Lisa Bluder is retired and approaching 65, but she’s anything but ‘old news’

SOLON — It wasn’t immediately an easy sell.

Former University of Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder was asked for a one-on-one conversation, maybe 30-60 minutes in length.

Her response, via text: “Why would you want to do this? I’m old news!”

Bluder is less than four months short of her 65th birthday, nearly two years beyond the date of her retirement — May 13, 2024.

Of course, Bluder permits the interview. It’s a chilly, sunny late-December morning at the family home near Sugar Bottom Recreational Area, between Solon and North Liberty.

Her three kids are in their 20s now and live in Waukee, Atlanta and North Carolina. One is married.

Bluder is rested, looks maybe a decade younger than she did during the second of back-to-back trips to the Final Four in 2023 and 2024.

She wears her wedding band on her left hand (her husband, David, passes by the sun room; he had been blowing snow off the driveway).

On her right hand, a championship ring signifying the Hawkeyes’ dual Big Ten titles (regular-season and tournament) in 2022.

“Coffee?” she offers. “Water?”

The conversation begins:

Q: Retirement ... do you recommend it?

Bluder: “Oh my gosh, yes. I didn’t realize how much stress I was under until I retired. I’m thankful that I have my health and that I can enjoy this chapter of my life.

“The last seven years or so, I really loved those teams. Those were such good kids, such fun teams to be around. The more stressful times are when it’s not going as well. I really tried to enjoy the good years at the end, and I feel that I did.”

Q: What do you miss the most about coaching?

Bluder: “Probably the camaraderie with the staff and the team. Being around those guys, it keeps you young. It was good to be around young goal-driven kids.”

Q: And what do you miss least?

Bluder: “Recruiting. The travel. It gets late at night on the recruiting trail, calling kids. It’s hard to talk to a 17-year-old on the phone. You’ve got a quiet night at home, and you have to make a couple of recruiting calls.”

Q: What fills your competitive void?

Bluder: “Pickleball. We have a group of about 10 women that play about twice a week at the Palestra (in North Liberty). I’m decent, but I don’t move as well as I used to.”

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Q: What are your television analyst responsibilities this winter?

Bluder: “Pretty much once a month. I’ve got the Big Ten tournament (in March). I want to keep my finger in it.

“When you see other people do it, you think ‘I could do that job.’ There’s so much more to it than I realized. They work hard. They’re professional. It’s a different skill. I don’t know that I’m that good at it.”

Q: You never had a post-retirement press conference. Can you take me through the decision to step down, and the events of May 13, 2024?

Bluder: “It had been two long years, and I was tired. Dave and I were hiking (after the 2024 season), and we started talking about it. I called Marsha Sharp and Tara VanDerveer, how it was for them.

“Things were changing fast, with NIL and the collective and all of that, and I didn’t love that.

“So it was an accumulation of all of those things. It wasn’t foreseen. It’s not like I thought, ‘This is my last game at Carver’ or ‘this is my last time in the locker room.’

“(Iowa athletics director) Beth (Goetz) did it well, naming Jan (Jensen) right away (as head coach). It moved fast and that was OK with me.

“To be able to go out on my own terms, I’ve very thankful for that. And for Jan to be the next coach, it’s a seamless transition.

“I didn’t even tell my kids until about a week before (the announcement). The fewer people that knew, the better.

“Beth, Jan and I did a zoom with the players at noon, and the release went out around 3 in the afternoon. In the meantime, I called some of the big boosters, then we talked to the recruits.”

Q: What changes do you see in the program since you departed?

Bluder: “I don’t think a whole lot has changed. They’re back to running the triangle (offense), which I also would have done with the current personnel.

“Of course I analyze things when I watch. There’s no way around it. Jan wants to know my thoughts after a game. If she didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t tell her.

“I know this: Jan’s doing great.”

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Q: What was the biggest challenge in coaching Caitlin Clark?

Bluder: “Two aspects, really. First, during COVID, there was nobody in the stands. It was hard to build relationships because of the isolation. To get her to become a good leader, it took time because she was so used to doing everything on her own. But she learned it, and she learned it really well.

“(Second), and at the end of her career, there was so much noise. All of the people that wanted a piece of her ... I’m amazed at how she handled it. She didn’t get a big head. She was still a goofy kid instead of becoming a prima donna.”

Q: If your life would have taken another path outside of coaching, what would you have done?

Bluder: “In the 1970s, I wanted to be a teacher.

“I loved accounting in high school. But in three weeks (at UNI), I had taken the same stuff I had taken in high school, so I changed and got my business degree. I didn’t want to be in the library; I wanted to be in the gym.”

“In 1984, there was a classified ad in the Quad-City Times for a women’s basketball coach at St. Ambrose.”

Q: Let’s talk regrets. What’s your greatest about your coaching career?

Bluder: “Just that I missed so many of my kids’ games. I’d be out recruiting other people’s kids, and my kids would be playing their own games.

“Emma was really into theater, and I’d be able to see her rehearsal, but I rarely saw the real thing. It bums me out. If somebody had to go to the doctor, Dave was almost always the one that took them.

“On the other hand, our kids had experiences and opportunities that other kids didn’t get. The international trips, behind-the-scenes views of everything.

“When the grandkids come, we’ll make up for it.”

Q: If you were the czar of the NCAA, or women’s basketball, or whatever, what would be your first action?

Bluder: “I wish we could go back to the old times, put the genie back in the bottle ... (transfer) portal, NIL, revenue sharing ...

“NIL should have happened a long time ago, but it’s a professional model now. If kids want to transfer, they should get to do it only once. None of this jump-jump-jump stuff.

“I’m glad I got to coach when the game was pure. It just changed so much, so fast.”

Q: Other than pickleball and family ... how do you envision your future?

Bluder: “We’re going to travel a lot. I love to travel. I want to be involved in organizations, helping people.

“I just want to be a good person.”

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Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com