Iowa star Caitlin Clark is fiery but focused
ALBANY — It was a Good Friday, but it could be a better Saturday.
Downtown Albany has welcomed eight teams to MVP Arena for four consecutive days of the NCAA women’s basketball regional. Nearly all of the 14,000 or so seats were filled for a doubleheader of Notre Dame-oregon State and South Carolinaindiana.
The reason many bought all-session passes will be showcased the day before Easter.
Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, top seeded in Albany Regional 2, continue their NCAA journey against No. 5 Colorado at 3:30 p.m. It caps a spectacular twinbill that starts with defending national champion LSU facing UCLA at 1 p.m. Both games will air on ABC.
What the arena patrons and millions of television viewers will see in Clark, who already has declared for the WNBA draft, is a senior guard who is running out of goals, except for that of a national championship (Iowa lost in the title game last year).
She will add to her NCAA records for points in a career (3,850) and a season (1,113). Clark is the first Division I player with 3,800+ points, 1,000+ assists and 950+ rebounds.
Clark has 57 30-point games and 12 40-point games, most in Division I in the past 25 seasons, and 17 triple-doubles, second in NCAA history behind Sabrina Ionescu (26).
“Everybody can see the basketball ability,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said Friday, “but she’s a great student, too. What she’s doing for the Food Bank in Iowa City, what she’s doing with her foundation,
how she’s improving our community with that, you guys don’t get to see all of those things. Then
you also don’t get to see the goofy Caitlin that we get to see and that we love.”
Thanks to NIL benefits, Clark has endorsements with several companies, including Nike, Gatorade and State Farm. Ice Cube on Thursday offered her $5 million to play in his Big3 League.
“I found out about the Big 3 thing at the exact time you all did,” Clark said. “My main focus is just on playing basketball. … I have other people that deal with it.”
What else do others deal with? Clark’s oncourt intensity is evident. A little less obvious is that she is an All-america trash-talker. Bluder, at times, has to temper the temperamental Clark.
“I’ve had to call technicals (fouls) on her in practice,” Bluder said.
“That hasn’t happened in a while,” Clark retorted.
“You see her in games and the emotion she plays with, the passion, the highs, the lows,” Bluder said, “she’s the same way in practice when we go against our practice guys.
When we have officials in (practice), the officials sometimes don’t want to call a technical on us, so I’ll just do it from the bench. I feel like we have to try to help her maintain her composure at times.”
That’s a lot to stuff into a 6-foot frame, but the end result is the country’s most-recognized college basketball player, male or female.
“I’m competitive. I’m fiery,” Clark said. “That’s how it is. That’s what has brought me a lot of success. At the same time, it’s being able to channel that and use it in the best way.
“There’s always people watching. There’s always young girls with eyeballs on you, so you always want to be on your best behavior, but also play with that competitive fire and passion that you always had that has brought our team so much success. That’s exactly what we do.”
Fans in the Capital Region will see that firsthand Saturday.