Happy Tuesday, Ball-Knowers!

We continue our preseason NCAA women’s basketball coverage with another profile and edition of Luxury Tax (which will be released on YouTube on Thursday). And speaking of YouTube!

No Cap Space WBB officially has 10,000 subscribers on our channel! From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank all of you that have supported us in print, over the airwaves or on video. We’re building slowly, but surely and sustainably and powered by viewers and readers like you. There’s also some new expansions, redesigns and partnerships on the way too.

A quick newser before we get to the links: the Atlanta Dream reached an agreement that Games 3 and 4 of the WNBA Finals will indeed by at State Farm Arena. It does mean that each team has one day less of travel next week, and Game 6, as we understand it, is still up in the air. But a step in the right direction, nonetheless. We have some links in the ‘Good Reads’ section for you.

Let’s roll.

Five Out on YouTube…

Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase is built for the WNBA’s biggest stage by Jane Kenny, SFStandard

Caitlin Clark's billion-view social media impact on WNBA: 'Wow, it's a Taylor Swift effect' by Dana Hunsinger, IndyStar

The WNBA Can’t Stop Dunking On Its Haters by Megan Greenwell, Bloomberg

Dream’s small Finals venue could cost WNBA league office money by Tom Friend, SportsBusinessJournal

Atlanta Dream WNBA Finals home Games 3 and 4 moved to larger arena by Meghan Hall, USA Today

by Andrew Haubner, No Cap Space WBB

It’s becoming more common knowledge these days but in case you didn’t already know, Iowa women’s basketball history is much richer than just Caitlin Clark. The state was the home of AAU behemoths like AIC Stenos to Iowa Wesleyan, whose success dates back to the 1930’s. That tradition was imprinted on the next generation, who built Drake into an early AIAW power. And that became the coup that was legendary Dr. Christine Grant’s 1983 hire of Cheyney State’s C. Vivian Stringer.

Jan Jensen felt the impact all the way in the town of Kimballton, Iowa. Somehow, among a largely Danish immigrant population working at the Kimballton Brick Yard took to the sport. Jensen’s grandmother, Dorcas Andersen, was one of them. In 1921, she won an Iowa state basketball championship and was dubbed ‘Lottie’ (because she scored a lot of points) by the local newspapers. Almost five decades later, her grandaughter would have a ‘Lottie’ more.

After averaging 66 points per game as a senior in high school, Jensen played four seasons at Drake university, coached there afterward and eventually joined Lisa Bluder’s University of Iowa staff, succeeding her in 2024. In short, the current Hawkeye head coach is about as Iowa women’s basketball as Iowa women’s basketball can get. And it’s that fealty to the small communities that raised her that influences part of her recruiting and transfer strategy.

“I'm not a one that believes in the the cherry picking of the small [programs],” Jensen says. “I played at Drake. I coached at Drake, and I think you know. I would hope that that's not why the reason why people are choosing the small schools.”