As McKenna Warnock returns to Iowa for dental school, she looks back at her basketball career with no regrets

IOWA CITY — Inside a packed bar in downtown Iowa City on April 5, McKenna Warnock squeezed through a crowd on her way to the nearest TV.

The women’s basketball Final Four game between Iowa and UConn was taking place.

Despite UConn taking the lead after the first two quarters, foul trouble for the Huskies and a strong shooting performance by Iowa in the second half gave the Hawkeyes a narrow lead with three seconds remaining in the game.

Iowa guard Sydney Affolter secured an offensive rebound off a missed free throw by Caitlin Clark. This resulted in a jump ball, ultimately giving the Hawkeyes possession and allowing them to run out the clock. Affolter’s clutch play helped secure Iowa’s spot in the national championship game for the second straight season.

Amid the cheers and ruckus inside the bar, Warnock’s expression softened with a sense of ease, reminiscent of someone who has seen the culmination of immense effort and dedication pay off.

“I was so nervous we weren’t going to be able to pull it off that I almost gave myself a heart attack,” Warnock said. “I could not have been happier for them.”

One year earlier, as a starter for the Hawkeyes, Warnock made a similar play during the 2023 Final Four matchup against South Carolina.

She grabbed the offensive rebound off a Clark missed 3-pointer to give Iowa the ball with 18 seconds left. Her late-game heroics sent Iowa to the national championship game for the first time in program history.

“We wouldn’t have been in the national championship this year without Sydney’s offensive rebound, just like we wouldn’t have made it to the championship without McKenna’s,” Iowa assistant coach Raina Harmon said. “Remnants of her game remain even after she’s left the team.”

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As Clark and the Iowa women’s basketball team started attracting national attention, Warnock chose not to follow friends and fellow starters Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall in returning to the program. Instead of using her extra year of eligibility granted due to COVID-19, Warnock decided to pursue dental school.

Last season, veterans Martin, Marshall and Clark made Iowa women’s basketball must-watch TV. The team played in the first basketball game in Kinnick Stadium in front of more than 55,000 fans, broke or set attendance records in all but two of its regular-season games, and shattered broadcasting viewership records nearly every time it was on TV.

At the same time, the impact of former Iowa players like Warnock started to become forgotten.

“I think her time with us kind of got a little overshadowed,” Harmon said. “She was an integral part of all the success this team had when she was here and was an integral part of this year’s success just because of the bricks that she helped to lay as the foundation of this program.”

For Warnock, basketball was about something other than achieving fame or going on to play professionally. Instead, it was about using her talents on the court to parlay into career aspirations of helping others.

‘Ms. Versatile’ makes her mark as a Hawkeye

A native of Marshall, Wis., Warnock was ranked as the No. 86 player in her high school class by ESPN after her prep career at Monona Grove. Before her senior season, she committed to Iowa over schools such as Stanford, Arizona and Wisconsin. She said she chose the Hawkeyes because of her grandparents living in Muscatine, and her connection with the coaching staff.

Warnock had an immediate impact as a freshman for an Iowa team that finished 23-7 during the regular season. She appeared in all 30 games and averaged 19 minutes, 8 points, and 4.5 rebounds. By the end of the season, she was named to the Big Ten all-freshman team.

“She was no-nonsense,” Harmon said. “She came to practice to get the job done.”

Over the next three seasons, Warnock started nearly every game for the Hawkeyes, helping the team win two conference tournament titles while amassing more than 1,000 points, 600 rebounds, 200 assists, and 90 steals. Harmon remembers the coaching staff giving Warnock the nickname “Ms. Versatile” due to her competence in all phases of the game.

“She had all the skills necessary to be a Swiss Army knife for us,” Harmon said. “Her natural position in our offense would be a three or a four, but I could tell she was going to be able to do a lot for us in terms of handling the ball, getting in the paint, and rebounding.”

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As she started to see increased minutes on the court, Harmon said the “quiet and reserved” Warnock began assuming a more assertive leadership role.

“By the time she left as a senior, though, I would not say she was quiet,” Harmon said. “You have to warm up to her. She has her people, and then the ones who are her people get the real McKenna.”

The decision: Return to Iowa for an extra year or move on?

Before Iowa’s tournament run in her senior year, Warnock informed teammates and the coaching staff she would not be returning to the team for a fifth season.

“It wasn’t a one-day decision,” Warnock said. “I felt like I went back and forth every day, and sometimes it was like 50/50 if I was done or not.”

Warnock said she decided to be done with basketball because she still had to take the dental admission test (DAT) and complete more shadowing hours.

“Studying for the DAT is a pretty long process, and I just don’t know if my head would have been in it if I had basketball to do at the same time,” Warnock said.

Iowa center Sharon Goodman, who was Warnock’s stretching partner for their three seasons together on the team, mentioned that Warnock’s decision didn’t come as a surprise to many of their teammates. She added they were going to be supportive of Warnock regardless of her choice.

“We wanted her to stay because that means we got to spend more time with her, but you respect that she’s got to make the best decision for her,” Goodman said.

But this didn’t stop teammates and coaches from attempting to persuade her otherwise, including a last-ditch effort from the coaching staff in July 2023 when the team returned from its Europe trip.

“I had already taken the DAT at this point, and I remember one of the coaches reaching out to me and saying, ‘Since you already took the DAT and everything, maybe you can just come back when we return from Italy?’ And I was like, ‘I haven’t touched a basketball in five months,’ ” Warnock said.

Harmon said the plan always was to contact Warnock again in the summer to see if she was interested in returning.

“We had such a magical year with her the year before — why wouldn’t we want to try and reinvent that next year?” Harmon said. “We didn’t want her to have any regrets.”

By the time the team reached out in July, Warnock said she had reached a point where she was completely OK with her decision to step away from basketball.

“Going so far in my senior season and finishing the last game I ever could have played in the national championship, I was pretty happy with how I ended everything,” Warnock said.

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Warnock graduated from the UI with a degree in human physiology in May 2023. During that first year away from basketball in over a decade, Warnock remained close with many former teammates and enjoyed watching them play during their run to another Final Four.

“No one was more deserving than this team, and I think they were so much fun to watch,” Warnock said. “People came for Caitlin, but they stayed for a lot of the other girls on the team.”

Warnock admitted watching the team was difficult for her at times this year.

Sometimes, she wished she could experience these moments in person with her former teammates. Still, she said she is content with her decision and has loved experiencing the game as a player — and now a fan.

“It was super cool to play and experience the Final Four, and while I wouldn’t say it was as much fun, it was still great to be able to sit back and watch it and be around other people watching the games and seeing just kind of the hype about it,” Warnock said.

Back at Iowa

After finishing the DAT, Warnock began the college recruitment process again. Once the UI College of Dentistry showed interest in her, she said it was a no-brainer to return to Iowa City, with plans to enter dental school this fall.

As she goes along her journey in the medical field, she said she will reflect on her time playing basketball regularly and endearingly.

“I think it is so insane how many people we’ve been able to reach, and I’ve had people message me from India and say that they tuned in to our games and that we are their favorite team,” Warnock said.

“That just shows you the connections that can be built through sport.”