By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

It wasn’t a flipping of the switch, Ava Heiden said.

Heiden’s best games in her first season on Iowa’s women’s basketball team came at the end of the season. She had 11 points against Michigan State and 10 against Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament, then had a season-high 15 points in the Hawkeyes’ 92-57 win over Murray State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

All of that, Heiden said, was the product of the work she had put in during the season as she waited for opportunities in the crowded post spot for the Hawkeyes.

“When I got on the floor, from an outside perspective, it probably looked like a light bulb came on,” Heiden said at Iowa’s media day last month. “But I think, throughout the year, it was just stacking progress, little by little, every single day.”

That progress, and the continued growth during the offseason, put Heiden in the starting lineup in last Thursday’s exhibition game against Ashland, when she had 14 points and 12 rebounds in the 104-63 win.

Heiden, at 6-foot-4, is a true post player, something Iowa coach Jan Jensen excelled at developing during her time as Lisa Bluder’s top assistant coach. So Jensen has recognized what Heiden has done since arriving in Iowa City from Sherwood, Oregon.

“We needed her back to the basket, we needed a little bit more consistency, and it kind of clicked around Christmas, and then she just went for it,” Jensen said. “(She) used that kind of disappointment of which she wasn’t maybe playing as much as she’d like and she wasn’t quite as consistent.

“Then it kind of clicked for her. When it clicked, boy, she went gangbusters. She’s just a great young woman, and it was fun to see that growth. She had a great summer.”

Heiden averaged 9.7 minutes in 28 games last season, and she didn’t play in seven games. That can be frustrating to a player who came to Iowa ranked as the No. 36 prospect nationally by ESPN.

“We talked about roles on this team, playing your role, and every role is important,” Heiden said. “There’s not one that’s more important than the other, and so bench energy, that’s just as important as playing on the floor, and we don’t want one person to feel more or less than the other person. And so I think just waiting and knowing that my time will come was helpful for me, and just constant communication with the coaching staff helped me get to where I was at the end of the year.”

Jensen likes having coffee with her players, individual talks that can break things down. Heiden, who said she drinks chai tea during these conversations, appreciated the communication.

“We’ll just talk, and it’ll be an hour or two, and we’ll just talk about things outside of basketball, and it gives her a better perspective on who we are as people, and then lets us see her, as a person too,” Heiden said. “And then we just connect on that level as well.”

“I think Ava was interesting,” Jensen said. “She’ll share with you how hard that freshman year was. When she was coming in, usually all of (the freshmen) have been the very best. They haven’t had a whole lot of people pushing them.

“It was a little bit eye-opening for Ava. But in a good way. When we’d have our conversations, she’s a really analytical kid, very intelligent, and was always wanting a certain formula. But part of basketball, it isn’t exactly a formula. There’s a little bit of feel, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.”

Heiden was able to get that feel as the season continued.

“I think that last year it was just a lot of work in progress, working in the dark, behind-the-scenes type of thing,” she said. “And so there were a few games where I was sitting outWe had a lot of posts in at the moment, so it was hard to share minutes. But I think that when I did get that opportunity, and the Big Ten tournament and NCAA, that was my opportunity, I waited and I prepared for it, and that’s where I shined.”

It helped that Heiden’s family moved with her from Oregon. Heiden’s father, Randy, works for United HealthCare and was able to work remotely. Her sister, Sydney, was a freshman on Iowa City Liberty High School’s girls basketball team.

“I was able to have their support, which was amazing,” Heiden said. “And I’m definitely a family person, so it was helpful to be close to them. I watched my sister go through her first year of high school and all that. But yeah, they were very helpful, and I don’t know what I would do without them.

“It was kind of like a stars-aligning thing, just for my family. We kind of calculated the cost of what it’d be like to come out here and stay in a hotel and watch the games and travel back by plane, which is expensive. And eventually we’re like, it’d just be more cost effective if they moved out here, and then it worked out for my family well.”

The stars have aligned for Heiden on the court this season. Senior Hannah Stuelke, the primary post last season, has moved to the ‘4’, opening the post for Heiden and freshman Layla Hays.

Heiden said she worked in the offseason working on her mid-range shot as well as working with assistant coach Randi Henderson on her post moves.

“I do think she can be one of the great ones,” Jensen said. “She’s a hybrid — she faces (the basket) a little bit more. She’s a little bit loose in the post. I don’t mind her to use a quick dribble if she’s got a spinning (move) because she’s fast. So I’m really excited to see what she can do now that she has this confidence.”

Photo: The progression of Iowa’s Ava Heiden showed at the end of last season. (Keith Gillett/Icon SportsWire)