The impact of Iowa landing Villanova point guard Lucy Olsen

It appears the reports of Iowa Women’s Basketball’s demise post-Caitlin Clark were greatly exaggerated. Lisa Bluder and her coaching staff landed a commitment from Villanova transfer point guard Lucy Olsen on Wednesday evening. An AP Honorable Mention All-American this past season, ESPN rates her as the 4th-best available player in the portal. She has one remaining year of eligibility.

How does Olsen impact the Hawkeyes ceiling for next season?

Lucy Olsen is probably the best player, within reason, that Iowa could have hoped to get in the transfer portal. She was third in the country in scoring this past season averaging 23.3 points per game for the Wildcats. With the Hawkeyes set to lose 64.7% of their scoring, including 1,234 points from Caitlin Clark, adding a proven high-level scoring point guard changes the complexion of the roster for next season. Olsen will have plenty of weapons around her, including Second Team All-Big Ten forward Hannah Stuelke, forward Syd Affolter, sharpshooter Taylor McCabe and four-star freshman center Ava Heiden. In her three seasons at Nova, she accumulated 386 assists and owns a career 2.09 assist-to-turnover ratio. That will play well in an offense that is built on sharing the basketball.

As a scorer, Lucy can do it at all three levels, getting to the rim, hitting the midrange shot or knocking it down from three-point range. When she is at her best, she can shoot the three ball at a consistent level and pairs it with a lethal midrange game, where she shot 91 of 194 (46.9%) on the season. As a sophomore Olsen was 52 of 146 (35.6%) from behind the arc, but dropped to 29.4% this past season. Getting back to her sophomore season percentage and hitting 60-65 threes would be a huge boost for an offense that will also have Taylor McCabe, Syd Affolter and Kylie Feuerbach as capable perimeter shooters.

Defensively, Olsen has racked up 150 steals over the course of her three-year career, including a career-high 65 steals this past season. Her 2.7% steal percentage this year was higher than anyone on the Hawkeyes, including Caitlin Clark (2.3%).

So the million dollar question is, how much does the addition of Lucy Olsen raise the ceiling for the 2024-25 season? A considerable amount. Prior to her addition, looking at the Iowa roster, there are plenty of pieces to build around, but they needed a primary scorer and facilitator to lead the way. Now they have one with Olsen. The Hawkeyes were not included in the ESPN Way-Too-Early rankings for next season, and that was not surprising, but this addition vaults them back into the Top 25 for 2024-25.

Lucy Olsen 2023-24 Villanova Highlights

Iowa Women’s Basketball Roster 2024-25

Senior (5): Lucy Olsen, Syd Affolter, Kylie Feuerbach, AJ Ediger, Addi O’Grady

Junior (3): Taylor McCabe, Jada Gyamfi, Hannah Stuelke

Sophomore (2): Kennise Johnson, Ava Jones

Freshman (5): Ava Heiden, Taylor Stremlow, Teagan Mallegni, Callie Levin, Aaliyah Guyton

Quick math says that the Hawkeyes have 15 players set to be on the roster for next season, which means someone would have to transfer out for anymore additions. HawkeyeReport has reported in prior articles that the coaching staff does not expect anyone to enter the portal, so this very likely is it for roster movement for Bluder and her staff. Looking ahead to game one for next year, a potential starting lineup of Lucy Olsen, Taylor McCabe, Syd Affolter, Hannah Stuelke and Ava Heiden looks pretty solid. Coming off the bench will be Kylie Feuerbach and Addi O’Grady, as well as talented freshman Taylor Stremlow, Teagan Mallegni and Callie Levin. The Iowa Women’s Basketball team is not going anywhere next season.

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