After Villanova’s 71-57 loss to Illinois in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament championship, junior guard Lucy Olsen expressed regret that the team couldn’t end the season on a win.
“It didn’t end how we wanted but I think it was a fun run,” Olsen said. “We played well together as a team. We just kept getting better. I wish we could have ended on a win.”
There was little to no indication that Olsen had anything but the ‘Cats’ 2024-25 campaign on her mind.
“Hopefully next year we’ll have a little more anger and want to come out even stronger,” Olsen said. “Yeah, it was a good run.”
It may be the last press conference of Olsen’s Villanova career.
After three years on the Main Line, Olsen has entered the transfer portal. The news was first reported on Monday by anonymous college basketball insider Trilly Donovan, and was later confirmed on Tuesday by Talia Goodman of thenexthoops.com. Olsen will have one year of collegiate eligibility remaining.
Olsen was this season’s third-leading scorer, behind Iowa senior guard Caitlin Clark and USC freshman guard JuJu Watkins. Olsen scored 23.3 per game on 44% shooting from the field.
The Collegeville, Pa. native was named an Honorable Mention All-American by the Associated Press for her efforts this season. She was also a unanimous selection to the Big East’s first team, and was also named as its Most Improved Player.
Olsen becomes one of the best overall transfers available. Prior to the reports of Olsen’s decision to enter the portal, Georgia Amoore was regarded as the top player in the portal. Amoore averaged 18.8 points last season, well short of Olsen’s output.
Olsen was ranked as a three-star recruit by ESPN out of Spring-Ford High School, but has grown into one of the nation’s best scorers.
According to Donovan, who initially reported the news, Iowa has made the recruitment of Olsen its top transfer portal priority. Other contenders for Olsen include Indiana, Stanford, Iowa State and West Virginia.
The impact of Olsen’s decision for Villanova is catastrophic. Olsen has started in all 105 games the Wildcats have played in her three year career and led the Big East in minutes played this season.
The aftershocks of Olsen’s departure are yet to be fully known, as more players could decide to enter the portal with the news.
The transfer portal will close on May 1. Along with Olsen, sophomore forward Megan Olbrys and redshirt freshman guard Abby Jegede have entered the portal. The team will also lose senior guard Bella Runyan, senior guard Maddie Burke and senior forward/center Kylie Swider.
A return to Villanova for Olsen is not completely out of the question, as players can enter the portal and re-commit to their prior institution, but a re-commitment is extremely uncommon.
Villanova will look to replace the scoring production of Olsen through its freshman class and through portal additions. It will be incredibly difficult to make up for the scoring output of Olsen.
