Watching Caitlin Clark: 'I'm no Swiftie, but I'm pretty sure I witnessed the basketball equivalent.'
Few college basketball players have commanded the celebrity status Caitlin Clark enjoys. Her performance to break Lynette Woodard's record proved why her reputation is earned.
A sporting event was held at Williams Arena on Wednesday night, but to call it a basketball game would be like calling the iPhone a technological advancement or the Caribbean Sea a body of water.
This was an experience. A phenomenon. A circus.
I'm no Swiftie, but I'm pretty sure I witnessed the basketball equivalent.
The Caitlin Clark Show blew into town, and it was impossible to take your eyes off the gunslinger wearing green sneakers.
Fans packed the old Barn to the rafters and the greatest scorer in women's college basketball history painted them a masterpiece.
She swished a three-pointer on the game's first possession.
Then she made another one. And another one. And another one.
Clark made her first five shot attempts, four from three-point range, all deep, igniting a roar from fans wearing Iowa's colors and those who came just to witness the spectacle.
She threw pinpoint passes that got teammates layups and grabbed enough rebounds to post a triple-double. But shooting is her specialty, and she makes shooting a basketball look so effortless with rainbow three-pointers that touch nothing but net.
Her eighth and final three-pointer of the night made history. The basket gave Clark 33 points, eclipsing the scoring mark of 3,649 points set by trailblazer Lynette Woodard.
The NCAA recognized Washington's Kelsey Plum as the all-time Division I scoring leader because the organization didn't govern women's basketball during Woodard's college career at Kansas.
Woodard played under the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), meaning her stats were not deemed official by the NCAA, which is nonsense. Her scoring record did not deserve an asterisk. She scored more points than any Division I player in history until Wednesday night.
Now Clark stands alone.
In a touch of serendipity, Woodard played on the Williams Arena court 43 years ago in her final college season when the Jayhawks faced the Gophers in the AIAW tournament in front of a crowd announced at 2,500. The Gophers held Woodard to 10 points that night.
Linda Roberts, a standout for that Gophers team, took a moment Wednesday morning to marvel and appreciate the ground gained between then and now.
"Nowadays, young ladies have an opportunity to watch Caitlin Clark on TV," Roberts said. "Before, we weren't able to do that. And we were lucky to have maybe 300 people in the audience. And now it's sold out."
The Clark Effect is practically immeasurable. It's one thing to see it from afar, on TV, and something entirely different and real to experience it in person.
Williams Arena has hosted two women's games in program history that had an announced sellout crowd of 14,625: Lindsay Whalen's first game as head coach, and Wednesday night.
The Barn was filled from the front row to the top row in the 200 section at tipoff, with the asking price for some tickets exceeding $1,000 on the secondary market.
Fans lined up outside the arena in frigid temperatures three hours before the game, even though the only general admission seating was in the student section.
The crowd was so massive that Tom McGinnis, a senior administrator in the athletic department, grabbed a ticket scanner to help the entry process.
When doors opened at 6:30 p.m., fans raced to gather around the tunnel above Iowa's locker room, in anticipation of Clark emerging for early warmups. Young girls carrying signs and wearing No. 22 shirts screamed as Clark came into view.
Fans and media alike held up phones to capture her every move during warmups. One can only imagine the pressure Clark must feel every time she takes the court. It's not enough to play well —spectators come expecting something special.
On cue, she delivered a special performance that has become routine for her. This supernova in women's basketball radiated so brightly on the court that the other nine players running around had merely bit parts.
When the show was over, and Clark was the undisputed scoring champ in women's basketball history as Iowa cruised to a 108-60 win, fans lingered for more. Hundreds surrounded Iowa's tunnel as Clark did a TV interview.
After signing autographs and hearing another roar of cheers, Clark made her way across the court, down the stairs and was out of sight.
The memory she provided won't fade any time soon.
