Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Author: Gabriela Carroll

  • Ex-Villanova star Lucy Olsen continues her growth with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics

    Ex-Villanova star Lucy Olsen continues her growth with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics

    Former Villanova star and current Washington Mystics guard Lucy Olsen has picked up a lot of experience with different teams.

    Moving around so much means she’s learned numerous systems during her years in college and the pros, which is keeping her adaptable as her role shifts in the WNBA.

    “Going 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,” Olsen said. “That 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.”

    Lucy Olsen is carving out a role in the WNBA. Former Villanova teammate Maddy Siegrist showed her how.

    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.

    “Run the play, but also keep looking for the different avenues so that you can be aggressive and then dish it off to someone else,” Olsen said. “I’m reading the defense a little more, and I think [playing in] Australia [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.”

    Lucy Olsen (center) averaged 23.3 points per game in her final season at Villanova before transferring to Iowa in 2024-25.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer

    After three years at Villanova, the Collegeville native and Spring-Ford alumna transferred to Iowa for her final season. Shortly after her lone season with the Hawkeyes, Olsen was drafted in the second round by the Mystics.

    After her rookie season in Washington, she moved to Australia to play in the Women’s National Basketball League, where she won Sixth Woman of the Year and a WNBL championship with the Townsville Fire.

    Now, she’s back with the Mystics for her sophomore season, and even with just one year of experience, she’s something of a grizzled vet on a roster with eight rookies.

    “Everyone’s so young and eager, and they want to learn,” Olsen said. “I think that helps with the environment and getting better.”

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    Olsen is working to find her role in Washington and mostly comes off the bench in late-game situations.

    But there’s 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 — entering this season, the maximum number of players hadn’t been higher than 12 per team since 2008 — only a few draft picks each year would make a WNBA roster. Second-round picks like Olsen rarely got a chance.

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    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 — including the Philadelphia team set to begin play in 2030 — that’s six more full teams’ 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 “developmental” roster spots per team.

    “How young our team is, I feel like that doesn’t happen a lot,” Olsen said. “There is so much opportunity, and there’s so much room for growth. There are more roster spots, so you can learn and actually build your game around the team.”

  • Flyers deal Samuel Ersson, Emil Andrae, draft pick to Leafs for Joseph Woll, Simon Benoît

    Flyers deal Samuel Ersson, Emil Andrae, draft pick to Leafs for Joseph Woll, Simon Benoît

    The mystery over the future of two Flyers players has been solved.

    The team traded goaltender Samuel Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae and a third-round 2026 draft pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoît, the team announced Tuesday.

    “We thought it was a chance to improve the team, help them take another step. Sam has been a fantastic teammate, really loved in the room, both him and Emil,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière said.

    “We just felt, in Sam’s case, it’s one of those where it might be time for a change of scenery for him, and hopefully it gives him that chance to take another step. He did well in the second half last year, down the stretch. He’s a gamer, but I think it was time for him to get the points elsewhere, and we felt that Woll is a step forward for us, and we’ll be able to help [Dan Vladař] in a tandem role.”

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    With one more year on Dan Vladař’s current deal and a likely extension coming, Woll should slide into Ersson’s backup role. He has two more years left on his current contract at $3.66 million annually.

    Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll makes a glove save in a March game.Connor Hamilton

    Woll made his NHL debut in November 2021 for the Leafs, and since then has seen his role steadily increase. In 117 games, he has recorded a 2.94 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage. But he’s coming off a down year in 2025-26, putting up a career-worst 3.34 GAA and .899 save percentage in 39 appearances.

    Ersson had his moments, and was even selected to Sweden’s Four Nations Faceoff team, but ultimately wasn’t as consistent as the Flyers wanted. In 143 appearances for Philadelphia, Ersson put up a .884 save percentage and a 3.01 GAA.

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    “We pushed the tandem thing, but the goalies have to perform, and I think it was tough at times last year when Sam was struggling early in the season,” Briere said. “ … We hope that we’re not coming down the stretch with a tired goalie [again]. The better you can have both of them going, I think it helps prevent injuries and stays fresh, and they can, I think, perform better. We hope that they can push each other that way.”

    Benoît is a bottom-pairing defenseman who started with the Anaheim Ducks before spending the last three seasons in Toronto. He played 73 games last year, averaging 17:18 minutes per game and picking up six assists.

    “He might be; maybe he’s even higher up the lineup too. Why not?” Briere said when asked if Benoît would play on the bottom pair. “We like the physicality that he brings, and we like the size and the skating aspect, too; he’s a really good skater. Emil, we loved his competitive edge inside, but it did make our defense a little small at times; we have Jamie [Drysdale] and [Cam York] there, so the three of them wasn’t ideal. So I think it’s going to probably be a little easier for the coaches having a guy like Simon Benoît back there to use.”

    Andrae, a left-handed shot who was in and out of the Flyers’ third pair this season, is a restricted free agent, like Ersson.

  • A.J. Brown reportedly left a message on the wall of Eagles’ facility: ‘The best to ever play here.’ But was he?

    A.J. Brown reportedly left a message on the wall of Eagles’ facility: ‘The best to ever play here.’ But was he?

    The long-awaited A.J. Brown trade to New England finally went through on June 1, ending a national distraction for fans and the players themselves.

    “Thank God it’s over,” Jordan Mailata said last week. “It was a slow pain of just, is he in, is he out?”

    But NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported Tuesday that Brown, who caught passes from Drake Maye at Patriots camp less than 24 hours after the trade, stopped into the Eagles’ facility after the deal to pick up a few items, say his goodbyes, and leave a parting message on the wall.

