IOWA CITY, Iowa — In a recent Iowa women’s basketball team meeting, after the Hawkeyes had dropped five straight Big Ten games, first-year head coach Jan Jensen told the story of Florence Chadwick, an American swimmer.
In 1952, Chadwick attempted to become the first woman to swim the 26 miles from the Catalina Islands to the California coastline. Fifteen hours into the swim, a heavy fog settled on the open waters and the 34-year-old began to doubt herself. An hour later, convinced she couldn’t make it, since she couldn’t see the coastline, she pulled herself into a boat. She was less than a mile from the shore.
“The shore is closer than you think,” Jensen told to her players. “You’re closer than you are far. Don’t get out of the water.”
It’s a message that Jensen has reiterated to her team and herself throughout this season.
In April, the Hawkeyes made their second consecutive national championship game appearance on the backs of Caitlin Clark and a veteran core that mostly departed after the title game. In May, Lisa Bluder retired after 24 years as Iowa’s head coach, and a week later, Jensen — Iowa’s associate head coach the previous two decades — was named her successor. In September, with half a roster of players who had never before worn an Iowa…
