It's a fun storyline -- it really is.
The Iowa Hawkeyes, coached by Jan Jensen, are set to play a Round of 32 game on Monday (3 PM CT, ESNPN) against the Oklahoma Sooners, coached by Jennie Baranczyk, for a spot in the Sweet 16. Jensen and Baranczyk are both Iowa natives (Baranczyk from Urbandale, Jensen from Kimballton) with ties that go back 25 years, from Jensen recruiting Baranczyk (then Jennie Lillis) to play for Jensen and Lisa Bluder at Drake, to coaching Baranczyk at Iowa when the Drake staff moved a few hours east to Iowa City.
The ties between the duo continued in the coaching ranks, with Jensen serving two decades on the Iowa staff and Baranczyk taking over as Drake head coach in 2012. They were on opposing sidelines -- just as they will be on Monday afternoon -- as Iowa and Drake tangled nine times during Baranczyk's tenure with the Bulldogs; Iowa won eight of those games, though many of them were tight. Now they're both head coaches, with Jensen taking over the lead role for the Hawkeyes last summer.
Baranczyk's shadow hung over that decision as well; her success at Drake (three Missouri Valley Conference championships, three NCAA Tournament appearances) and Oklahoma (two Big 12 regular season championships, three NCAA Tournament appearances) made her one of the favorites (at least among the Iowa fanbase) to be Lisa Bluder's replacement at Iowa. Instead, Jensen was promoted from her longtime assistant role to the head job.
While Jensen and Baranczyk will be on opposing sidelines on Monday, it was clear on Sunday that there's a tremendous amount of respect and admiration between them stemming from their shared histories.
"I'm proud of Jan," Baranczyk said. "I love that Lisa ended her career the way she wanted to end it. I love that she passed it on to Jan. I think that's really positive for so many programs that want to build and sustain something."
"Jan is not afraid of anything," she added. "Jan, you know, Jan is Jan. I've literally -- I grew up going to Drake basketball camps when Lisa and Jan were there. Jan used to chase me around and just used to drive me crazy. I didn't know she was recruiting me. I just thought she was in my shadow."
"And that's Jan. She would leave you voicemails that would stop. Used to have those answering machines and they would stop because she would still be talking, and she would call back and leave more," Baranczyk said.
"I'd prefer to be cheering for her and I think she would be doing the same way, the same thing," Jensen said. "You'd like to think, you know, I believe in the teams that we coached when I was part of Lisa Bluder's staff and what I'm continuing, I hope, is we have that saying, once a Hawk, always a Hawk. I believe that Jennie really feels that way."
"So I think she's proud of that. But she's also an amazing coach, right? Look at the success she's had," Jensen added. "One of the most competitive, fiery, never going to back down kids that I've ever coached, right. So she's really good. She can separate all that. She's not nostalgic or a sentimentalist. She's going to get after it and go."
"I just remember her fight, and it's been no surprise, if you watch her, she's got that fight on the sideline and she's going to go and she's going to attack anything that she feels is worth doing, she's going to give it everything she's got," Jensen said.
"I think one of the things [is that] one of us is going to have a really fun moment, right? We are going to go to the Sweet 16, and that's great," Jensen said. "But I think exactly what she said, is that, I would assume it's been good and it's accurate, that's the only drawback is we both would have rather been there, right?"
"Every other game that Iowa I want them to win. Of course I do. I want them to be really successful," Barancyzk said before emphasizing that her focus is on coaching Oklahoma and trying to lead them to a victory on Monday afternoon.
While the focus on Monday will be on the players on the court and the storylines that unfold there -- can Iowa slow down Raegan Beers and Oklahoma's high-powered offense? Can Oklahoma withstand the pressure of being a host team trying to get to the Sweet 16? -- the two coaches and their programs will share one thing: honoring a friend and former teammate who passed away.
"This game will be a little bit sentimental because this last December I lost one of my teammates [Jamie Cavey-Lang] that I played with at Iowa for three of those four years," Baranzyck said.
"She's a mom and she did the radio and you all know her. Jamie Cavey. And that's humbling. That's hard. That's going to be something that we're going to celebrate tomorrow. So you'll see us have 52 pins on. So we're going to get some for the Iowa staff as well," she added.
"And that will be somebody that we want to celebrate and honor during this game. She meant a lot to me personally, but she really meant a lot to that program, and that's important for me on both levels."
"Jamie's just been a special part of us [at Iowa," Jensen said. "I think it's really special for Jamie's family. Her mother, Pam Cavey, is just a delight and she's been struggling. I can't imagine the loss of a child. I think [recognizing her at Monday's game] is really nice."
