MINNEAPOLIS – There are many different ways Caitlin Clark has been reminded of her historic NCAA Tournament performance in Iowa’s rampage to the 2023 championship game, from LeBron James’ public puzzlement about her inability to enter the WNBA Draft to the huge line of autograph seekers when she served as grand marshal at an Indy Car race near Des Moines to the feeling any time these past few weeks when she’s tuned her television to a college football game.
Oh, she knows.
Iowa vs. LSU was a sensation, even if the Hawkeyes wound up on the wrong side of the final score.
“I think just what we were able to do for women’s basketball got people talking about the game: 10 million viewers, that’s more than basically every other college football – most college football games that have occurred this season so far,” Clark told The Sporting News. “And it’s hard to really understand how many people 10 million people are, but you see those numbers up against numbers like college football or whatever it is, it kind of takes you back for a second.”
In March 2023, Clark was almost certainly the biggest reason for a surge of interest in the women’s version of NCAA March Madness that included the record audience of 9.9 million for the championship game. In Sports Media Watch’s annual mid-year analysis of the top 50 sports TV audiences, LSU-Iowa ranked just a smidge behind the Rose Bowl and Game 4 of the NBA Finals. No previous women’s NCAA game had drawn more than 5.7 million, and that was more that 20 years earlier.
She set a March Madness record with 191 points in a single tournament, passing Texas Tech’s Sheryl Swoopes on the women’s side and Glen Rice’s memorable 184-point siege of the 1989 men’s championship, which ended with a title for his Michigan Wolverines. She rang up consecutive 40-point games, in the Elite Eight victory over Louisville and again in a national semifinal victory over No. 1 South Carolina.
Clark received social media shouts from Patrick Mahomes ("I’m a big Chiefs fan"), LeBron James, Alex Morgan and even entertainers Amy Schumer and Jason Sudekis. “Just a lot of people that are A-list celebrities … I mean, I’m not nearly close to being on that level. But it’s cool,” she told TSN. “Not only are they watching yourself, but they’re paying attention to the game of women’s basketball.”
Let’s gooooo!!! @CaitlinClark22 💪🏽💪🏽
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) April 1, 2023
At the Big Ten Conference Media Day for women’s basketball, Clark clearly was the star attraction. There were no logo-distance 3-pointers, perhaps only because the baskets were replaced by chairs and podiums.
“Caitlin's obviously a very talented player, and I think the attention she’s brought is great for the women’s game,” Indiana star forward Mackenzie Holmes told TSN. “She’s just going to continue to help be the reason why it grows.”
After averaging 27.8 points last season, her third season of more than 26 a game, and winning the Naismith Award as player of the year, Clark doesn’t have to be back at Iowa for her senior season. Except she kinda does. WNBA Draft rules did not permit her to enter the league for the season that’s now concluding with the New York Liberty-Las Vegas Aces series. And that’s the league’s loss, because they’re missing out on someone whose charisma, skill and achievement has led to major NIL deals with supermarket chain Hy-Vee, H&R Block, Nike and Bose.
Tuesday morning, she joined the exclusive group of accomplished sports stars who get to hang with "Jake" -- Chris Paul, Patrick Mahomes -- as the first college athlete to sign an endorsement deal with State Farm insurance.
Sunday afternoon, the Hawkeyes will play DePaul in an outdoor exhibition game at Kinnick Stadium for the benefit of University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital – the one directly adjacent to the stadium. The Iowa players are looking forward to borrowing several of the traditions in place for the football program, including a “Kid Captain” chosen from among the patients and the “wave” to those gathered at the hospital windows. They’ve sold more than 47,000 tickets.
She told reporters the level of her popularity still is surprising, such as when she arrived the Iowa Speedway for an autograph signing in July and saw the gathering of people waiting in line.
“I remember pulling up in the golf cart, I’m like, ‘I’m only signing for an hour so hopefully I can get through all these people.’ So I sign really fast,” Clark said. “My autograph has kind of shortened over the last few years. But it’s just like people are so excited. They just want one second to meet any of us.”
If Clark or the Hawkeyes were to have a below-average year – which would mean playing just 33 games and not making deep runs in the Big Ten and NCAAs, and averaging just 24.5 points – she still would break the NCAA women’s career scoring record of 3,527 points set by Washington’s Kelsey Plum in 2017. If she matched her junior-year output of 1,055 points, which included Iowa reaching the final, she would break the record by more than 200 points.
It’s how she scores that matters, as well. She is not a selfish player, not when she’s just short of 800 career assists and could finish as high as third on the all-time list in that category, and not when teammates such as power forward Hannah Stuelke say the biggest thing she learned as a freshman about playing with Clark is, “Always be ready for the ball. She’s going to throw it.” But Clark does take shots so audacious they don’t look like normal basketball.
Toward the end of last season, the average distance for one of her made 3-pointers was 26 feet. Coach Lisa Bluder acknowledged the sound reasoning for so many long range shots: “Sometimes, she’s more open from 30 feet than she is from 20 feet.”
Iowa is not the same team as a year ago. Center Monika Czinano, who averaged 17 points, completed her career along with McKenna Warnock, the team’s only other double-figure scorer. That’s why Clark was joined at media day by Stuelke, who did not start a game last season, and sharpshooting guard Gabbie Marshall, who averaged 6.2 points (but reached double figures in five of the final nine games) and shot 38 percent on 3-pointers (despite an 19-percent pre-New Year’s slump.)
So many will be watching, anyway.
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“I think there is pressure, but Coach Bluder talks a lot about how pressure is a privilege,” Marshall told TSN. “I mean, yeah, we were very successful last year. Yes, we lost Monika and McKenna, but we’re still excited about this team, and we can’t focus on what we lost. We have to focus on what we still have.”
Like everyone else is: on Clark.
And Clark, theoretically, could do this again in 2024-25 because she entered Iowa during the “COVID season” of 2020-21.
“Obviously, I don’t know if I’m going to leave after this year or come back and play another year … I don’t want to have one single regret as I go along this journey of making a decision,” Clark told TSN. “I want to enjoy this moment with this team because all the girls deserve it. I deserve it. Our coaches deserve it. Our fans deserve it.
“My time here has flown by. I feel like I was just a freshman playing during COVID when nobody was in the building, and now we’re playing in front of 15,000 people. It’s kind of come full circle for me, and it’s us cool to see how the game’s kind of evolved and continue to grow.”