The Iowa Hawkeyes may have filled the gaping hole left by Caitlin Clark as Lucy Olsen shined on her debut following an offseason transfer from Villanova.

Clark, 22, left for the WNBA earlier this year, going first overall to the Indiana Fever. She left the Hawkeyes with legendary status in college basketball having become the leading scorer in the history of NCAA Division I basketball, as well as leading Iowa to back-to-back national championship games.

The Hawkeyes sought immediate solutions and secured the transfer of Olsen from Villanova, as well as relying on existing roster members to plug the hole left by Clark. Iowa started its 2024/25 campaign off with a 91-73 win over NIU, with both Olsen and Kylie Feuerbach leading the charge.

Olsen scored 19 points and recorded seven assists and four rebounds on her Hawkeyes debut, while 23-year-old Feuerbach managed 14 points, nine rebounds, six steals, and five assists. Olsen is repaying the faith shown by Abby Stamp, Iowa’s assistant coach.

Heading into the season, Stamp declared that Olsen is ready to lead Iowa, especially on offense. “Lucy has that switch where it’s like, ‘Nobody’s scoring? I’m going to go get this done.’ That is what you need in those situations. At the end of the quarter, she’s very versed to take the big shots. She’s ready, she’s willing,” Stamp said.

The game was tighter than the Hawkeyes would’ve hoped but – Olsen says the early season experience will be beneficial to the team in the long run.

“It would have been great if we won by 35, but I think like what Kylie said, we know what we need to work on now and yeah, you got to fight through the hard times and figure it out,” she said. “Not everything’s gonna go exactly how you want it. So yeah, I think it’s definitely beneficial.”

Lucy Olsen scored 19 points on her Hawkeyes debut

Lucy Olsen scored 19 points on her Hawkeyes debut ( 

Image:

AP)

The crowd was nearly at 100% and Olsen admitted she was left amazed by her debut at the arena. “The energy, you can definitely feel it. It’s loud in there. It’s really cool,” she added. “I don’t think I’ll get used to running out of the tunnel. Every time I look around, I’m like, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of people here.'”

Feuerbach added: “It’s our first game, obviously we’ve got some nerves out of the way and that’s kind of just how the basketball team goes.

“There’s gonna be ups and downs and I think the key is just to be consistent throughout those quarters and we know what we need to focus on now going into the next game. So just looking at the things that we need to work on and bringing that into Virginia Tech.”