The price of success in college coaching? It becomes harder to maintain the staff that helped produce that success. That's the challenge now facing Iowa women's basketball head coach Jan Jensen, as she looks to replace a key part of her coaching staff just a few year after it was first assembled. On Friday, Iowa assistant coach Raina Harmon was named the new head coach at Florida Gulf Coast.

Harmon, whose official title at Iowa was Assistant Coach and Director of Recruiting, was a key assistant on the Hawkeye staff for the last eight seasons. Iowa went 207-62 overall during her tenure on the Iowa sideline and made the NCAA Tournament in seven of eight seasons -- and the one year that the Hawkeyes didn't officially make the NCAA Tournament was 2020, when the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Iowa was 23-7 that season and a lock to be part of the Tournament field.

Iowa won four Big Ten Tournament championships (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), shared a Big Ten regular season crown in 2022, and went to back-to-back NCAA championship games during Harmon's time in Iowa City. The Hawkeye program achieved historic levels of success while Harmon was a part of the Iowa staff.

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Prior to Iowa, Harmon spent five years as an assistant coach at Central Michigan (2012-17), where she had also starred as a player. The Chippewas went 99-61 while she was on staff, winning a MAC regular season championship, a MAC Tournament title, and appearing in the NCAA Tournament in 2013. Harmon was Director of Women's Basketball Operations at Michigan from 2010-12, prior to taking a job at CMU.

This move didn't come entirely out of the blue; Harmon's stature as a coach had been on the rise in recent years. In addition to building her resume with successful season after successful season at Iowa, outside organizations had also begun to take notice of her coaching ability -- she was named to the ABIS Women's Basketball Coach watchlist both this season and in 2024.

At Iowa, Harmon's coaching work was often with Iowa's perimeter players. She helped develop several All-Big Ten performers and future WNBA draft picks (among other accolades), including Kathleen Doyle, Kate Martin, and (of course) Caitlin Clark. Harmon's was also an important recruiter for Iowa and helped assemble Iowa's strong recruiting classes in 2024 and 2025. Replacing her skills as a coach and a recruiter will not be an easy task for Jensen.

Stay tuned to Hawkeye Beacon for more coverage on the coaching search to replace Harmon on the Iowa staff, as well as news about football, men's basketball, the transfer portal, recruiting, and much more.