Iowa, Iowa State, Drake and UNI boast plenty of Iowa natives

Fan support translates to the collegiate level, and not just Division I. For 26 consecutive years, the 16-team NAIA women’s championship tournament has been played in Sioux City, often in front of a packed gym. And while Clark and the Hawkeyes have sold out arenas across the Big Ten this year, Iowa State, Drake and Northern Iowa have historically drawn well, too. Another factor: Iowa has no pro sports teams, which means even more time to devote to college programs.

Fans come to watch their own. Of the combined 53 players on the state’s four Division I rosters this season, 43 are from Iowa (25) or border states (18), a staggering number given that Iowa is the 31st most populous state in the nation. And 15 of those Iowans will be in the tournament, with all but UNI in the bracket.

Dickson Jensen is the coach of All Iowa Attack, Clark’s AAU team. Under Jensen, All Iowa Attack has won three titles at the prestigious Nike Nationals AAU tournament – including in 2018, when Clark played – and sent dozens of players on to college hoops. He’s not sure what, if anything, the state is doing differently than others. He does think style of play attracts fans and college coaches, as Iowa teams tend to spread the floor, involve everyone and shoot 3s; he joked they don’t have enough elite athletes to just clear out and play 1-on-1. But most of it, he thinks, is mentality. “When you put that vision out in front of people and really drive it home, it works,” he said. “Maybe if you’d put a vision out about singing we’d have had a lot of successful singers. But here, our kids have seen other kids be successful, so they know they can attain it, too. And when it’s going around the state that Iowa (natives) love playing here in college, the next generation of players want

to stay here, too.”

Caitlin Clark says Title IX helped Iowa

Clark, for her part, credits the state’s obsession with girls and women’s basketball to Title IX.

“This university was on the forefront of Title IX, and they’ve always supported women’s athletics,” Clark said, mentioning former Iowa athletic director Dr. Christine Grant, a passionate advocate for gender equity who worked at the school from 1973 to 2000. “She made women feel valued at this university, whether you were on the field hockey team or basketball team or gymnastics team.”

Clark is 22, part of a generation that polls show doesn’t know much, if anything, about Title IX, the landmark education law that is directly responsible for the explosion in women’s sports participation over the past 50 years. That she knows so much about the legislation and its importance is yet another example that in this state, women’s sports have always been taken seriously.

It helps too, she said, that “there’s a lot of really great talent in the state of Iowa, and a lot of it decides to stay home.”

It’s fitting that she’s merely the latest to do that.

And it’s why many believe Clark is the perfect player, from the perfect state, at the perfect time to come along in the women’s game.

Her state has spent the last 100-plus years elevating women’s basketball. If anywhere was going to produce a player who could lift the game nationally, and maybe even worldwide, didn’t it have to be Iowa?