IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa found an experienced point guard in the spring to fill Caitlin Clark’s position.
But while Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen finished only a couple of spots behind Clark in the rankings of the nation’s leading scorers last season, her offensive game is much different than the long-distance range of her predecessor.
Olsen, who averaged 23.3 points per game last season, made just 29.4% of her 3-point shots last season. Where much of her scoring comes from, though, is with a mid-range jumper that has become one of Olsen’s main talents.
“Not a lot of people have it, so it’s definitely a perk to have that mid-range game,” Olsen said.
The memories of Clark, the national player of the year who led the Hawkeyes to back-to-back appearances in the national championship game, were still lingering over the program during its media day on Thursday. Head coach Jan Jensen, though, brought up her “We got next” philosophy that she has preached with her players.
“I think what’s important, especially with them, is that you just kind of keep them looking in the windshield,” said Jensen, who was elevated from associate head coach in May after Lisa Bluder retired. “We talked a lot about just taking that rear-view mirror down, especially for the play of returners, but even for the freshmen, because it’s all new and you’ve got to keep looking ahead. The next opportunity is what I really want them to focus on, and reminding them that it is a process.”
Olsen is one of the Hawkeyes' newcomers. She was a unanimous All-Big East first-team selection last season, and scored 1,504 points in her three seasons with the Wildcats.
It was during that time when Olsen developed her mid-range shot.
“I would say, just with my length and the fact I wasn’t always the strongest, getting to the basket was a little tougher for me,” Olsen said. “So I guess I just went back to the mid-range. I’m not really sure where it came from. But then once I started being decent at it, I just kept working at it.”
Besides Clark, the Hawkeyes also lost sixth-year forward/guard Kate Martin and fifth-year guard Gabbie Marshall, so the Iowa staff knew it needed to find a veteran guard in the NCAA's transfer portal. Olsen has proven to be a good choice.
“Lucy, she sets the tone,” said Iowa assistant coach Abby Stamp, who coaches the guards. “That kid never takes a possession off — it’s hard to get her off the floor.”
Guard Sydney Affolter, one of the two returning starters from last season, said Olsen “fits in.”
“She has the same personality, same level of play, and more than anything, she’s just a great friend and a great teammate," Affolter said. "She does a lot of things that we all do, and she fits into our culture here at Iowa.”
The Hawkeyes’ run under Clark led to a sellout of season tickets last season, the first time that happened in the program’s history, and Iowa repeated that for this season.
Olsen, standing on the floor of Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena as she talked to the media, looked around at the empty seats.
“We practice in here every day, and it looks so cool empty,” Olsen said. “Just even trying to picture it full in my brain, I can’t process it. So I’m super-excited for when we walk out the first game through the tunnel, just how loud and how excited the energy will be in here. It’s going to be amazing.”