By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Jan Jensen’s plan for Tuesday afternoon was to take senior forward Hannah Stuelke out for coffee to catch up on their busy summer.

While Jensen has been preparing for her second season as Iowa’s head coach with summer workouts while also recruiting for the future, Stuelke has been playing internationally with the United States team that won the gold medal in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup in Chile.

“I just haven’t even talked to her because I’ve been recruiting, and we had a couple practices, and I’ve been flying all over,” Jensen said during Tuesday’s media availability. “So I can’t wait to kind of get a feel for what her experience was like and what her mental space is.”

Jensen knows how important Stuelke is to the Hawkeyes heading into her senior season. Stuelke, who can play either the ‘4’ or the ‘5’ in the Iowa lineup, is coming off a junior season in which she reached the 1,000-point mark for her career on the way to being a second-team All-Big Ten selection.

And Stuelke’s education over her career, both with the Hawkeyes and then this summer on a team filled with some of women’s basketball’s top players, is going to be important on another young roster.

“What I’m hoping is that type of experience gave her something mentally and internally that can lead a relatively younger, inexperienced group,” Jensen said.

It’s a role Stuelke knows she has to accept.

“I think just communicating, answering any questions, leading by example, doing all the little things is just really important,” she said. “Just making sure the younger girls are staying confident of themselves and not getting down about missing something, because it is really hard to take in all this information so quickly.”

The bulk of Stuelke’s summer was with the U.S. team — Tuesday was just her second practice with the Hawkeyes — on a roster that included, among others, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson, Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers, Texas’ Madison Booker and Iowa State’s Audi Crooks.

“I think it was a lot of fun learning from new people, not just the coaches, but the girls as well, just learning how to play with different styles and play with different terminology and all the things,” Stuelke said. “But it was really fun just learning new things.”

Stuelke averaged 5.9 points and 4.9 rebounds in the tournament, scoring seven points and getting seven rebounds in the gold medal game win over Brazil.

“I think being in a new system, learning all those things really fast, I think once we got towards the end of (the tournament), we were like clicking and everything made sense in our heads,” Stuelke said. “So I think that was really helpful.”

Jensen said that while Stuelke lost time with her Iowa teammates while playing for the U.S. team, what she learned will have an impact on her game.

“She’s healthy, but we lost about three weeks in the Iowa system when she was busy winning the gold medal, which is great, because that’s as important, if not more important, mentally,” Jensen said. “Hey, she’s played with the best in the world. She’s been better than the best in the world.”

Stuelke and Kylie Feuerbach, who is in her sixth college season and fifth with the Hawkeyes, are the two players with the most game experience on the Iowa roster.

Stuelke said being a senior is “kind of crazy.”

“My first two years were so long and incredible,” said Stuelke, who played a key role on Iowa’s runs to the NCAA national championship game in 2023 and 2024. “But I think this last year went by really fast, and this one coming up, I’m excited for a new journey with a new team again.”

Photo: Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke is back with the team after playing with the U.S. team that won a gold medal in the FIBA AmeriCup tournament this summer. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)