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Women's basketball AP poll, takeaways: Iowa still coalescing despite big win over USC amid Caitlin Clark jersey retirement

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Lucy Olsen partly credits Caitlin Clark for the reason she’s at Iowa.

The macro picture is what Clark has done for the sport of women’s basketball, that a sizable viewership watched Olsen lead one of the season’s major upsets. The micro is that Clark’s graduation left a void at point guard that longtime assistant and first-year head coach Jan Jensen had to fill. She dove into the transfer portal for Olsen, a three-year starter at Villanova.

It hasn’t been easy. Iowa (15-7, 5-6 Big Ten) entered the year under large expectations because of Clark and her teammates' historic back-to-back trips to the Final Four.