Inside Lucy Olsen’s first — and only — year at Iowa

After being serenaded by 15,000 fans with “Luuu…” as she was announced in the starting lineup, Olsen pulled down the first rebound of the game against Wisconsin and hit her first shot – a three-pointer – on her way to lead all scorers with 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting in Iowa’s 81-66 win.

Although an impressive stat line was icing on the cake for Senior Day, Olsen was more concerned with heading into the Big Ten Tournament this week on a high note. 

“I’m just proud we got the win today,” she told reporters after the game. “Going into the tournament with a loss would have been bad.”

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The 11-seed Hawkeyes will face the 14-seed Badgers again Wednesday in the first round of the conference tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. While playing in the first round is new territory for Iowa, who had a double-bye and won the tournament the last three years, the team is proud of their progress over the season.   

“I think we’re hitting at the right spot,” Olsen, a unanimous all-Big Ten first team selection, said. “The beginning was a little wonky but we figured that out. I’m excited that momentum is on our side now.”

The Hawkeyes started the season 12-2 before hitting a five-game losing skid. They have now won eight of their last 10 games heading into tournament season. 

How she got here

Wearing an “Iowa Loves Lucy” t-shirt for the Senior Day ceremony Sunday, Roland Olsen smiled as he told The Next the story of his daughter’s whirlwind courtship with the Iowa program and its passionate fans. 

After a breakout 2023-24 season in her junior year at Villanova, Lucy wanted to test the waters of the transfer portal. Her 23.2 points per game average was the third highest in Division I – just behind Caitlin Clark’s 31.6 at Iowa and USC guard JuJu Watkins’ 27.1 ppg.   

“Lucy has some life goals…she wants to continue to play after college,” Roland said. “We were pretty sure having been the No. 3 scorer in the country, that there was going to be interest out there for her. She believed it to a degree, but there’s always some doubt because there’s no real way to know.” 

While the Collegeville, Pa., native enjoyed playing close to her hometown at Villanova, she wanted more exposure to show off her skills. And the lights were shining brightly on the program that produced the NCAA’s top scorer in Division I – men’s or women’s.  

“Women’s basketball is exploding all over the place and she wanted to find an opportunity that was going to allow her to experience that,” Lucy’s dad said. “We were looking for schools that were looking for a point guard and it just so happens that there was a number 22 who happened to play here that moved on to the next level.” 

After her superstar point guard Clark declared for the WNBA draft and led the Hawkeyes to its second consecutive National Championship game appearance, Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder was the first to reach out to Olsen in the transfer portal. 

“For Lucy, it was a sigh of relief to know that the University of Iowa, and none other than Lisa Bluder, had reached out to her,” Roland said. “We were big Iowa Hawkeye fans even while she was playing somewhere else. We’re all big Caitlin Clark fans even while Lucy was at Villanova. It was incredible [when Bluder called].” 

Bluder told The Next that while Olsen was an obvious choice as a point guard who could score, she also fit Iowa’s culture and value system, a prerequisite for choosing transfers like Molly Davis. 

“After I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with her, it was obvious that she was gonna be the type of kid that we wanted,” Bluder said. “We explained our values, what we were after, and they meshed with hers. And it was an easy choice.”

Roland said it was “serendipity” when Clark was taken No. 1 by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA draft last April just as the Olsen family walked into their hotel room in Iowa City the night before their official visit with the University of Iowa.

Although other programs like Maryland and LSU showed interest in her, Iowa was the only school she visited.

“Just from the start, it felt like family. It felt like the best community. And now that I’ve been here for so long, it really is like that,” she said through tears in a press conference last week. “Basketball-wise, the community, everything, it was what I was hoping for.”

Staying the course 

Less than a month after Olsen signed with Iowa last spring, Bluder surprisingly announced her retirement after 24 seasons as the Hawkeyes’ head coach. Jan Jensen, Bluder’s longtime assistant at both Drake and Iowa, was immediately announced as her mentor’s successor. 

Jensen, who has always been closely involved in Iowa’s recruiting process, had the delicate task of steadying the ship not only for the returning players, but also for one of the nation’s top transfers. 

“I was just really thankful. Probably my years of service as associate coach [helped]; I’ve been there about as close as you could be. I make a lot of those calls to the recruits,” she said Sunday of Olsen’s decision to stick with the program after the coaching change. “I think it took Syd [Affolter] and Hannah [Stuelke] and all the rest of them. But when she saw that they were good, she was good.” 

Bluder wasn’t surprised that Olsen chose to stay at Iowa when Jensen was named head coach.

“Jan is an extension of me and so if Lucy wanted to play for me, Jan was definitely the closest, next best thing,” Bluder told The Next. 

