Catching Up With: Lindsey Wilson

AMES, Iowa - Former Iowa State women's basketball player Lindsey Wilson has signed a contract to play for Teo Vilnius for the upcoming season. The team is located in Vilnius, Lithuania, and competes in the prestigious Euroleague. Wilson has played in Greece, Turkey and Slovakia since graduating from Iowa State with degrees in sociology and English in 2003.

The point guard from Seattle, Wash., was named to the all-Big 12 team in 2001, 2002 and 2003, earning first-team honors as a senior. She was selected in the third round of the 2003 WNBA Draft by the Connecticut Sun.

Wilson still ranks second on Iowa State's career scoring chart with 1,875 points and is second on the ISU career assist list with 589. She holds the Hilton Coliseum single-game record of 19 field goals, and is second on Iowa State's single-game scoring list, posting 41 points vs. Colorado on Feb. 26, 2003. Wilson's 630 points during the 2002 season still rank second all-time at Iowa State.

Cyclones.com caught up with Wilson recently for a question and answer session. She talked about the places she's been and the things she's done since leaving Ames. She has a blog at LindseyWilson.BlogSpot.com you may visit for more in depth updates. Wilson said she will begin to update the site more regularly once she returns to Europe.

Where are you at now and what are you doing?
“I just signed a couple of weeks ago with Teo Vilnius. I am playing for their Euroleague team in Vilnius, Lithuania. That is the capital. First we will start in pool play and we will play teams like Dynamo Moscow and Fenerbahce, and some really big teams in Europe. It's going to be really good competition. Then we'll play in the domestic Lithuanian league, and then we'll play in a third league and that's called the Baltic league. I'm not sure how many teams are in that, but it will be teams within the Baltic region.

“The Euroleague starts at the end of October. I'm not sure about the Baltic league and the Lithuanian league. I leave Seattle September 19.”

Where have you been since you graduated from Iowa State?
“My first year, I was in Greece. Tracy Gahan was there as well. We were playing for rival teams. We both were there for two years. And then after Greece, I took a year off. And then I went to Turkey, and the last year I played in Istanbul. Most recently I was in Slovakia, playing for a Eurocup team, which is another league in Europe. And now I'm off to Lithuania shortly.”

What place has been your favorite?
“I felt closest to the people in Slovakia. It was a small mountain town out in the middle of nowhere and there was nothing to do. It's a little bit like my college experience actually. I went to Ames not really knowing how a big-city girl would adjust to small-town life, and I ended up loving it and meeting so many wonderful people. The people in the (Slovakian) community were really excited about our team. We knew all the restaurant owners and we would all go out together to eat. All our fans were everywhere in town, and it was just a really fun, close-knit community around our basketball team. In that respect, that was probably my favorite experience.

“Istanbul was probably my favorite city. Turkey in general is just an amazing place. It is very different from America. It is very easy to navigate and people are really hospitable. I guess it is hard to narrow them down, because I loved Greece as well.”

What is the craziest thing that you've seen playing overseas?
“The people in Greece are kind of crazy. After football (soccer) games, they would light things on fire and riot. I definitely saw people at basketball games yelling obscenities at the top of their lungs in Greek. Police in full riot gear would come to basketball games ? the men's games, not the women's game. They would be hitting people with batons and people would be hitting police officers. You feel like you are in a movie sometimes when you see that stuff live. We don't really have the same level of passion, or it's just not socially acceptable to be that completely ridiculous about sports in America. We think we are pretty crazy, but they totally cross all the lines. It was nuts.”

How did the experience of playing so far from home in college (from Seattle to Ames) help prepare you for a career playing overseas?
“I think it was a huge thing, moving to such a great place as Ames, where everyone is really nice, and you already have a basketball family. Looking back on it, I can't believe I was ever even nervous about it at all. I was 18 and I had never left Seattle. I had never left home, never moved houses. That was a really big move for me and you kind of do it on a leap of faith. You try to get some good friends and you have your coaches. But you kind of rely on yourself in a lot of ways. Going overseas is the same in a lot of ways. The only person you really know you can count on in the beginning is yourself. It definitely builds your confidence to know you can do that, and I think going away to school was a big first step. You can't just leave home and go to Europe and live by yourself. You kind of have to take baby steps and I think Ames was my first experience really being on my own, as it is for most people. But Ames is pretty far from Seattle, so it was a little bit bigger step. Going overseas was a lot easier having done that already.”

Since you are pretty close to your family, have they been able to visit and see you play in Europe?
“They come when they can. Everybody has taken a trip to see me, my brothers and my parents. At least one of my parents has come every year. And they come for a long time. They usually come for a month and do a little traveling in the area I am in. They cook me food and clean my apartment. We just hang out. My dad is just like he always was. He comes to basketball practice. I was in Istanbul and he wanted to come to practice instead of going to the Mosques. My mom has to put her foot down. They try to see as many games as they can during that time frame. These days, keeping in contact isn't that difficult. The time difference is hard sometimes, but it is just a call overseas.”

