This Is College Hoops Star Caitlin Clark's Moment. Let's Enjoy It.

The University of Iowa guard is breaking records, thrilling sell-out crowds everywhere she plays, and boosting women's basketball

photo credit: John Mac

Nearly two hours before the visiting University of Iowa women’s basketball team would play the University of Maryland, the road leading to the Xfinity Arena was snarled almost to a standstill. The traffic moved forward slower than the fans who were marching past us on foot.

We were there to see more than a college basketball game. Most of us were there to see Iowa's Caitlin Clark, the 6-foot senior guard from West Des Moines who is college sports biggest star. The Maryland Terrapins women’s team averages about 7,700 fans a game, which is very good. Attendance for the Iowa game would be 17,950, a sellout. This season, almost every game Iowa plays either sells out and/or sets a new attendance record.

Back in November, I was in a neighborhood bar (strictly for anthropological research) and overheard from across the room a patron declaring with the thundering certitude of the inebriated, “Caitlin Clark is the most dominant player in college basketball, male or female!” That was when I first began to truly appreciate just how big the whole Caitlin Clark Thing has gotten. In the two months since, it's gotten exponentially bigger.

Last Saturday, February 3rd, I took the train from New York to Baltimore where my cousin James picked me up. We had an excellent crab cake dinner and then drove to the game in College Park. It took nearly 45 minutes to go the mile to the parking lot. By the time we entered the arena - still early -- it was two-thirds full. We found general admission seats in a corner of the upper deck. I paid $20 each for the tickets back in November. Tickets to the game on the secondary market were now fetching up to $250.

Maryland, a good team, won the opening tipoff and immediately scored. An Iowa player passed the ball in to Clark, impossible to miss in her #22 jersey and electric green sneakers. The crowd booed as soon as she touched the ball and as she dribbled up the court. A Maryland player came out to defend her. Before she could reach her, Clark coolly shot from five feet, maybe more, behind the 25-foot arc past the top of the key. 

The ball touched nothing but net. The crowd was stunned into silence. My cousin and I looked at each other wide-eyed. We said nothing. I have gone to many, many basketball games - college and pro - but I had never seen anything quite like that, a player intentionally shooting from a distance roughly halfway to Kansas. 

Clark vs Maryland, Feb. 3, 2024

I watched Clark intently for the next two plus hours. I was in slack-jawed awe. She launched three-point shots from as far away as 40-45 feet,  including one in the waning seconds of the first half that was at once electrifying and shocking even for her. When Maryland tried to tighten up their defense against the long-range shots, she would slip past in an instant to score an easy layoff, or else whip a pass to an open teammate. Yes, she's a gunner. She forced shots. She sometimes tried and failed to pass the ball into too tight an opening resulting in a turnover. But all in all, her performance was otherworldly. The three-pointers fired from practically midcourt. The mesmerizing passing. She played with energy yet seemed eerily calm. She grabbed rebounds. Dribbled behind her back. She gestured. She smiled. She complained to the refs. She played the game of basketball with elan and attitude. And toughness. Early in the game, a Maryland defender crashed into Clark in the scrum for a missed shot. As the other players raced away, Clark shoved her hard in retaliation. The referees missed it.  

Maryland would battle back from a 28 point deficit but Iowa went on to win, 93-85. Clark scored 38 points and handed out 12 assists. The game had been moved to 8 p.m. to be nationally broadcast on Fox Primetime Hoops. As an added feature, Fox  trained a camera on Clark dubbed Caitlin Cam that, when Iowa was on offense, streamed her every move on TikTok. Inside the arena, among the thousands of fans were quite a few young girls and boys. There are always lots of children, especially girls, when Clark plays. After the game, she was asked about that. 

"That's one of the privileges in being in the position I am in, that I get to be a role model and our whole team gets to be a role model," Clark said. "People look up to us. Young girls, young boys, no matter who they are. I think the thing I would just say to them is the same thing I've said all my career. Just, dream big. I came to Iowa with huge aspirations, and now I'm getting to play in front of 15,000-plus every single night. and that's so cool. Those are moments that you can really only dream of, and now I'm living it every single day of my life, and that's really special."

My friend's 11-year-old daughter, Rae, takes an elective course called Women in Sports at her school. The Monday following the Maryland game, her sixth grade class was shown highlights of Clark playing and a short clip of an interview with her, and then talked about her.

Rae's verdict: "Mind blowing."

"She can shoot any kind of shot from anywhere. She can do amazing layups. Incredible three-pointers," Rae said "It's so cool to see a woman in that role right now, especially in a sport that was formerly only recognized for their male players."

photo credit: MGoBlog

There have been other terrific women college basketball players in the past. Sabrina Ionescu. Sue Bird. Dana Taurasi. Kelsey Plum. Candace Parker. Carol Blazejowski. Cheryl Miller, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper. There are now, too. Paige Bueckers of University of Connecticut. Angel Reese of LSU. Reese's team defeated Clark and Iowa in last year's NCAA Final, a game in which Reese famously or infamously, depending on your point of view, mocked Clark in the waning minutes.

This year, Clark is easily the best player in the women's game. She's averaging over 32 points, 8 assists and a tick under 7 rebounds a game. She is the leading scorer in women's basketball, averaging 5 points a game more than JuJu Watkins of USC. She shoots 40 percent from three-point range. That’s the same as Stephen Curry, the best long-range shooter in the NBA.

But numbers don't tell the full story. What's special this year is that it is the intersection of a great athlete performing at the highest level at the very moment her sport is exploding.

2023 is the year women's college basketball really, finally took off. Last April, an average of nearly 10 million viewers watched ESPN's broadcast of the LSU-Iowa women's final. The year before, 4.8 million viewers watched the South Carolina UConn final. The Iowa-Maryland game on Feb. 3rd drew 1.6 million viewers. It was the most watched women's basketball game in Fox's history.

Clark was earning about three-quarters of a million dollars through her NIL, name-image-license, agreements before this season (up from about $150,000 last year). And that was before she signed contracts with State Farm and Gatorade. Cha-ching!

Clark with “Jake” from State Farm insurance company. Endorsement offers are pouring in this year. photo credit: State Farm

At some point this season, maybe on this Super Bowl Sunday, more likely the following game, Clark will break Plum's NCAA career scoring record of 3,527. Next to fall will be Lynette Woodard's pre-NCAA record, 3,649 points, and then, she'll set her sights on the all-time men's record - 3,667 -  set by Pete Maravich with LSU. 

With each game, the pressure and the attention will increase. The Wall Street Journal sports writer Jason Gay noted recently that everywhere Clark plays, it's now a "circus." The enormous crowds at home and on the road. The media spotlight. The autograph seekers. The adoring kids. The record chase.

"Still," Gay wrote, "I don't think this circus is about a number. This is more visceral/emotional/spiritual. It's about how Clark makes people feel -- and where the sport of basketball is going." 

photo credit: Joseph L Murphy

Clark appears to be unfazed. 

"Whenever I step on the court, I just want to have a lot of fun," she said last weekend, "I've been able to find a lot of joy and calmness in that."

Clark has another year of college eligibility if she chooses to return. If she does go pro and enter the WNBA, there will be even greater fame and riches, but also more joy and fun. This is her time. This is her moment.