The ISU women’s basketball team had not experienced much success in its history until Bill Fennelly took the reins as head coach in 1995. Since then, the team has exploded into the national spotlight making 16 postseason appearances, 14 of those in the NCAA tournament.

With more than 500 career head coaching wins and multiple nominations as coach of the year, Fennelly has been regarded as one of the best coaches in collegiate women’s basketball. He has received a lifetime contract to coach at Iowa State and enters his 19th season as the Cyclones’ head coach.

The schedule this season sets up for some exciting home games against in-state rivals and a season finale against Baylor. How important is home court advantage in those big games?

It’s important in college sports in general, especially basketball, because we have such an amazing fanbase. Hilton Magic is real. The fans are tremendous; we have the most loyal student body in the country. … Women’s basketball is not a thing that a lot of students follow, but we usually get a pretty good following. You want teams to not want to walk down that ramp into Hilton. If you are not really, really good at home, you’re not going to be very good.

Jadda Buckley is the most highly-touted recruit in recent history. What is special about her that other players don’t have?

I think there are two freshman you will hear about a lot, both Jadda and Seanna [Johnson]. Jadda is a kid from Iowa; a lot of the fans have known about her forever because she committed to us a long time ago. She’s dynamic with the ball; she can defend; she’s a lot bigger and stronger than she looks, and a kid that is going to be a great player. But both her and Seanna, we have two freshman that are really going to be great players. They are going to play critical minutes at critical times, and as our team grows sometimes, you worry about relying on freshman to play key roles but I really don’t with them.

One of the biggest changes from last season is the team size. With nine possible guards on the roster, will this team depend on more 3-point shooting and perimeter play?

I don’t know know if we will shoot a lot more 3s than before because we have always shot a lot of them. I think when you say you are going to play more guards, people think you will shoot more 3s. But in the past, our post players have shot a lot of them, too. We just need to make more. Our percentage was somewhere in the 60s nationally, and that number needs to go up with the talent we have out there. I think we’ve been averaging around 25 3s a game, and I don’t see that number going up too much.

What is your coaching style in practice? Do you get in there and play with the girls?

Oh, I’m too old for that. My playing days are over. [laughs] No, we are into every play. I’ve always believed that if you want the players to be engaged every play, one of the things we talk about is every play needs to be finished and any player can start something, you just have to be special to finish. The coaches are into every play, we are working hard to coach, to motivate, to teach. Early in the year it’s harder, practices are longer, there is a lot of new stuff, a lot of stuff that isn’t necessarily fun. The energy level in the building is high, so hopefully whatever we do here, we can do it in [Hilton].

If you, Paul Rhoads and Fred Hoiberg ran for mayor, who would have the best campaign and who would win?

Well, Fred would win because he’s already got the local vote tied up. I think Paul would have a better chance of winning a statewide election, like a United States senator because he has more of the national appeal right now. And I think I’d probably be dog-catcher or something. I’d hopefully get a place in their cabinet or support staff, that would be my goal.