School: Connecticut
Year: Senior
Height: 6’3”
Strengths:
Katie Lou Samuelson is one of the best 3-point shooters and pure long shooters in women’s basketball. Standing at 6’3”, her height, mixed with her shot release, makes her essentially unguardable. She can lure bigger defenders to the perimeter if she is playing the 4, which makes her a threat to bigs who are not used to guarding a quicker big with adequate ball handling. Katie Lou’s lanky wing span allows her to have mismatches thus enabling her to shoot over defenders if she’s playing the 2 or 3. Samuelson is a smart and skilled point forward who is willingly to get teammates involved.
A highly gifted 3 point shooter and overall scorer, Lou Samuelson is currently shooting 37% from the 3 and 47% from the floor in general. Lou Samuelson’s field goal and three point percent has deceased from her junior year. That mainly can be attributed to that fact that she’s being more aggressive in her senior year. Though her percentages are lower than last season, Lou Samuelson has a very smooth, quick release and a follow through that is beautiful. She has a face-up game and can also move off the ball well and catch and shoot very efficiently.
Her jump shot is very consistent to the point that it’s simple muscle memory. It’s the same motion and form every time which allows her to shoot the ball confidently. Lou Samuelson never has to think about her shot, she is known as a rhythm shooter, which clearly explains her success from behind the arc.
(Just check out her unbelievable showing against South Florida where she made all 10 of her shots from deep!)
Samuelson operates as the floor general, where she has managed to raise her assist rate, while cutting down on her turnovers.
This improvement she has shown has demonstrated her mentality as well as how good of a passer she is. Lou Samuelson’s assist plays a huge factor in her game especially during her senior year as she has been the clear leader for her younger teammates. She has a fantastic ability to grab rebounds and lead fast breaks to get her teammates quickly involved in transition.
Weaknesses:
Lou Samuelson is a phenomenal basketball player, however she has a history of being injured. Injuries to her ankles from her freshman year had been a bother which eventually led to her having had surgery last year. Samuelson missed four games early in her junior season because of that ankle injury.
Katie Lou’s defense could use some improvement. She can use her wing span more in order to get defensive stops. Given her height and long arms, Samuelson should be a good defender. She’s not there right now.
She just has to be more aggressive on the defensive end to make herself an all around great player and not just an offensive juggernaut. (Which isn’t all that bad) Once the aggressiveness comes and Katie Lou uses her quickness as well as her body, she will be unstoppable on both ends.
Future Outlook:
Katie Lou Samuelson is easily a first round pick in the WNBA and probably a top 5 pick if you consider how gifted she is on the wing. A team that could use Lou Samuelson would definitely be Dallas. Her style of play would give Dallas a much-needed consistent threat from the outside to potentially complement Liz Cambage and Skylar Diggins.
