The Hawkeye Women's Basketball team came off their bye week and suffered a disheartening loss at Purdue. In this weekly installment with Coach Jensen, read what she has to say about the loss to Purdue, the upcoming game against Michigan, a possible change in the starting lineup and much more.

Jensen: That was just so tough in so many regards. We just felt that was a huge opportunity for us. It was huge because we needed it for conference standings. We play Purdue only once this year, which means if there is a tie breaker, which usually there is in the Big Ten, it goes to head to head competition. We knew we needed that for national standings and more importantly we needed this for our team's confidence. We did some really nice things in the first half, but the second half we had way too many mental lapses and turnovers and defensive breakdowns. Even with all that said, we were still in a position to be able to win it. So it's kind of a double-edged sword. It was good to be that close even though we weren't playing the best, but then you're frustrated because had we played a little bit better we'd have been feeling a lot better than we are now after that tough loss.

Jensen: Yea, they really do. We're pretty disciplined and did a pretty nice job up until our first loss, which was Penn State a couple weeks ago. It was like after we had that first loss our team took it a little harder than they needed to and they were a little bit too critical on themselves. The attitude was one that was "oh boy, what are we going to do?" As a staff we really try to work through that but they haven't really gotten to the point of just playing care free and loose and confident. So now the mental lapses are just from second-guessing themselves all the time and that's causing a lot of turnover problems and rotating on defense. There is just not a flow. We did it for a time. We did it for minutes but we've never had it for 40 minutes since probably the end of December. So we've gone about a month now without playing very good basketball.

Jensen: Jenee has been doing a nice job for us. We're thinking though she might be a little bit better right now off the bench. We tried to put her in that point guard position, which is what she played in high school. It probably wasn't her natural position in high school nor do we feel it is in college. So we might have a little shakeup in the starting lineup depending on what we see in practice and what we want to do. But she's been doing a great job and whether she starts or not she's a great addition. She's energetic, she's athletic, she's got good size, she's a great rebounder and she's really meant a lot to this team. But I don't know if we'll keep her in that starting point spot or not or use her to come off the bench, because her production off the bench was higher than what it has been with her as a starter.

Jensen: Yea. Abby did not get in for the Purdue game and we should have got her in there. She's been nursing a couple of injuries. She's had a hamstring and a foot injury so she was in a boot prior to the Purdue game. So we're trying to save her and get her a little bit healthier before we start the intense playing again. We play Michigan, then we have a week then it's go-go-go. So she'll get more minutes and we'll look back to her. Again, she's a freshman that seemed to have lost her confidence. It's tough as a coach to build up their confidence and you tell them you're confident in them. But then they are thinking, "well, I'm not playing, I'm not starting. Are you really that confident in me." That's a really delicate balancing act. She'll play the point or go off guard with Crystal Smith if we make that change it will put Jenee back in the three spot.

Q: Talk about the play of Johanna Solverson lately.

Jensen: Jo's obviously been in a slump. She's not doing the things she has done prior to the Big Ten season. Her production Big Ten versus the nonconference, there has really been a drop there. I think Jo's as frustrated as anybody in why that is occurring. We've just got to try and figure that out. She had seven turnovers against Purdue and that's just too many. Jamie Cavey had six and Crystal Smith had five, obviously they are all veteran players and that is too many. But Jo is a pretty important part of our perimeter game and we need her to be able to step up. I think with Jo sometimes it's hard because she looks the part. She's so athletic and you feel like she's going to have a breakout performance, and I think there is a little bit of pressure on her for that. She just needs to figure out how to make a few better decisions and kind of get back to how she was playing. But that is very much a concern and that we have to get her back on track.

Jensen: I think Jamie Cavey has just been tremendous. Jamie Cavey and Krista VandeVenter. They've been our most consistent, most solid components. Jamie Cavey has been as effective with her production as any center that we've ever had. What's hard about it when you are an inside player though is, you're not the one who is dribbling the ball down, directing traffic and getting people in their offense. It would be nice if we had one consistent outside player. Crystal's been doing a nice job, but she's had a little mini-slump lately too. Part of that is just people are figuring out how to really focus on Crystal because our point guard hasn't been as consistent, and Jo's performance hasn't been as consistent. So Crystal's got more pressure on her and she's got to deal with that and figure that out. Because when you become a great player, you have to rise above all the junk defenses they are going to put on you and all the attention you are going to get. I'd say that Jamie has been doing a phenomenal job and Krista especially as a freshman is doing a lot of things. She gets eight/nine points, eight rebounds. Nothing that really sticks out that would get her all the headlines, but how she defends, her mentality and just the flow she keeps with this team is really tremendous.

Jensen: I think it's neither. The thing I think it is, is comfortable. It's nice to see people who have coached in the Valley and have risen up in the Valley and taken Big Ten jobs as it's kind of mini-camaraderie within the Big Ten. But I think everybody's competitive. I wouldn't say it's an advantage or a disadvantage as everybody's out to win now. The only advantage for us was in the first year you know the style of Cheryl Burnett at Michigan, in her very first year. You know how Kathi Bennett at Indiana was going to coach in our very first year here. But that's all you know because you don't know if they've changed things slightly or whatever. After you've been around the league we're just as comfortable with what Cheryl does as with what Rene (Portland, of Penn State) does, or what Jim Foster (Ohio State) does, he's been in the league now a couple of years, we know his system. So it's just more the continuity of what you're used to and how long people stick around, because few people change their philosophies in coaching. You might change an offense every now and then, but Rene Portland, a lot of the same plays that she's been running were the exact same calls when we got here five years ago.

Jensen: I think right now it is a dominant point guard, your prototypical point guard. I'm not saying it has to be a slashing point guard or a scoring point guard. We're just missing that confident point guard mentality: "Ok, we're running this. Ok, we're in zone defense. Ok guys, they're in man-to-man defense." Right now there is no flow. Partially when you have a freshman you are going to struggle a little bit with that as Abby Emmert has, but I know Abby will come back. There is no question that she can. We're searching and we're trying to find some type of flow again. I think we just need a confident, authoritative figure in that role. You can't expect that of a freshman. Abby did a great job. We were 13-0 with her and we took her out of the starting lineup because she was struggling a little bit against pressure, and it takes awhile for that. If we could draft right now, we'd want a point guard that has a little bit of a swagger and a lot of vocal leadership to kind of calm everybody down and direct the traffic.

Jensen: If our team would even entertain the thought of overlooking them that wouldn't be very smart thinking, because we're not in a position right now where we can show up and beat anybody as we've proven. We haven't been performing well; we haven't played for 40 minutes. We've struggled tremendously in the first half against Northwestern. Northwestern beat Michigan in a close game. So it would be preposterous to think that we would even have that thought. I'm more worried about our players being fearful and worried, because they're thinking "My gosh, we're struggling. We have to play well." That negative thought process could really overtake them and they wouldn't perform well. If we were sitting here at 18/19-0 I think I would worry about that, but I think coming off a disappointing loss at Purdue and knowing you didn't play well. Knowing we gave up so many unanswered points in the second half. They shot 73%, Purdue, that's probably a record. I just don't see how our team could have anything but hunger coming into that game. I would be disappointed and I would be upset if our team didn't come out very hungry and give a great performance.