IOWA CITY, Iowa — On the Sunday earlier than Thanksgiving, most of Iowa‘s college students had gone residence for the vacation break. And but greater than two hours earlier than tipoff of the ladies’s basketball sport in opposition to Washington State, the road on the gates of Carver-Hawkeye Arena was already spilling into the a whole bunch.
Trenton Mendoza and his 9-year-old daughter, Riley, have been amongst those that arrived early. The Mendozas stay in Atlanta however have been in Iowa to go to household for the week. During the previous couple of seasons, Riley fell in love with Caitlin Clark‘s patented step-back 3-pointers. So the day earlier than, Trenton stunned Riley with tickets.
“We have been watching the [Hawkeyes] earlier than mattress one night time,” Trenton stated. “[Riley] rolls over and says, ‘Dad, we’ll be in Iowa. What if the women are enjoying whereas we’re there? We’ve received to go!’ I already had the tickets. It was arduous to not say something and preserve the shock.”
Clark has moved on — she was drafted by the Indiana Fever in April — but it surely was at Carver-Hawkeye that she emerged into one of many largest stars in all of sports activities. She dazzled with limitless 3-point vary and artful passing. A two-time nationwide participant of the 12 months and three-time unanimous All-American, Clark shattered scoring marks and tv scores. During her remaining postseason run with Iowa, extra viewers tuned in to look at the ladies’s NCAA match than the boys’s. Later this season in opposition to a Big Ten opponent to be introduced, the Hawkeyes plan to retire Clark’s No. 22 jersey, together with her in attendance.
The momentum and magic Clark helped create in girls’s school basketball hasn’t waned, particularly in Iowa City. Last 12 months, on the top of Clark mania, the Hawkeyes bought out their 15,000-seat ticket allotment for the primary time. This 12 months — with Clark within the WNBA and the Hawkeyes coming into the season unranked for the primary time since her freshman 12 months in 2020 — Iowa bought out once more.
“I nonetheless have individuals eager to borrow my [season] tickets,” stated Ashleigh Determann, of DeWitt, Iowa, who introduced her niece, Addison, to the WSU sport. “As you possibly can see, it is carried on this 12 months.”
The transition to life with out Clark working the present hasn’t been seamless. The Hawkeyes dedicated 30 turnovers — their most in a sport in 22 years — in Saturday’s 78-68 loss to Tennessee within the inaugural Women’s Champions Classic at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Lady Vols scored 42 factors off these turnovers to drag away within the fourth quarter, handing Iowa its first lack of the season. Still, the nationally televised doubleheader, which additionally featured Louisville in opposition to second-ranked UConn and Paige Bueckers — the favourite to succeed Clark as nationwide participant of the 12 months — bought virtually 10,000 tickets.
Wednesday, the No. 21 Hawkeyes (8-1) will attempt to bounce again in an instate showdown in opposition to No. 18 Iowa State in what’s already one other Carver-Hawkeye sellout.
“Caitlin introduced new eyes to the sport and the eye they deserve,” Ashleigh stated. “It’s solely going to maintain going.”
TEN MINUTES BEFORE tip in opposition to the Cougars, followers stood and chanted, “Let’s go Hawks.” Villanova switch Lucy Olsen has taken over for Clark working level guard for Iowa. After ending third within the nation in scoring final 12 months with the Wildcats, the 5-foot-10 senior is main the Hawkeyes with 18 factors per sport, regardless of struggling a gash on her knee following a fall in follow that required stitches and compelled her to sit down two video games.
Inside, 6-foot-4 senior ahead Addison O’Grady has emerged in her first season as a starter, giving Iowa one other put up menace alongside junior Hannah Stuelke. She and Stuelke — one of many solely key holdovers from final 12 months’s squad — have mixed to common 29 factors and 13 rebounds.
Behind Olsen, Stuelke and O’Grady, the Hawkeyes constructed a 15-point halftime lead over WSU, then received a raucous ovation as they dashed to the locker room.