    Throughout the Jefferson Health Training Complex, the team has lifesize photos of franchise greats lining the walls. Underneath his picture alongside other Eagles Pro Bowlers, Brown reportedly wrote: “The best to ever play here. Always open.”

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    In an organization that’s had wideouts like Terrell Owens, Harold Carmichael, DeSean Jackson, and Mike Quick — not to mention DeVonta Smith still on the roster — that’s high praise he’s giving himself.

    Despite rumors of a rift between Brown and quarterback Jalen Hurts, the veteran wide receiver told NBC’s Maria Taylor in his first interview after the trade that he and Hurts had “no beef” — even if they are not as close as they once were.

    In four seasons in Philadelphia, Brown had 5,034 receiving yards, 32 touchdowns, two Pro Bowls selections, and three All-Pro nods — plus two Super Bowl appearances and one win.

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    So how do those numbers compare to other Eagles receivers? Here are the team’s all-time receiving leaders, sorted by total yards. Fifteen players have recorded at least 4,000 yards with the Birds, and Brown ranks ninth, although he likely will be passed this season by both Smith and Dallas Goedert.

    In addition to being ninth in total yards, Brown ended his Eagles career 13th in receptions and tied for 12th in receiving touchdowns. Where he really stands out is in yards per game — his 81.2 yards rank second behind Owens (93.5) among players to appear in at least 20 games. However, Owens, who i played parts of just two seasons in Philly, also averaged nearly a touchdown per game (0.95), while Brown averaged a little more than half of one (0.52).

    The Eagles will next see Brown at joint practices with New England on Aug. 19 and 20 in Foxborough, Mass.

  • Mike Gansey plans to build around Sixers’ current core while growing the team’s culture: ‘I want fountains, not drains’

    Mike Gansey plans to build around Sixers’ current core while growing the team’s culture: ‘I want fountains, not drains’

    The 76ers need to establish an identity, Bob Myers said Monday.

    That’s the central task ahead of new president of basketball operations Mike Gansey, who will look to bring the Sixers past the second-round hump and build them into a true championship contender.

    When asked if the franchise was committed to Joel Embiid in the long-term, Gansey said that he considers Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, and Paul George the four tentpoles of the roster in the short-term.

    “We have those four and we’ve got to maximize those four,” Gansey said. “Obviously [Edgecombe] and [Maxey] are younger, but [George] and [Embiid] can still play at a high level. We were 24-14 when Joel played, and obviously in the playoffs, coming back from Boston. We’ve got to rely on those four, and obviously keep them on the floor, and then just build around them.”

    The Sixers were not elite offensively or defensively last season — they ranked in the middle of the league in both offensive (17th) and defensive (16th) rating — and the new leadership group wants to change that.

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    But getting their stars on the floor at the same time is easier said than done. Myers cosigned that to establish a team identity, the Sixers need to have their top four guys, namely Embiid and George, who both missed significant chunks of the last two seasons, all on the floor together.

    “In order to see what we are, we’ve got to be on the floor, right?” said Myers, president of sports for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and the head of the search that led to the Sixers hiring Gansey. “You have to have a consistent product on the floor, and maybe that’s not good enough, or maybe it is, but we’ve got to figure out what are we, what can we stand on as a team.”

    Mike Gansey (center) was introduced to the Philadelphia media Monday by managing partner Josh Harris (left) and president of sports for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment Bob Myers (right).Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Myers referenced Embiid’s comments that the season was “successful” because he felt like he’d worked past the knee issues that hampered him for several years. Embiid has no scheduled surgeries this summer and the Sixers hope he can use the offseason to build instead of recover.

    But Embiid has missed more games than he’s played in his NBA career, partially due to just exceptionally bad injury luck, like last season’s appendectomy, or an orbital fracture or a bout with Bell’s palsy. Embiid has never played 70 games in a season, and hasn’t played more than half the games in a year since his MVP campaign in 2022-23.

    “He’s too important, and we are a top heavy team, right?” Myers said. “That’s just what it is. Look at the contracts. We need those guys to play, and you need depth underneath it. The league has changed, so we need both, but to experience what this team is, we need a healthy roster in training camp.”

    New Sixers president Mike Gansey has a tall task ahead. His former WVU teammates, coach, and even bus driver say he’s ready.

    The other aspect of building a team identity is through the internal culture of the organization. Gansey said explicitly that the Sixers roster is not championship caliber as it stands, but “we’re going to do everything we can to bring in players that fit” in order to build that roster.

    “I want guys that want to be in Philly, first and foremost,” Gansey said of his roster construction philosophy. “… I want fountains, not drains. I want guys with high character, guys with high work ethics, and guys that want to be in Philadelphia.”

    Gansey also said it was “a sticking point” for him to keep Jameer Nelson on and promote him to executive vice president of basketball operations. As a Chester native and former St. Joe’s star, Nelson knows the culture of basketball in the city in a way no one else in the organization does.

    Mike Gansey speaks to the Philadelphia media Monday as his wife Amy and their four children sit in the front row.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    With the draft at the end of the month, Gansey’s first big task will be to add another piece that can hopefully make an impact for the Sixers next year. Gansey did not delve too deeply into his draft philosophy, but said that at No. 22 he would consider both best fit and best player available.

    But it’s not just about getting the pick right. It’s also about what the Sixers do from there. The team has come under scrutiny recently for its struggles in keeping and developing players. This year’s NBA conference finals featured several ex-Sixers, including former draft picks Jared McCain, Landry Shamet, Isaiah Joe, and even Mikal Bridges, though he never suited up for Philly.

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    Now in Philly, Gansey hopes to fix that — starting with some of the players already on the roster.

    “The big part is just internal development, with Tyrese, VJ, and some of our other young guys, like they’ve got to get better too,” Gansey said.