IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Hawkeyes were primarily a guard-oriented team the last time they were seeded so highly for the women's NCAA Tournament.
Of course, it was just a couple of seasons ago and that guard was Caitlin Clark, college basketball’s all-time leading scorer.
The Hawkeyes (26-6), the No. 2 seed in the Sacramento 4 Region, are now led by a post player who came into her own at this point last season and has become one of the top frontcourt
players in the nation.
Ava Heiden was a first-team All-Big Ten selection at center and goes into Saturday's first-round game against Fairleigh Dickinson leading the Hawkeyes with 17.4 points per game and shooting 64.7% from the field to rank third nationally.
It’s been a big step for the 6-foot-4 sophomore, who averaged just five minutes per game last season but hasn’t missed a start this season.
“Just my confidence, really, that’s been the big difference,” Heiden said.
Heiden has scored 20 or more points in 11 games, including a four-game stretch against Nebraska, Purdue, Michigan and Illinois in which she averaged 25.
It was in the 62-44 win over Michigan on Feb. 22 when Heiden showed just how much she has developed. Her battle with Wolverines’ forward Ashley Sofilkanich became so physical, officials stopped play to lecture them. Later, Heiden scored eight consecutive points, beating Sofilkanich with one move that left her spinning to the court as Heiden made a layup.
“That bad-ass, kick-ass mentality, you kind of have to have that," Iowa coach Jan Jensen said. "I think you kind of have to grow into it. You have to become good, and then you start to take the punches of frustration, and then you either take it, like, ‘I got fouled,’ or kind of give it back. And I think she’s finding that fine line of the competitiveness spirit of the great ones.”
Jensen, in her second season as Iowa’s head coach after 24 as Lisa Bluder’s top assistant, has a reputation of developing post players. Heiden has become her latest project.
Heiden said Jensen and assistant Randi Henderson excel at coaching the bigs on how to handle double-teams or sagging defenses.
“They are just steadfast coaches and people who are a joy to work with,” Heiden said.
Heiden began breaking through in the 2025 postseason. She scored 11 points against Michigan State and 10 against Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament, then had 15 points in Iowa’s NCAA Tournament opener against Murray State. Those were her only double-figure scoring games of the season.
Heiden only has three single-digit scoring games this season, and hasn’t had one since Iowa’s 90-64 loss to UConn on Dec. 20.
Heiden’s emergence has allowed Jensen to move Hannah Stuelke from center to power forward, where she works to get the ball inside to Heiden for easy baskets.
“I think in the past years, I didn’t get the chance to show off my passing skills because I was playing the ‘5,’ but now I got this one,” Stuelke said, nodding toward Heiden. “Yeah, she just makes it easy. She always knows how to get open and I just throw it to where she’s open.”
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