By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

November is about building identities, and the one the Iowa’s women’s basketball team is crafting is still a work in progress.

Right now, it’s all about the defense for the Hawkeyes, who held Washington State to single digits in the second and third quarters of Sunday’s 72-43 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa is 6-0, the program’s best start since the 2017-18 season, and should get into the national rankings when they are released on Monday morning.

And the Hawkeyes are still trying to find themselves.

“I think the coolest part is that they have found a different way to win, and that is with their defense, and they are believing in it,” first-year head coach Jan Jensen said.

Jensen, the Hawkeyes’ long-time assistant head coach who took over the program when Lisa Bluder retired in May, vowed at the beginning of the season that her team would put a higher focus on defense.

Sunday’s win was a lockdown — Washington State went 4-of-34 from the field, 1-of-18 in 3-pointers, in the second and third quarters, getting outscored by Iowa 37-9 after leading the Hawkeyes 19-18 after the first quarter.

“We have the emphasis that we placed on it,” Jensen said. “But people are buying into the emphasis. We have people who are pretty good on the ball.”

The Hawkeyes in the last four seasons were all about a flamboyant offense engineered by the shooting and passing mastery of Caitlin Clark. Now, with Clark gone to the WNBA, this team was going to be a little bit more down to earth.

The days of logo threes are gone at this point, replaced by the pinpoint mid-range accuracy of Lucy Olsen, brought in out of the transfer portal to fill Clark’s position. The no-look passes are a little more limited — Taylor Stremlow had one in Sunday’s game that drew gasps-into-cheers — and the shooting needs some work.

And yet, the pieces seem to be fitting.

Iowa was 29-of-69 from the field for the game, but just 2-of-17 in 3-pointers. The Hawkeyes were also 12-of-21 in free throws.

And they ended up leading by as much as 34 points with six minutes to play.

All about the defense.

“I think we contested their threes a lot better in the second and third quarter, so we obviously held them to a lot fewer points,” said Stremlow, a freshman who is already becoming appreciated by a fan base that has snatched up all of the season tickets again this season. “So I think that was the big difference.”

The Hawkeyes have won every game by double digits this season, are averaging more than 80 points, and yet they’ve only made 28.6 percent of their 3-pointers.

“I think it’s really helpful that we have been playing pretty good defense, because our offense isn’t exactly where we want it to be,” Olsen said. “I think we have a lot of potential to get even better, but we’re still winning.”

“I think sometimes the beauty of this team is they want it so much they get tighter,” Jensen said. “I’m trying to figure out ways to keep them loose and having fun. The tough sledding is because they so want it for me, I think. They want it for each other.

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to kick people out of the gym here. And that’s what’s fun about it, because they can still be like, “Oh man, Coach, sorry, I didn’t hit those (shots) much. And I’m like, ‘Hey, you know what? We got another win.’”

Jensen is still mixing and matching lineups, which, she said, could be part of the reason the offense has struggled.

Iowa’s competition is going to get better in December — there’s a neutral-court game against Tennessee in Brooklyn, in-state rivals Iowa State and Northern Iowa will be coming to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and there’s the Big Ten opener at Michigan State.

There’s a chess move being made here — Jensen is using her depth so opposing scouting reports will be thicker once that competition level rises.

“I like to think, as we keep getting better and better with those combinations, it’ll be a little bit harder for the scout,” Jensen said. “Because when you have to put about eight to nine to 10 people on a scout, and you really want your team to know personnel, that’s a little bit trickier at times. And so I’m hopeful that we can keep getting more and more people on the opponents’ scouts.” 

“It might have been sometimes not as fluid or smooth, but we were trying different combinations, because the climb gets deeper, and we need to kind of see who’s going to be able to play multiple positions and who complements who well. So today, we learned a lot. It may not have always looked as fluid offensively. I’ve just got to believe that pretty soon though, those shots will be falling.”

If they don’t, Jensen said, opponents will pack their defenses and dare the Hawkeyes to shoot. That could be a problem because Jensen has seen her team make those shots in practice.

“Fire,” she called it.

“I know my team,” Jensen said. “I’m not concerned. I’m disappointed for them, but I’m not concerned because I know I heard they work.”

And if/when those shots start falling, someone asked Olsen, what type of team can the Hawkeyes be?

“We’ll see,” she said, and laughed.

Photo: Iowa coach Jan Jensen signals to her team during Sunday’s game against Washington State. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)