Catch the Fever: Lexie Hull enters third WNBA season with raised expectations, fanfare thanks to teammate Caitlin Clark

ARLINGTON, Texas – For Lexie Hull, it feels like only yesterday that she was a WNBA rookie.

Hull, 24, is now set to begin her third season in the league.

“Yeah, when media day came around, it was crazy to think it was my third at Indiana,” the former Central Valley High School star said following a preseason game Friday in Dallas. “Definitely time flies and everyone says that, but living it, it’s just so crazy. It’s also crazy to compare my rookie year to the arenas we’re playing in now, the expectations of our team now, everything’s just so much better.”

Christie Sides is the third different coach for whom Hull – the sixth pick in the 2022 NBA draft – has played as a pro. Her first coach, Marianne Stanley, was fired nine games into her rookie season, replaced on an interim basis by Carlos Knox for the balance of the campaign. Sides, a former standout player at Louisiana Tech and assistant coach in high school, college, and the pros, was hired prior to last season.

Sides’ immediate priority was changing the culture in the Fever organization to a championship mentality, a big paradigm shift that started bringing results late last season, Hull said.

“Everyone is excited to be in the gym, to be together. I look forward to seeing the coaches and bantering with them,” Hull said. “Everyone has fun and a good time. That’s a great place to work in when you’re excited and happy to be there. Moving through the year, we spend a lot of time together and have a lot of games. When you’re on a team that genuinely likes each other, it makes the experience much better. That will be apparent on the floor, too.”

A culture change is far from the biggest development for the Fever this offseason.

Hull now calls Caitlin Clark her teammate, after the Fever drafted the former Iowa star first overall in the 2024 WNBA draft. Clark helped raise the profile of women’s basketball the past two years with mesmerizing play-making and 3-point shooting during two runs to the NCAA title game.

Clark, who recently signed a massive eight-year deal with Nike, comes into the WNBA as its most marketable player and with that attracts media frenzy and capacity crowds everywhere she goes.

Playing alongside Clark has already been a unique experience, Hull said.

“It’s an exciting time. You definitely can’t predict what’s going to happen,” Hull said. “Now that we’re here living it and the season’s starting, everyone’s super excited. So exciting for the sport. Playing in any sold-out arena is awesome. To start it off in a preseason game like this (in Dallas before a sellout crowd), it’s awesome. Last year, our preseason games had significantly less (people at them). Seeing the growth in the sport and the fans is amazing.”

And while Indiana has a new coach and a new start, there are plenty of consistencies. Hull is one of many players who remained in Indiana last offseason, both to work out with teammates and with the coaches.

“Lexie was in Indianapolis pretty much the entire offseason. She wanted to get overseas and play but couldn’t get that worked out,” Sides said. “A lot of (our focus with) Lexie is she struggles with her confidence at times shooting that 3-ball, so we instilled how much we believe in her. She worked relentlessly in the weight room and on the court.”

Last season, Hull also took Grace Berger under her wing. Berger, a rookie seventh-overall pick, quickly blossomed a friendship with Hull, which carried over to the offseason. They worked out together and were teammates in Athletes Unlimited (AU), the four-week professional league played each winter consisting mainly of current WNBA stars. Hull helped ease her transition.

“She obviously has one more year of experience, so last year it was nice to have someone I was close with talk me through it and encourage me,” Berger said of Hull. “She’s all about the team. Whether she was having a good day or a bad day, it didn’t matter. She’s the same person and bringing the same energy. She’s been great.”

It’s a friendship of mutual respect and benefit. Before the Fever’s 2024 preseason opener in Dallas, Berger and Hull were doing ballhandling drills together on the court and thoroughly enjoying themselves. “I love Grace,” Hull said. “She’s a really hard worker and a good ballhandler. I saw her doing the ballhandling drills alone and was like can I join in? It’s a fun little routine we have.”

Since ballhandling is one of the strongest aspects of Berger’s game, she’s quite willing to help Hull improve that part of her skill set. “One of Lexie’s big goals for last season was to work on her ballhandling. I have a lot of ballhandling drills that I always do usually by myself,” Berger said. “She asked to join in, so we’ve been doing it together since Athletes Unlimited.”

For the second straight year, Hull played in AU. Since that league ended in early March, she took a little time off but then participated in a camp for the United States’ 3-on-3 team which will compete at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. She’s on the short list for France but won’t learn if she’s been selected until the end of May.

Her former coach at Stanford, Tara Vanderveer, who became the all-time leader in wins by any collegiate coach earlier this spring, also recently retired, capping a Hall of Fame career. “She’s had an insane impact on the game,” Hull said. “I’m really happy and proud of her, proud to know her and be part of her legacy. I’m excited for whatever next step she has. She can do whatever she wants. I’m excited to see what she does.”

Last season, Sides saw Hull benefit greatly from playing in AU, especially after she was named 2023 AU Defensive Player of the Year and expects to see a similar effect this season. “She showed what she could do defensively,” Sides said. “She’s so aggressive that there are times when she has a little lack of discipline trying to do too much, so we’ve worked on that with her.”

Stephen Hunt is a freelance writer based in Frisco, Texas.