What are you involved in while you are in Seattle right now?
“I started an exercise mentorship program in Seattle this summer. It's called Sisters in Strength. It's just a program that matches up collegiate women's basketball players with disadvantaged youth or girls in foster care. For six weeks they meet twice a week and the program deals with goal-setting, nutrition and confidence-building exercises. It has been really fun. The women and the younger girls have really gotten a lot out of it.

“It's trying to build confidence through exercise and promoting wellness and teaching the girls to take care of themselves. It's been a nice way to connect the basketball players that have such influence in the community but maybe not as many opportunities. They like the one-on-one opportunities to influence young girls.

“The players are from the University of Washington, but next year I am going to expand it. I know a lot of the players and I told them about my idea and they were very excited about it and enthusiastic. So I worked with some agencies in Seattle that work with girls in foster care and got girls through them. I just started the workouts and it it's been really neat. It came out of my own experience. During the year, all athletes are incredibly busy. It's like working two full-time jobs. But in the summer, you have this window of time when people only have a couple of classes and they have time to give back to the community. I think that's a really great time period that they can give back.”

Are you able to do community service like this with your teams overseas?
“They don't have a Lil' Clone Zone, or anything like that. I don't know why that is. I talked to my manager last year about starting some of that stuff. Last year, our company sponsored a kids' home in our town where 60 kids lived together. So we did something for them at Christmas. And then we started going to play basketball with them and hung out with them. It's so great when you have that kind of influence and you can use it in such a powerful way. They don't have parents. They have these people who take care of them, and they are great, but they are kind of behind in a lot of things and they don't get a lot. They are so appreciative of everything they do get. It's refreshing to be around kids who really do appreciate what they have. It wasn't something that was set up before, but our team started seeing these kids all the time and we fell in love with them. I think that really influenced me to do something here. I just really felt for those kids. They have a good living situation, but they are still orphaned kids.”

What have you enjoyed about the international game and how have you adjusted to it from the college game?
“It's a lot more physical. They don't call as many fouls. I think in the beginning it is difficult to adjust to playing overseas because there are so many different levels. Sometimes you go overseas and you think it is really professional, and it might not be. It's not like playing Division I basketball where things are really done well. Everything from meals to scouting reports, on the court and off, is done in a really specific way in college. Coaches like coach Fennelly really are on top of those things and overseas it's not always like that. I think that's an adjustment, that you eventually just learn to let go of. There are other levels too. Now I'm moving into the Euroleague and that is going to be more professional and more physical.

“I think the coolest thing about playing after college is that you get more mature, and you learn more about the game, and you learn more about yourself. It's pretty fun to play a sport as an adult. It's kind of weird, because it becomes more of a game, but you also put in perspective that it is just a game. You are very serious about it, but you realize that there are bigger things in the world as well.

“It's great. I am thankful that I've gotten to play. I'm 27 years old and I am still playing at a very high level. It wasn't that long ago that women would not have had this opportunity at all. So I am very thankful for that and this lifestyle. I've gotten to see a lot of the world with basketball. It's pretty fun.”

What are your favorite memories of your time at Iowa State?
“I think the Big 12 Tournament was always an incredible experience. All of our families were there and half of Ames was in Kansas City. Those were really special memories, especially since we won. I think also the NCAA Tournament, playing at home in Hilton.

“Ames in general is a special place, but Hilton was home. For four years that was our court. We had such great fans and it was a really special place to play, knowing that no one wanted to play us there, especially in the NCAA Tournament. I think those are the memories that I will always have, knowing that I played in a really big time program on the biggest stage there is in women's basketball in America. A lot of people don't ever get that opportunity.”

Do you keep in touch with any of your ISU teammates?
“Tracy Gahan just went back to Australia. She was up here in Seattle visiting me for a week. Brittany Wilkins and I played against each other last year in the Eurocup, which was really fun. We played each other twice actually. There's nothing like seeing an old friend and going for coffee in some random European city before you play each other.”

What are your memories of Coach Fennelly?
“I think I mostly remember his piercing blue eyes. That's the one thing with coach Fennelly, he's going to be intense. You are in a game and he has something to say and you are looking into those eyes and you know he means business. I think players really appreciate that. Being away from coach Fennelly now, you learn to appreciate things so much more now than you did when you played for him. I think Coach Fennelly is always in control and he is dead certain on what he wants. I think players not only respect that but really appreciate that because they know what's expected of them. I think that's good for anybody, but in basketball it's really nice to know. It's not fun to play when you are unsure what your coach wants.”

Do you still carry your basketball around everywhere you go?
“I brought my basketball on my recruiting visit. So I think people thought I was weird. I don't carry a basketball everywhere I go by any means, but I tend to have a basketball in my car at all times. When I am overseas it just depends on what the situation is. I am kind of a hoops junkie I guess. I love basketball and I always have. I'm actually getting paid to play it and it's my job, which is something I don't take for granted.”

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