Lisa Bluder, who retired in May after 24 years teaching the Hawkeyes, together with the final 4 with Clark, watched from the bleachers with delight of a program she constructed into an epicenter of girls’s school basketball.
“The pleasure of the previous couple of years has rubbed off, and it is now turn into part of life right here in Iowa City — and that is the way it needs to be,” stated Bluder, noting that Clark “modified the sport” for Iowa. “You see all these little ladies working round with their jerseys on. But fairly actually, you see a number of grown males working round with these jerseys too. That’s superior.”
Zach Hayworth, from Washington, Iowa, was a type of males sporting a Clark jersey. He and his spouse, Stefanie, introduced 5-year-old daughter, Stella, for his or her first Iowa sport. Stella, donning a Clark jersey as properly, now relentlessly shoots baskets at residence, both on her Little Tikes hoop upstairs or on a pop-a-shot within the basement.
“What [Clark] has performed for the game is great,” stated Zach, who added he is begun watching the WNBA — and never simply Fever video games — as a lot as he watches soccer. “What she did for the state and for the game is unimaginable.”
Eleven-year-old Gianna has traveled from Chicago together with her father, Pete, to see the Hawkeyes. Last season, additionally throughout the Thanksgiving break, they watched Clark rating 35 factors and dish 10 assists in a 113-90 victory over Drake. Gianna referred to as it “so inspiring” she determined to check out for her faculty’s basketball group. Pete by no means went to 1 Iowa girls’s basketball sport throughout school. Now, he is on a textual content chain with school buddies the place they speak extra about Iowa girls’s basketball than Hawkeyes soccer or males’s basketball.
“It’s a phenomenon,” he stated. “I might’ve by no means guessed in 1,000,000 years that that is the place we might be, coming right here for the [women’s] basketball video games. … This has taken high billing.”
WITH 5 MINUTES remaining in opposition to WSU, first-year head coach Jan Jensen, an Iowa assistant throughout Bluder’s whole Hawkeyes tenure, emptied her bench. The crowd erupted when Iowa native and reserve Jada Gyamfi entered the sport and nailed her first 3-pointer of the 12 months.
Stuelke grew up in close by Cedar Rapids and commenced coming to Iowa girls’s video games when she was little. Stuelke remembered curtains hanging down from the rafters blockading the empty seats. Now, she’s in awe of the vitality and pleasure she feels from the group.
“We make it enjoyable for the followers,” Stuelke stated. “I feel lots of people are moving into girls’s basketball and it is new and thrilling. All the hype we have had, it is carried over. … And we’re nonetheless reaching lots of people.”
Steve King and Chip Haney caught round till the ultimate buzzer in Iowa’s 72-42 victory over the Cougars, together with most of these in attendance. King moved again from Illinois and instantly purchased season tickets for Clark’s senior 12 months. His two seats are positioned on the again row, although King prefers standing behind them on the railing anyway. He additionally has the very best view of the group each sport.
“It’s humorous, sitting up right here, you possibly can see all these massive dudes all ripped — they usually’ve received the Clark jerseys on,” stated King, of Cedar Rapids, who invited Haney to this sport. “It’s simply superior.”
Kevin Pearce, of Rockwell, together with his 13-year-old daughter, Ava, stated he is additionally now an Iowa girls’s hoops fan for all times. He simply began watching the WNBA too.
“That simply took off,” he stated. “It’s large now.”
Craig and Heather Labath, of Coralville, Iowa, purchased WNBA League Pass to allow them to watch all of the Fever video games with their two daughters, Olivia, 6, and Adeline, 9, who noticed Clark hit the deep buzzer-beating 3 that beat Michigan State final 12 months.
The WSU matchup was their second sport this season. And they’re planning on coming to many extra.
“It’s so good to see girls’s sports activities promoting out,” Craig stated. “We by no means had that earlier than Clark. Now, we’ve got it with out Clark.”
