The Athletic has live coverage of Iowa vs. South Carolina in the women’s national championship game.
CLEVELAND — In the wake of her team’s worst-played game of the season, Iowa coach Lisa Bluder had a choice to make.
Her offseason plan of competing with a traditional center and power forward on the floor concurrently was highlighted in a 65-58 home loss to Kansas State back in November. Bluder dabbled with the same type of offense the Hawkeyes used in their journey to the 2023 national championship game. But her personnel was different from that run, and Bluder knew it.
“I think everybody goes into the season with kind of a game plan, right?” Bluder said. “You go into a game with a game plan, and you think this is what’s going to be best. But you’ve got to make adjustments along the way. If it’s going astride, if it’s not going as well as you think, you’ve got to change things.”
Rather than sticking with the same lineup and expecting different results, Bluder adapted to her team’s strengths. She inserted now-injured guard Molly Davis into the starting lineup and shifted sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke to the five. Iowa decided to lean into its strength as an up-tempo offense. The change led to the desired result, but it wasn’t an easy transition for…
