The No. 15-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes have finally caught a break. After three straight losses that came against USC, UCLA, and Minnesota, the Hawkeyes have steadied themselves with a 65–56 win over the No. 25 Washington Huskies. The game was gritty, physical, and at times it even looked like the Hawkeyes once climbed into the top-10 conversation. But even in victory, head coach Jan Jensen has made it clear that this team is still battling something deeper than just X’s and O’s.

Following the game, coach Jensen didn’t just talk about execution. She talked about perspective and psyche.

“I think I’ve just always really understood this Big 10 is really, really hard. It’s like, Wisconsin’s playing really great basketball, but people, you look at that record, you’re like, “Oh, everybody should beat Wisconsin.” Well, they’ve knocked off Michigan State. They almost got Washington last night, right? There’s just such differences of game plans, and we just happened to hit, like you said, three four really good defensive teams after we were kind of reforming,” she said.

Jan Jensen further added, “So I think it is big for the psyche, the confidence level. We’re still a work in progress now with our high-low game. We just sometimes under the lights, we get a little nervous when they sag off of us, and we have two or three things that we can do and they work beautifully when we did them, but I’m still trying to get everybody progressing there.”

Yes, the win obviously mattered. But Iowa is still navigating a confidence hurdle. Just take their game against the Huskies as an example. In that, the first quarter didn’t exactly signal a breakthrough. Washington shot a blistering 71% from the field and built a 25–19 lead, exposing the same defensive cracks that haunted Iowa during its losing streak.

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Though Chit Chat Wright and Hannah Stuelke carried their team to a win, as Wright scored 21 points and four assists, while Stuelke posted 14 points and 16 rebounds.

But this isn’t about just beating Washington. It’s about whether Iowa can play free when defenses sag, whether the high-low action can flow naturally instead of tightening under pressure, and whether confidence can match capability. So in the Big Ten, where every night feels like a trap, the Hawkeyes’ biggest opponent might still be its own hesitation under the lights.

What’s next for Jan Jensen and the Hawkeyes?

With this win under their belt, the Hawkeyes have improved to 19-5 overall and 10-3 in their conference. Before their recent three-game skid, the team’s only other losses were against the Iowa State Cyclones, who were ranked No. 10 at that time, and the No. 1 UConn Huskies, who haven’t lost a single game this season so far.

On their stats sheet, Ava Heiden, the Hawkeyes’ sophomore center, leads the team with the most points (16.7) and the most blocks (1.0) per game. Though as a whole, this team is currently averaging 79.9 points per game, while holding off their opponents to just 65.7.

For their next game, the Hawkeyes will play the Nebraska Cornhuskers on February 16th. In this season, the Cornhuskers and Jan Jensen’s squad have already locked horns once, where the Hawkeyes ended up winning by a 10-point margin. So ESPN predicts this game in favor of Iowa with 54.6%. Following that, they will play against:

• The Purdue Boilermakers on February 19th.
• The No.7 Michigan Wolverines on February 22nd.
• The Illinois Fighting Illini on February 26th.

After they play against the Fighting Illini, the Hawkeyes will have just one more game before the regular season ends. So if Jan Jensen is looking to improve her team’s standing, from this point every game counts.