Iowa head women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder has been the architect of a number of wins for a number of years.
Under her leadership, the Hawkeyes have won 494 games overall during her tenure as Iowa’s head coach. Iowa has now captured the Big Ten Tournament championship three seasons in a row.
This season marks the second straight year that Iowa has surpassed the 30-win threshold and the eighth consecutive season that Bluder’s squads have won 20 or more games.
Iowa has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 14 of the past 16 seasons.
Thanks to Bluder’s stellar coaching, Iowa (31-4, 15-3 Big Ten) earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history. Now, after a pair of wins last weekend, the Hawkeyes are in the Sweet 16 for the 10th time in program history and for the fifth time under coach Bluder.
As a result, Bluder is being recognized nationally. The Hawkeye head coach was named as one of four finalists for the Naismith Trophy Coach of the Year.
𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 🤩@LisaBluder is 1-of-4 finalists for the @NaismithTrophy Coach of the Year! #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/OF2Gr4LyLH
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) March 25, 2024
This marks the consecutive season that Bluder has been named as a Naismith Trophy Coach of the Year finalist. Bluder won the award back in 2019.
Bluder joins South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and USC‘s Lindsay Gottlieb as a finalist.
Iowa gets underway in the Sweet 16 versus Colorado at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday on ABC from MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y.
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