Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Former Villanova<\/a> star and current Washington Mystics guard Lucy Olsen has picked up a lot of experience with different teams.<\/p>\n Moving around so much means she\u2019s learned numerous systems during her years in college and the pros, which is keeping her adaptable as her role shifts in the WNBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing from Villanova to Iowa, that was a big jump, system-wise, trying to learn how to fit the system, but also keep your own game,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cThat was pretty hard, and then I got another chance at it, coming to the Mystics. Then I feel like just going to another team, you just learn how to adapt faster.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Lucy Olsen is carving out a role in the WNBA. Former Villanova teammate Maddy Siegrist showed her how.<\/a><\/p>\n In college, Olsen was the primary ballhandler at point guard and took on most of the scoring responsibility. But in the pros, she often has come off the bench and plays as an off-ball guard, shifting her focus away from scoring to the other things she can do on the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cRun the play, but also keep looking for the different avenues so that you can be aggressive and then dish it off to someone else,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cI\u2019m reading the defense a little more, and I think [playing in] Australia<\/a> [in 2025-26] helped with that, being able to see different types of defenses and work on just getting more reps of pick-and-rolls, and how the pros play.\u201d<\/p>\n After spending three years at Villanova, the Collegeville native and Spring-Ford alumna transferred to Iowa<\/a> for her final season. Shortly after her lone season with the Hawkeyes, Olsen was drafted in the second round by the Mystics. <\/p>\n After her rookie season in Washington, she moved around the world to Australia to play in the Women\u2019s National Basketball League, where she won Sixth Woman of the Year and a WNBL championship with the Townsville Fire.<\/p>\n Now, she\u2019s back with the Mystics for her sophomore season, and even with just one year of experience, she\u2019s something of a grizzled vet on a roster with eight rookies. <\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s so young and eager, and they want to learn,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cI think that helps with the environment and getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Before she helped negotiate the WNBA\u2019s \u2018life-changing\u2019 CBA, this Philly lawyer hooped at Lower Merion and Penn<\/a><\/p>\n Olsen is working to find her role in Washington and mostly comes off the bench in late-game situations.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s never been a better time for development in the WNBA. Previously, players had to come to the league fully formed. With extremely limited roster space \u2014 entering this season, the maximum number of players hadn\u2019t been higher than 12 since 2008 \u2014 only a few draft picks each year would make a WNBA roster. Second-round picks like Olsen rarely got a chance. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Former Villanova star Lucy Olsen goes from Caitlin Clark successor to WNBA surprise<\/a><\/p>\n Between 2009 and 2024, when the Golden State Valkyries tipped off, there were 12 teams in the WNBA. The league then added the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo this year. With three more teams entering the WNBA in the next four years \u2014 including the Philadelphia team set to begin play in 2030<\/a> \u2014 that\u2019s six more full teams\u2019 worth of roster spots as compared to the league in 2024. The roster maximum remains at 12 players, but the new collective bargaining agreement created two optional \u201cdevelopmental\u201d roster spots per team<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHow young our team is, I feel like that doesn\u2019t happen a lot,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cThere is so much opportunity, and there\u2019s so much room for growth. There are more roster spots, so you can learn and actually build your game around the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Former Villanova star and current Washington Mystics guard Lucy Olsen has picked up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[306056,99,434],"class_list":["post-709330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-lucy-olsen-washington-mystics-wnba-villanova","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}