Iowa finds Caitlin Clark's replacement, lands prolific scorer Lucy Olsen from the transfer portal

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The Iowa Hawkeyes are fresh off of back-to-back title appearances and emerged as the biggest story in college basketball behind the play of star guard Caitlin Clark.

She was able to help them go from 20-10 her freshman season to 34-5 this past season, while capturing the attention of millions of fans. She played a major role in the Women’s NCAA Tournament smashing the men’s in viewership, and was recently taken with the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever.

Her professional career is already off to a hot start as her jersey sold out, tickets for her debut cost more than Indiana Pacers playoff tickets, and she has a shoe deal with Nike on the horizon. However, she does leave behind big shoes to fill at Iowa, whose offense ran through Clark at all times.

The Hawkeyes didn’t take long to find their heir apparent to Clark’s scoring throne, as they landed one of the top players in the portal, Lucy Olsen. The Villanova transfer was third in the country in scoring behind only USC’s JuJu Watkins and Clark herself.

This past season saw the 5-foot-9 guard average 23.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 43.8% from the field. In an interview with the Des Moines Register, she explained that she actually modeled her game after Clark.

“They were so fun to watch. Caitlin Clark was so amazing,” Olsen said “… And I tried to learn from Caitlin. Every night, just trying to learn from her. I tried to pick up her change of pace and how she does it.”

She did however say that her goal isn’t to be Clark, but to be herself.

“Caitlin Clark is Caitlin Clark. I’m not going to try to be her,” Olsen said. “But they need a point guard, and it’s a perfect opportunity to try to make something happen.”

Olsen will look to help lead Iowa back to the title game, and will join the program in June.