Lisa Bluder Gives Surprising Pick For Top Iowa Moment of Caitlin Clark Era
Former Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball head coach Lisa Bluder chose a fitting time to retire after her team's 2024 season ended.
This is mainly because the Hawkeyes were on the heels of two consecutive NCAA National Championship appearances (despite coming up short of a championship in both). They were guided to these title games by Caitlin Clark, a generational talent and historic scorer who headed to the WNBA after her Hawkeyes team's 2023-24 campaign.
Bluder and Clark had some fantastic moments and memories together during their shared time at Iowa. But in a March 19 interview with the Big Ten Network, Bluder revealed what her top moment from this time was.
"You know, it's hard to pick the top three of five moments because honestly, every Big Ten championship we won was so special," Bluder said, per an X post from the Big Ten Network. "Last year, the back-to-back-to-back, that's pretty special because it's so hard to do... having three back-to-back-to-back-to-back Big Ten championships.
"Of course, making it to the Final Four, and then beating UConn last year, beating South Carolina the year before to make it to the championship game, those are priceless," Bluder continued.
"But one that people probably don't realize to me, one of my top memories is actually the Crossover at Kinnick. We played outside and we broke the women's basketball attendance record with 55,646 people in attendance. It was so emotional, there were people crying in the stands because of what we had done to elevate women's athletics," she concluded.
We were able to catch up with @LisaBluder at the #B1GWBBT to relive a few of her favorite @IowaWBB moments 🤗 pic.twitter.com/IyhgbLFnvS
— Big Ten Women's Basketball (@B1Gwbball) March 19, 2025
Bluder citing the legendary Crossover at Kinnick makes a ton of sense and is often forgotten about among the most memorable aspects of Clark's college career because it occurred at the start of a season rather than the end of it.
Still, that was an iconic moment that has clearly left a mark on Bluder.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.