Clark product of Iowa’s love for hoops
Women’s basketball transcendent star Caitlin Clark is from the Hawkeye State.
IOWA CITY – To fully understand the impact that Caitlin Clark has had on Iowa, a state that’s long adored and supported women’s basketball, consider this: For all of the superstars who have come out of this Midwestern hub, for all of the legends who dominated that stillcelebrated relic of 6-on-6, for all the locals worshiped by other locals, only one has had her likeness carved out of butter.
And that it wasn’t an exact resemblance is not the point.
“Obviously I never expected to be sculpted out of butter,” Clark said, laughing as she recalled the August 2023 statue that went viral. “But if you’re from the state of Iowa, you know that’s a really big deal. You go to the state fair just to see the butter sculptures.”
Clark will graduate this spring as perhaps the single most influential player, man or woman, to come out of the state. While Clark has helped elevate the women’s college game to new heights – the women’s tournament is drawing considerably more hype this spring than the men’s, a direct result of her star power – she did not make Iowa. Iowa made her.
On Saturday, Clark begins her final trek through March Madness, with many wondering if the best scorer in the history of Division I basketball can lead Iowa, one of the four top seeds, back to the Final Four.
In February, the two-time national player of the year announced she would forgo her optional fifth COVID year and enter the 2024 WNBA draft. She’s projected to be the No. 1 pick, and Indiana Fever fans are so excited, ticket prices have already skyrocketed.
A Des Moines native, she decided to stay home because she wanted to lift her university to its first Final Four since 1993 – something she did last year. What Clark has done is a remarkable feat considering this state’s history of hoops. Basketball game changers with Iowa roots include Harrison Barnes, Brenda Frese, Gary Thompson, “Machine Gun” Molly Bolin, Fred Hoiberg, Kirk Hinrich, Jennie Baranczyk, Nick Collison, Lynne Lorenzen, Bob Hansen, Jan Jensen and multiple people with the last name of Korver, among others.
The list goes on and on.
“One thing that’s always stuck in my head as I’ve watched Caitlin do her thing is, when I was in elementary school it was the thing to go to the girls state basketball tournament. There was a bracket on every school teacher’s door and it’s a bunch of tiny towns and teams you’ve never even heard of,” Brent Clark, Caitlin’s dad who played basketball and baseball at Division III Simpson College, told USA TODAY Sports. “That’s one el