By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The transition from the past to the future is happening again with Iowa’s women’s basketball team, which isn’t a surprise given the makeup of the Hawkeyes’ roster.

The Hawkeyes’ 86-51 win over Southern in Monday’s season opener was another one of those card-shuffling nights for second-year head coach Jan Jensen — a constant pursuit of that right combination between players who have seen everything and players who need to see more and more to learn.

There was no better example of this than Iowa’s two leading scorers.

Ava Heiden is a sophomore who was making her first official start with the Hawkeyes, and she finished with her first career double-double of 21 points and 14 rebounds.

Hannah Stuelke, who had 20 points, is one of the last remaining connections to Iowa’s back-to-back runs to the NCAA championship game in 2023 and 2024, a senior playing a different position but using the same talents that made her such a constant through all of the Hawkeyes’ success.

Iowa starts three seniors — Stuelke and guards Kylie Feuerbach and Taylor McCabe — along with Heiden and fellow sophomore Chazadi “Chit-Chat” Wright, who transferred into the program in the offseason.

Off the bench came sophomore Taylor Stremlow, sophomore transfer Emely Rodriguez, and freshmen Addie Deal, Journey Houston and Laila Hays.

“We’re a lot younger than we are older,” Jensen said.

No season opener is ever perfect, and no coach ever wants that. It was as disjointed as one would expect, but Jensen welcomed that to prove the points she has been teaching since the end of last season.

The 4-of-21 3-point shooting, including 0-of-10 in the first half, was “an anomaly,” Jensen said, and she’s right given the number of shooters on the roster.

The 24 turnovers, though, were what Jensen called “data,” and the video of how the Hawkeyes coughed up the ball against Southern’s press will no doubt be stopped and rewound quite often in the coming days.

“Their press did what they were wanting it to do,” Jensen said. “But I do think it will be great data for us. You know, there’s one thing to have your male practice squad do a press, but there’s a whole other thing to have a team with the lights on doing it.”

Iowa hit the accelerator when it tried to find a way through the Jaguars. It was rarely the first line of defense that snagged the Hawkeyes, it was what would happen at the second level and beyond..

“It really got away from us,” Jensen said.

“It’s our first game, obviously,” Stuelke said. “I thought we grew a little bit more in that area. And obviously we know we need to work on it a little bit more.”

Where the Hawkeyes were at their best was on the inside.

Heiden’s growth as a player was evident at the end of last season, when her best scoring games came in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments — momentum that she took into the offseason.

She was 8-of-13 from the field in this game, demanding the ball in a way Jensen expects from her posts.

“I wish you were there in practice every day, because you would be hearing that definitely a lot,” Heiden said. “Because I think that growing those skills in the offseason has allowed me to demand it and feel confident demanding it, and then I have an amazing team that surrounds me and gets it to me when I’m open.”

“I think she had really a shift in mindset,” Jensen said. “I think that mindset shifted toward the end of last year, and then we really challenged her this summer, because, I mean, she knew what she faced all through the Big Ten season. So you’re just seeing another confident level of Ava that’s chasing that next level.”

Heiden’s emergence has allowed Stuelke to play the ‘4’, where she can balance her inside scoring ability with what Jensen hopes is a more confident shot from the outside.

Stuelke hit just one 3-pointer in this game — it was the first one made for the Hawkeyes in the game — and then was able to get to the basket for the rest of her points.

“I’ve just been working really hard (on outside shooting),” Stuelke said. “We all have, but that’s been one of my main focuses.”

“I just still think around the basket, she’s so stellar,” Jensen said. “And I think she’s buying into that. We’re playing her a little bit inside, playing her a little bit outside. And I think she just feels a little freer being able to do both.”

There were some other numbers that Jensen liked — Rodriguez had 13 points off the bench and Wright, brought in to run the offense, had nine points and seven assists against just one turnover.

Still, Jensen spent the night experimenting with different combinations. Wright, Stuelke and Heiden all played between 23 and 28 minutes, but everyone who played logged at least 13 minutes.

A good part of last season was trying to find the right combinations, and Jensen isn’t afraid of spinning that wheel to see what comes up next.

Not perfect, but openers never are, and that’s a good starting point, Jensen figured.

“As much as it wasn’t the prettiest game. It’s really going to help us,” Jensen said.