Decorated Iowa basketball coach Lisa Bluder announced her retirement on Monday, with assistant coach Jan Jensen next in line to take over the head coaching position.

Bluder retires as the winningest women’s basketball coach in Big Ten history, amassing 528 wins and five Big Ten tournament titles over her 24 years. During her time at the helm, Iowa made 18 NCAA tournament appearances, including back-to-back trips to the National Championship with star guard Caitlin Clark. 

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"It has been the honor of my career to be a part of the Iowa Hawkeye family," Bluder wrote in a statement. "And to lead a women's basketball program filled with so many talented and remarkable young women, who have gone on to do great things in their careers and, more importantly, in their lives."

She spent the last few years coaching the remarkable Caitlin Clark. The eventual No. 1 overall pick in April’s WNBA Draft, Clark became the all-time leading scorer in D-I basketball, men’s or women’s, this past season, winning back-to-back Naismith Player of the Year awards under Bluder's leadership. 

In a tweet posted Monday, Clark reacted to Bluder’s retirement by thanking her.

"Simply no one better at building a team," Clark wrote. "Thank you for believing in me more than anyone. Enjoy retirement, coach. Very much deserved."

Bluder said Monday that her decision to retire came as she began preparing for the offseason. The longtime coach has previously said she was taking it year-by-year.

"After the season ended, I spent time with our student-athletes and coaches reviewing the season and preparing those moving on for what comes next," Bluder said. "With that also came personal contemplation about what this journey has meant to me, how to best champion this program and what the future looks like for my family and me. After then taking some time away with my husband, David, it became clear to me that I am ready to step aside.

"There is never an ideal time to retire, and I am sure this fall that I will miss the games, the practices, the road trips, the atmosphere, the tremendous fans and, most importantly, the players. But my belief in the foundation of this program, knowing that success is now an unrelenting component of women's basketball at the University of Iowa gives me comfort as I transition to become the program's biggest champion."

Bluder's coaching tenure dates back to 1985, when she coached at St. Ambrose University for six seasons before accepting a head coaching job at Drake in 1991. During her nine years in Des Moines, Bluder led the Bulldogs to four Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championships (1995, 1997, 1998, 2000) alongside three regular season titles (1997, 1998, 2000).

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Assistant head coach Jan Jensen has been tapped to take over the role at Iowa, having worked shoulder to shoulder with the outgoing Bluder for a major part of her career. After playing under Bluder at Drake, Jensen moved on to join her former coach off the court as an assistant coach for the Bulldogs.

"I love Jan to death," 2019 Naismith Player of the Year Megan Gustafson told The Gazette. "She deserves this, and she’s ready for it."

Gustafson's former Iowa teammate, post player Monika Czinano, echoed the sentiment. 

"It’s the perfect succession line, in my opinion," Czinano said. "She’s one of the main reasons for my development. She’s ready for it."

The Tour de France Femmes confirmed its course for 2026 this week, setting up next year's event as the longest iteration of the race in the women's tour history.

The 2026 course will run in nine stages starting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 1st and continuing through the finish line in Nice, France, on August 9th.

Cyclists will cover a total of 1,175 kilometers, with 18,795 meters of climbing.

The course will feature three flat stages and three hilly stages as well as two mountain stages and one individual time trial, with riders tackling Mont Ventoux — an iconic climb from the men's event — for the first time.

Though 2026 will only by the fifth edition of the modern Tour de France Femmes, the race will make its debut in a standalone time slot one full week after the men’s race ends, with recent record viewership fueling the move to separate the races rather than continue the previous tactic of scheduling the two events back-to-back.

"We no longer need men for the Tour de France Femmes to exist,"  said race director Marion Rousse at Thursday's course unveiling. "There's no need to have the men's race as a platform to launch the women's race. Now people are waiting to see us."

"People have embraced us," Rousse continued. "The new dates, separate to the men, prove it."

This weekend's slate of international soccer features more than one blockbuster matchup, as some of the summer's top performers, including England and Brazil, begin the long process of preparing for the 2027 World Cup.

Reigning UEFA Women's Euro champions England will be hosting 2025 Copa América Femenina winners Brazil at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on Saturday, when the Lionesses officially kick off their four-game Homecoming Series to close out 2025 play.

The match between world No. 4 England and No. 7 Brazil will serve as the first of the series of friendlies that will span the final two international breaks of the year, with the Lionesses closing out the opening pair of games against No. 15 Australia on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, while England fans will be enjoying the team's victory lap after their second-straight Euro title, other top UEFA competition are honing in on 2025 Nations League play.

Behind a long-range goal from winger Klara Bühl, No. 5 Germany snagged a narrow 1-0 victory over No. 6 France on Friday morning, taking the lead in the pair's two-leg semifinal.

The second Nations League semifinal round kicks off at 2 PM ET on Friday, when No. 1 Spain faces No. 3 Sweden live on Prime.

How to watch England vs. Brazil this weekend

England takes on Brazil at 12:30 PM ET on Saturday, with live coverage streaming on Prime.

The Wings have found their next sideline leader, as multiple reports on Thursday linked longtime University of South Florida (USF) head coach Jose Fernandez to the open position in Dallas.

Fernandez is still finalizing his contract with the WNBA team, with the 53-year-old exiting USF having led the Bulls for 25 years, making 10 NCAA tournament appearances along the way.

Calling his impact "profound," USF athletics CEO Rob Higgins acknowledged that Fernandez is leaving for a WNBA position in a Thursday statement.

"While this is a bittersweet moment for our program, it is a well-deserved opportunity for Jose," said Higgins. "We are incredibly proud of him."

Replacing Chris Koclanes after one year, Fernandez will become the fifth Dallas head coach in seven seasons, with the Wings trying to build a title-contending roster around 2025 WNBA Draft overall No. 1 pick and reigning Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers.

Fernandez will also be the third WNBA hiring out of the college ranks in the last two years, joining Atlanta Dream boss Karl Smesko (FGCU) and LA Sparks manager Lynne Roberts (Utah).

Hoping to improve on a 13th-place 2025 finish — and make the WNBA Playoffs for the first time since 2023 — Dallas could claim a second straight No. 1 draftee next year, with the Wings entering 2026 with the highest odds to snag the top pick in the league's draft lottery.

The WNBA league office and the Players Association (WNBPA) exchanged escalating public statements this week, as both sides dispute terms surrounding a key issue in the ongoing CBA negotiations: revenue sharing.

"When the players opted out [of their CBA] a year ago, they made it clear they wanted a salary system that values their labor and allows them to grow with the business they are very clearly driving," WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson told ESPN in a statement this week, citing the vast disparity in revenue sharing percentages between the WNBA and the NBA.

Jackson continued by claiming that the WNBA intends to "run out the clock" and double down on a model that "intentionally undervalues the players."

Days ago, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said publicly that "[Revenue] share isn't the right way to look at it," pushing instead for salary increases in "absolute numbers."

WNBA leadership, however, denied that their current offer to players omits all revenue sharing, with the league calling the WNBPA's claim "incorrect and surprising," while indicating that an uncapped revenue sharing model "directly tied to the league's performance" is on the table.

"It is frustrating and counterproductive for the union to be making misrepresentations about our proposals while also accusing the league of engaging in delay," the WNBA's statement continued. "That is simply not true."

With both parties not seeing eye to eye, a resolution before the October 31st CBA deadline appears unlikely, though a formal request for an extension on negotiations is not currently in the cards.