truly is amazing she still has her legs under her. Wait till she comes back from the break or wait until next year when she just has to play the WNBA schedule.
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I think it's affecting her shooting more than anything. I expect her to really improve in that area more than any after the break and why I'm happy she's not playing in the Olympics.
 
Hawkboys said:
I think it's affecting her shooting more than anything. I expect her to really improve in that area more than any after the break and why I'm happy she's not playing in the Olympics.
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I honestly don't know why and have told some people in the past that if I was the WNBA I would have just come out and stated that we are concerned with how much basketball CC has played this year with the college schedule and post season run that we don't want to extend her too much, hence the reason we don't feel she should play in this years olympics. That would have prob appeased most people as it makes sense. Not sure why they didn't go that route. Stupid as its a fairly easy reason.
 
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