The culture that Jensen developed with Bluder also played a part in not losing any players to the transfer portal in the transition.

“There’s a lot of times in this business when it’s a lot about connectivity. You want it to be the top-ranked recruits that you read about, and they visit or go watch. But it’s the connectivity of authenticity of what you both want out of the deal,” Jensen said. “With Lucy and myself and Lisa and all of us, we were in for this challenge together and we knew what that was going to feel like. I’ve had enough conversations in that speed dating that happens in the portal that she felt comfortable.” 

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Adjusting to the system

Coming into a new program is not an easy task for any player, especially not a senior filling the point guard spot of one of the most dynamic and popular players in women’s basketball history. 

“I just give Lucy so much credit because few people would have the courage to really look at a school where you knew the GOAT had just left,” Jensen said after Sunday’s game. “She just really liked our culture, and I think she liked that we have great fans, and she felt the culture when she came, and that was amazing.”  

Olsen started out strong in her first 10 games as a Hawkeye, averaging 19 points and 5.2 assists per game. But her real test came at the beginning of the year when Iowa dropped five straight Big Ten games, causing some Hawkeye fans behind the mask of a keyboard to question Jensen’s hire and Olsen’s toughness.

In a 87-84 overtime loss to Nebraska at home Jan. 16, Olsen uncharacteristically missed five free throws in the final minutes of regulation. The next game at Oregon she shot just 2-for-12, scoring just four points with four turnovers, and sat on the bench in the final minutes of the 50-49 loss. 

The next game on Iowa’s road trip to the Pacific Northwest, she put the pressure aside and remembered why she plays basketball – because it is fun. In a much-needed 85-61 win over Washington, Olsen was on fire, scoring 20 points on 8-for-8 shooting, including 4-for-4 from the three-point line. She also added 6 assists for good measure. 

“Throughout the hard times, I always tell myself ‘why are you even playing the game if you’re not having fun? You’re just playing it for someone else then.’ I just kept reminding myself that ‘this is why you do it,’” she said Sunday. “I want to inspire the next generation to have fun while you’re playing. You can be competitive, you can be feisty on the court, you can want to win, but you can also have fun doing it.”

She saved her best game for the biggest stage Feb. 22 as then-No. 3 USC came to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on the day Clark’s jersey was retired. In front of Clark and former Hawkeye legends Gabbie Marshall, Kate Martin and Monika Czinano, Olsen scored a game-high 28 points in Iowa’s 76-60 win over the Trojans and Watkins, who scored 27.

The momentum continued as Olsen scored a season high 32 points in the Hawkeyes’ revenge 81-66 win at Nebraska on Feb. 10. She averaged 22.8 points and 5.5 assists per game during Iowa’s six-game winning streak that was halted Feb. 17 with a 86-78 overtime loss against then-No. 8 Ohio State  – a game that saw Iowa come back in regulation behind Olsen’s three straight 3-pointers in the final minute of regulation. 

“I think she’s adjusted well,” Bluder told The Next before Sunday’s game. “I think in the beginning she had to learn a little bit more just about our system and playing in a different system. But now..it’s beautiful to watch.”

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Savoring the moment

As her college career winds down and Olsen prepares for the postseason and beyond, she reflects on the past year where she went from playing in front of a couple thousand fans at Villanova to being placed in the intense spotlight of 15,000 raucous fans every home game at Iowa. 

“It’s been a lot, but I can’t thank everyone enough for just accepting me and embracing this team,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been here forever.” 

Her family is also grateful for the opportunities basketball has provided, especially this season. 

“So few kids get to experience D1 basketball; University of Iowa women’s basketball is a level all to itself. I’ve never experienced a college basketball game with this level,” Roland Olsen said while standing on the court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena after Sunday’s Senior Day ceremony…“When you watch on TV, there are a lot of really high marquee top 25 games where there’s not a lot of people in the stands. It’s a bummer, but it’s growing. It’s taken time to get some momentum and Caitlin Clark accelerated that momentum. It’s up to these kids to keep it going.” 

Iowa heads into the Big Ten Tournament winning their last eight of 10 games. While many consider it a rebuilding year with a new lineup and coach, Jensen believes the Hawkeyes can make some noise in the postseason. And she will rely on Olsen’s joy and leadership, and forever be thankful that she took a chance on her and Iowa.

“I’m really grateful for that because no matter what happens in March, I think she’s going to leave here thinking basketball is still fun and it was really fun here. And I don’t think I could feel any more grateful that that’s how she’ll feel,” Jensen said.  

And as for Olsen’s WNBA draft prospects?

“I think she has great opportunity,” Bluder said. “I don’t know how high or what round or anything like that, but I think she will be drafted.”