Spotlight stays on Clark, women's basketball

It was a week since the Iowa women’s basketball team had lost to undefeated South Carolina in the championship game, and three days after the end-of-season celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, when it was announced Caitlin Clark’s No. 22 jersey would be retired.

Even after traveling to Los Angeles to accept the Wooden Award at the end of the week, Clark was able to fly across the country and make a well-received appearance on Saturday Night Live in New York City. She was flanked by teammates Gabbie Marshall, Kate Martin and Jada Gyamfi on the SNL stage as guest host Ryan Gossling signed off. What an experience for those young women!

The story of this squad just seems to add chapters, even after the season has concluded. As I write this on Monday we await the inevitable news of Clark being selected first by the Indiana Fever in the WNBA draft.

The rapid ascent of women’s basketball on the landscape of American sports has been fascinating to watch. As a coach of middle school girls basketball, of course I’m pleased to see such growth. Young girls who may not have tried basketball are showing interest. Clark is a bona fide pop star in terms of demand for autographs and selfies after games and at other public appearances.

It’s all been so surreal. As a graduate of the University of Iowa 45 years ago, this is the first Hawkeye team other than wrestling that’s reached the pinnacle of their sport in a national championship game in my lifetime. (The Hawkeye men met San Francisco in the 1956 title game, 16 months before I was born.) And these women did it in back-to-back seasons!

The 1985 football team was ranked No. 1 for a month, but that season ended in a 45-28 Rose Bowl loss to UCLA. The Hawks were ranked No. 2 for a time in 2021. The 1980 men’s basketball team came so close my senior year at Iowa, but star guard Ronnie Lester re-injured his knee in the semifinal loss to Denny Crum’s Louisville Cardinals.

One reason it was so fun to keep following the Iowa wrestling team over the years after covering them as a student is that it was one sport where I could be proud of year after year, sometimes winning in dominant fashion. Coach Dan Gable built something special, just as Cael Sanderson has done more recently at Penn State. (Not to be overlooked is that both wrestled at Iowa State, with a combined record of 276-1.)

I realize that some fan bases probably grew weary of the Caitlin Clark-Iowa Hawkeyes story. Iowa State has had sustained success in women’s basketball under coach Bill Fennelly for many years. LSU was the reigning national champion, and South Carolina was invincible in having one loss in two seasons — to the Hawkeyes in last year’s Final Four.

Yet, it was Caitlin and the Hawks that grabbed the national spotlight and seemed to lead the charge of increased interest in the women’s game. They were fun to watch, they played together without a dominant inside presence, and Clark’s wizardry in her passing and long-range shooting drew people to their televisions.

When Deb and I sat down to watch Saturday Night Live, it seemed so strange that these girls we followed all winter were standing on the SNL stage as Ryan Gossling said good-bye and thanked Clark for her appearance. What a life those young women are leading after sparking the fire of women’s hoops passion in this country.

Having teammates join her at SNL was just another example that Clark didn’t develop the narcissistic prima donna attitude that would have been easy to adopt, given her constant appearance in the spotlight. She was always quick to share the credit with teammates and coaches.

And, she took the opportunity while on SNL Weekend Update to mix in a message of gratitude with the jokes she exchanged with host Michael Che. (She did a great job in that bit!)

“Thanks to all the great players, like Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper, the great Dawn Staley and my basketball hero, Maya Moore. These are the women who kicked down the door so I could walk inside,” Clark said.

It’s been a fun ride. Will the passion be as high next year? Perhaps not. More people watched the women’s national final this year than the men’s title game. That may not be repeated regularly.

But giant strides were made in attention paid to the women. That’s progress.

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Contact the writer:

Email: malachy.lp@gmail.com

Twitter: @larrypeterson