Caitlin Clark is saving women’s basketball

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In the midst of women’s basketball season, one faculty pupil has gone on to form the face of the game: Caitlin Clark.

The 22-year-old pupil is a basketball participant for the University of Iowa’s Hawkeyes, the place she’s reached some spectacular milestones as an athlete and acquired a number of awards for her expertise on the court docket, together with the Women’s Basketball Superstar and National Player of the Year.

As she’s now considered one of the crucial profitable gamers within the women’s NCAA, it’s additionally no shock that she’s elevated viewership of faculty sports activities, together with throughout March Madness. She’s additionally gathered some well-known followers within the stands, similar to Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis.

As her faculty basketball profession is coming to an in depth this 12 months, Clark not too long ago revealed that she’ll be getting into the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) draft, with draft day set for 15 April.

Here’s all the pieces to learn about Caitlin Clark, from the place she was raised to how her achievements have formed the world of women’s sports activities.

Who is Caitlin Clark and the place is she from?

Caitlin Clark was born on 22 January 2002, in Des Moines, Iowa, and he or she grew up in West Des Moines. She’s at the moment a senior on the University of Iowa, the place she majors in advertising, as famous on the college’s athletic division’s web site.

Her rise to fame got here after she broke spectacular data in basketball historical past. She’s the one participant within the NCAA Division 1 Men’s or Women’s basketball to “lead her conference in scoring and assists in four consecutive seasons,” as famous by her official profile on University of Iowa’s web site.

Along with being the NCAA all-time main scorer, Clark is additionally the primary D1 participant to “record 3,700+ points, 1,000+ assists, and 850+ rebounds in a career”. When the Hawkeyes gained the 2023 Gulf Coast Showcase this previous November, Clark was named the Tournament MVP.

As she’s wrapping up her ultimate season with the Iowa Hawkeyes, Clark not too long ago revealed that she’ll be getting into the 2024 WNBA Draft. “It is impossible to fully express my gratitude to everyone who has supported me during my time at Iowa,” she wrote in a submit shared to Instagram in February. “My teammates, who made the last four years the best; my coaches, trainers, and staff who always let me be me; Hawkeye fans who filled Carver every night; and everyone who came out to support us across the country, especially young kids.”

How a lot is she reportedly making?

While faculty college students aren’t paid by the NCAA for enjoying basketball, they’ll nonetheless acquire cash from their very own success as pupil athletes. More particularly, NIL (which stands for “name, image, and likeness”) offers enable faculty athletes to associate with corporations and promote merchandise.

According to ON3, Clark’s NIL offers are value a mixed estimate of $3.1bn. Some of her current partnerships have been with common manufacturers, similar to Nike, Gatorade, State Farm, and Buick.

Although the WNBA draft isn’t till 15 April, Clark is anticipated to be the primary total choose, particularly for the Indiana Fever, as reported by Sports Illustrated. While her potential wage within the WNBA is undetermined, rookies’ salaries throughout their first 12 months vary from $65,154 to $76,535, in accordance with Spotrac.

How is she impacting women’s basketball?

Throughout Clark’s senior 12 months on the University of Iowa, there’s been a rise of viewers tuning in for the video games. As famous by the NCAA, the 2023 nationwide championship recreation, which noticed the Hawkeyes play in opposition to LSU’s Tigers, had a mean of practically 10 million viewers, which was a 103 per cent improve from the 2022 women’s championship.

Iowa’s video games have been proven on a number of sports activities networks this season, together with ESPN, Fox, and NBC. NCAA additionally reported that when one among Hawkeye’s video games went into additional time, earlier than Ohio State’s loss, there have been a mean of 1.93m viewers watching the sport throughout NBC and Peacock. In addition, the sport noticed a peak in viewership throughout additional time, with 3.9m viewers throughout these networks.

During the Hawkeye’s Elite Eight recreation in opposition to LSU on 1 April, the workforce additionally noticed a well-known fan was within the stands: Jason Sudeikis. While watching the sport, which Iowa gained, the A-lister even made the “you can’t see me” gesture, throughout which he held up his hand and waved the again of it on the crowd. His motion gave the impression to be in assist of Clark, as Tigers star Angel Reese went viral when she made the gesture in entrance of Clark throughout final 12 months’s National Championship, which LSU gained in opposition to University of Iowa.

The Iowa star’s deep vary has expanded the scope of potentialities for up-and-coming women’s basketball gamers, a lot the best way NBA star Stephen Curry modified the boys’s recreation greater than a decade in the past.

Speaking to the Associated Press earlier this month, Shay Ijiwoye, one among Arizona’s high highschool gamers and a Stanford commit, described the affect that Clark has had on sports activities.

“Guys will say the game is not as fun to watch, but Caitlin Clark is fun to watch,” Ijiwoye stated. “I think she’s inspiring a lot of young kids my age, older, younger, that you can have that confidence and do it just as well as any guy could.”

Why did basketball legend Sheryl Swoopes apologise to Clark?

Amid her success within the faculty sports activities world, Clark was additionally hit with criticism from a former basketball legend, Sheryl Swoopes. In January, Swoopes made a comment about Clark’s success, earlier than the Hawkeyes star grew to become NCAA’s all-time main scorer.

“If Kelsey Plum set that record in four years, well, Caitlin should’ve broke that record in four years,” Swoopes alleged throughout an look on the “Gil’s Arena” YouTube present. Her remark got here whereas she incorrectly claimed that Clark was in her fifth season at Iowa, as she’s truly in her fourth.

Swoopes continued: “But because there’s a Covid year, and then there’s another year, you know what I mean? So she’s already had an extra year to break that record. So, is it truly a broken record? I don’t know. I don’t think so. But yeah, that’ll go in the record books. And, I don’t think it should be.”

One month later, Swoopes revealed that she contacted Clark and apologised for her earlier feedback. “A couple of weeks ago, I reached out to (LSU forward Angel Reese) and had a really good conversation with Angel over the phone and sent a message to Caitlin. She responded. She and I went back and forth,” she stated whereas broadcasting for the Baylor-Texas Tech recreation, through The Athletic.

While the previous basketball participant wouldn’t go into particulars about her discuss with Clark, Swoopes did specific how a lot she respects the 22-year-old athlete.

“I won’t share what she said, I’ll leave that to her if she wants to share. But I will say, what I said to her was: ‘I made a mistake in saying it was your fifth year when it is your fourth,’” Swoopes continued. “I have nothing but respect for what she has done for the game. If she wants to share what her response was and how that conversation went, I’ll leave that to her. But it was a really good conversation.”