Iowa guard Caitlin Clark celebrates as she walks off the court docket after an NCAA school basketball sport towards Nebraska on Jan. 27.

Charlie Neibergall/AP

disguise caption

toggle caption

Charlie Neibergall/AP

Iowa guard Caitlin Clark celebrates as she walks off the court docket after an NCAA school basketball sport towards Nebraska on Jan. 27.

Charlie Neibergall/AP

News shops, together with CBS Sports, USA Today and The Baltimore Sun, name it the “Caitlin Clark” impact.

Both followers and strangers of girls’s school basketball alike have been flocking to observe the 22-year-old University of Iowa pupil athlete’s try to turn out to be the NCAA’s all-time main girls’s scorer.

“I feel like I’m watching a combination of Pistol Pete Maravich and Steph Curry. She’s so fluid. She plays the game in a different dimension,” mentioned FOX Sports announcer Gus Johnson.

Clark, the Hawkeyes guard, has turn out to be a phenomenon — sparking lengthy strains for her autograph, promoting out arenas and skyrocketing the price of tickets.

On Wednesday, Northwestern University noticed its first-ever sold-out game for ladies’s basketball in a match towards Clark and the Hawkeyes. Meanwhile, resale tickets for the upcoming match between Iowa and the Maryland Terrapins on Saturday vary from $123 to $1,454, in accordance with TicketMaster.

With assist from Clark, in addition to Angel Reese of the LSU Tigers and JuJu Watkins of the USC Trojans, girls’s school basketball has turn out to be more and more common over time.

Last yr, the ladies’s Final Four obtained a median 4.5 million viewers — a few 66% improve from the yr earlier than.

“The talent is just so good now with the women. The competition is so good,” mentioned Washington Post columnist and frequent ESPN panelist Kevin Blackistone on NPR’s Morning Edition final April.

Clark’s rise to stardom

Clark, from West Des Moines, Iowa, was thought of a drive to be reckoned with even earlier than her school profession. In highschool, she won two gold medals with Team USA within the FIBA world cups on the youth degree.

In her freshman season, Clark averaged 26.6 factors, 7.1 assists, and 5.9 rebounds per sport, in accordance with the University of Iowa. That tutorial yr, she racked up a number of awards, together with co-freshman of the yr by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

In 2020, Lisa Bluder, the top coach for Iowa girls’s basketball, described Clark as an “offensive threat” who would solely get higher with time.

In her sophomore yr, Clark earned her third gold medal on the FIBA under-19 World Cup and was honored because the MVP of the match.

In 2023, Clark led the Iowa group to its first Final Four look in 30 years and its first ever nationwide championship sport. The Hawkeyes ultimately lost to the Louisiana State University’s Tigers, 102-85. But the sport helped Clark break the NCAA document for many factors in a match. The earlier document was set in 1993 by Sheryl Swoopes.

Why individuals cannot cease speaking about her

The senior has turn out to be a must-see attraction, particularly whereas it’s unclear if she is going to keep in class for a fifth yr or start her profession within the WNBA. (Clark has an additional yr of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) If she decides to be drafted, Clark is predicted to be the No. 1 pick.

The University of Iowa’s girls’s basketball group has by no means gained an NCAA championship, however the title appears nearer than ever with a seasoned Clark on the group. Selections for March Madness start on March 17 and the championship is scheduled for April 7 in Cleveland.

With Clark on the roster, spectators can count on to see some information damaged at a sport. The match towards Northwestern’s Wildcats marked Clark’s fiftieth profession sport with 30+ factors — a feat unseen in both males’s or girls’s school basketball within the final 25 seasons, in accordance with the University of Iowa.

It was additionally her eightieth consecutive sport making a 3-pointer. Clark can also be thought of the primary Division 1 participant to achieve 3,300+ factors, 900+ assists, and 800+ rebounds in a profession.