Lucy Olsen Explains How Caitlin Clark Practice Cameo Helped Iowa With JuJu Watkins
The Iowa Hawkeyes produced the most impressive win of their 2024-25 NCAA women's basketball season on February 2 when they defeated JuJu Watkins and the USC Trojans by a score of 76-69.
This February 2 contest was memorable for Iowa not just because one of the country's best teams was coming to town, but because former Hawkeyes legend Caitlin Clark was having her No. 22 jersey retired after the game ended.
Since Clark was around that weekend, there was a decision to have her practice with the Hawkeyes (compete on their practice squad, more specifically) in the days leading up to the game as a way to replicate what Iowa would have to face when going against JuJu Watkins.
This tactic clearly worked out well. And during her February 24 appearance on Courtside Club Interviews with Rachel DeMita, Hawkeyes guard Lucy Olsen (who scored 28 points in the upset win, which is one more than Watkins accrued) discussed the benefit of having Clark working as a pseudo-Watkins during pregame practices.
"She was competitive," Olsen said when asked how Clark acted during the practice. "Yeah, it was helpful that she hits tough shots just like JuJu does. So it was 'Okay, she's gonna hit some, but we've got to move on to the next play. It wasn't like we were surprised, like 'Oh my god, how did JuJu just hit that?' It was like, 'All right, we saw that yesterday.'"
She later added of Watkins' made shots during that game, "Yeah, it's like it just happened."
Rachel DeMita asked Lucy Olsen about Caitlin practicing with the team before the USC game.
— correlation (@nosyone4) February 24, 2025
“Ohhh she was competitive. Yeah it was helpful that she hits tough shots just like Juju does…alright we saw that yesterday.” pic.twitter.com/4NvJiN1OSk
Even when she's no longer on the team, Caitlin Clark is still finding ways to help her Hawkeyes win games.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.