Caitlin Clark took in the phenomenon during a road trip to Rutgers on Jan. 6.
More black-and-gold jerseys decorated the scarlet-and-white canvas of Jersey Mike's Arena. Sure, it was like that at other Big Ten arenas across the Rust Belt and Midwest the past two seasons, but Piscataway, N.J., is a little more than 1,000 miles from Iowa City, Iowa. That – perhaps more than anything – showed the Iowa women's basketball star's range.
"Rutgers was really fun," Clark told Sporting News. "There were a lot of young kids there. We don't get to go to the East Coast much."
Clark – as the great ones so often do – put on a show for those in attendance. She recorded a triple-double with 29 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds in a 103-69 victory. That might not make the montage at the end of the season, but it will mean something to those kids who lined up for an autograph afterward.
"I would say that's something that just never gets old," Clark said. "You grow up as a kid — I was one of those kids who had a million different jerseys and shirts and idolized those players growing up. To kind of be that person for a lot of young boys and girls — it's really special."
That cross-over appeal is among the many reasons why Clark is Sporting News' choice as Women's Basketball Player of the Year.
Clark ushered in a new audience to women's college basketball. Iowa's regular-season finale against Ohio State drew 3.4 million viewers on Fox – the most-watched women's regular-season game since UConn-Tennessee on Jan. 10, 1999. A week later, Iowa's thrilling 94-89 victory against Nebraska in the Big Ten championship game drew almost-identical TV numbers as the Duke-North Carolina men's game the previous night.
Clark is the main attraction of the upcoming Women's Basketball Tournament. The 6-foot senior point guard leads the nation with 31.9 points per game and 8.9 assists per game – and she will try to get back to the East Coast as part of the Albany Regional ahead of the Women's Final Four.
More records are bound to be broken in the next three weeks.
MORE: Iowa's path to the national title
Caitlin Clark wins Sporting News Player of the Year
Clark enters the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament with 3,771 points. This season was marked with milestone achievements when she passed Washington's Kelsey Plum (3,527) and Kansas' Lynette Woodard (3,649) on the women's side and LSU's Pete Maravich (3,667) on the men's side.
Clark – who topped Plum with a patented "logo 3" against Michigan on Feb. 15 – looked at those scoring records with appreciation, but that wasn't necessarily the ultimate goal in 2023-24. It was a byproduct of a season in which the Hawkeyes finished 29-4 and earned a No. 1 seed in the 2024 NCAA Women's Tournament.
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"For me, it was never something that I was like, 'That's what I was after,'" Clark said. "I was always after helping my team win, and that allowed me to play my best basketball. To be on the same list and categories as some of those players I was idolizing, whether it was Kelsey, whether it was that whole list of the top 10 — Brittney Griner, Jackie Stiles — you can go on and on about it. It's just really special. It's never anything you take for granted."
Clark's passing gets taken for granted. The quick-read, no-look passes in the half-court game and full-court dimes in transition also are part of the experience; one Clark said stems down from Iowa coach Lisa Bluder.
"Coach Bluder preaches, 'We want to celebrate the assist and that the assist is much more important than the basket,'" Clark said. "As a point guard, you have to know where to set your teammates up to put them in positions to be successful."
Clark enters the tournament with 1,092 career assists; one ahead of Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu (1,091). Clark could catch Gonzaga's Courtney Vandersloot (1,118) and finish second behind FIU's Andrea Nagy (1,165). This will be an under-appreciated career accomplishment, even if it is a reminder that the legendary players across all sports have the best vision.
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"I think I've always had the skill of kind of seeing the game at a different speed and understanding angles and where to get my teammates the ball," Clark said. "At the same time, it makes my life easier when I can set up my teammates and help them score. Everybody always wants to talk about the scoring, but I think my passing is just as good if not better."
That leaves one accomplishment left to chase at the college level. Clark led the Hawkeyes to the national championship game last season – a 102-85 loss to LSU.
The Big Ten tournament championship against Nebraska was a reminder that chase will be what everyone is watching next. Clark scored 30 of her 34 points after halftime, and the Hawkeyes rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit. Clark said nobody flinched in that situation. Teammates hit clutch shots. When overtime came, the outcome was expected.
Clark admitted it was one of the best games she's even been a part of. That is what makes this Women's NCAA Tournament worth watching. What will Clark do next?
"I think those are the situations Coach Bluder puts us in all the time in practice," Clark said. "We're always playing live. We're always playing end-of-game situations and our team knows we can come back from any deficit whether it's 15 points in two minutes or two points in two minutes. We have the offensive firepower to really do anything."