IOWA CITY — With a graduating megastar like Caitlin Clark, six new players and a first-year head coach replacing two decades-long colleagues on her staff, few college basketball programs would have a more compelling excuse for starting over from scratch than the Iowa Hawkeyes, runners-up in last season's NCAA Tournament.
"Those generational players are so rare," said Iowa head coach Jan Jensen. "And now you have to move on. Just like Michael Jordan [in college]; North Carolina still had a team the next year; they're still there."
The new team members never got the memo that they were supposed to miss a beat, though.
"Our first rep on the first day sounded like the last practice of last year," said assistant coach Raina Harmon. "I was like, 'oh, we can work with this.' And that's before we got to any skill development.'"
Iowa held the first of two open practices Thursday morning, leading with an hour of practice for the media before the coaching staff and a few players met with the gathered press. Most of the team, including the newcomers, will be available for interviews on Tuesday.
Newly in charge, Jensen doesn't run her practices quite the same as retired head coach and mentor Lisa Bluder; Jensen builds in teaching time and flexibility, in contrast with Bluder's stricter plans. The ardently joyful culture surrounding the program has remained in place through all the transition, though — and the calendar doesn't hurt matters either.
"The summers are always pretty light," Jensen said. "There's no starting lineups, everybody's getting reps, everybody's undefeated."
"You have to keep basketball light and fun," Jensen said. "Especially when these new [players] are coming in, they're coming from high school and now all of a sudden the pace is so fast."
Transfer guard Lucy Olsen of Villanova and the 2024 Hawkeye freshman class, though, needed no introduction or acclimation to Iowa's brand of basketball.
"We recruited the right players to the right program," said Harmon. "Immediately when they're brought in, they communicate, they're energetic. They're already dancing here on the sidelines."
They Love Lucy
Olsen's arrival in Iowa City has been everything the team could have asked for, with room to spare.
"She's selfless, fun, eager, just a really neat kid," said Jensen of Olsen. "And she's really unique. We haven't had anyone like her for a while. She's more mid-range, definitely pass-first. And she just has a nice bounce about her. But her personality is really golden."
Unique is the right thing for Olsen to be. There's no replacing a force of nature like Clark, after all. One of Clark's most irreplaceable traits: a jumpshot with 40+ foot range, drawing defenders to midcourt or beyond with regularity.
"Now we have kids who shoot it around the 'normal' three-point line," said Jensen with a laugh. "You know, we don't [shoot] from Kinnick anymore."
That distinction isn't insignificant, either. The combination of Clark's otherworldly range and Iowa's high-octane transition game put incredible strain on opposing defenses last season — a torture rack on a treadmill.
Olsen, a 5'9" point guard, is happy to keep that pace alive, averaging 23.3 points per game last year (third-best in the NCAA). Curiously, her three-point percentage dropped to 29.4% after a 35.6% sophomore year, and her sweet spot is less logo, more elbow.
With that, Iowa's challenge on offense this year becomes keeping pressure on opposing defenses who suddenly have less ground to cover.
That solution will likely be more on-ball opportunities for Iowa's three-point threats as well as Olsen.
"What's fun about Taylor [McCabe], she's really crafty when you start to watch her," said Jensen of the rising junior guard from Fremont, Nebraska. "Kylie [Feuerbach] needs a few more shots within a game. When you have Caitlin, you're coming in and setting everyone else up for her to launch, so I think you'll see Kylie be a lot more consistent."
Despite Olsen's 5'9" stature — her Twitter bio calls herself a "5'10" PG (scare quotes and all) — her long arms and quick hops make her mid-range jumper particularly difficult to defend.
"She likes to keep it up-tempo, which we like to do as an offense said Feuerbach of Olsen. "Not only that, she's a great defender. And she's a workhorse. She's fast, she's explosive, she's a three-range scorer."
Olsen's fit with the program was obvious as soon as the team met her on an official visit.
"I knew as soon as we had that dinner with her, before she committed," said Feuerbach. "I didn't even know if she was going to come here or not. She's just a great person; she has our humor, we laugh with her all the time. She's just really nice off the floor, but on the floor, she's ready to go."
"The day [Olsen] landed, I went over to visit," said forward Jada Gyamfi. "Immediately I could tell her personality: super goofy, light-hearted, bubbly, just like the rest of us."
"She just fit in perfectly."
"I just told [Olsen] today, 'God, I wish I could have coached you for four years'," said Jensen.
Indeed, just about the only things separating the newcomers from the veterans Thursday were the practice jerseys without numbers on them. Olsen and the freshmen are in the deep end already, as vocal and involved as the incumbents with several months to go before the season tips off.
That may be bad news for Big Ten foes seeking a respite from the Clark Era's breakneck pace and offensive cohesion. For as much that'll be different about next season, it's still going to be unmistakably, unshakably Hawkeye basketball.
