As women’s college and national basketball rises in popularity, so too does the rising star, “CC”
Contributed photo/ Paul Rutherford images, Sports Illustrated
Caitlin Clark playing in a basketball game
Over the last four years, women’s basketball has seen an extravagant rise in popularity, as more players enter the stage and showcase their talents on a global stage. The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) went through a colossal jump in viewer count. In 2020, the league averaged 1.2 million views per game. This can be compared to the 2023 season, where viewership averaged over 1.6 million views per game, with Game 4 of the championship amassing 2.1 million viewers. But this poses the question: why the increase? What variable has changed? Many people among the masses argue that one player is instrumental in drawing attraction to the women’s court: 22-year-old Caitlin Clark from Des Moines, Iowa.
Clark, commonly referred to as “CC,” is a force to reckon with, even in her days playing for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes football team where she had a decorated record. In her final season at Iowa, she earned both the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year award and the AP Player of the Year award. During the 2022-23 season at Iowa, Clark averaged 27 points per game, according to the ESPN online statistic board, showcasing her scoring ability and making her one of the top scorers in the nation. She also ranked among the leaders in assists, around eight per game and maintained a 40 per cent three-point shot percentage, an extremely rare sight in college basketball. This could be compared to Judea “JuJu” Watkins with 27 points per game and Lucy Olsen with 23 points per game. The phenom also drew huge attraction to the March Madness tournament where viewership records were broken. The final game between Iowa and Louisiana State University drew nearly 10 million viewers to the stands and screens. Although this game ended in a loss for Clark, she sealed her college basketball career as a legendary run. She was drafted as the No. 1 pick of the 2024 WNBA draft by the Atlanta Dream.
At the WNBA, Clark would continue to shine as an exemplary basketball player, scoring 23 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds in her first game with the Indiana Fever, leading them to a victory. However, she had her fair share of challenges. During selection of the roster for the women’s basketball team set to play at the 2024 Paris Olympics, head coach Cheryl Reeves passed on Clark. This led to outrage from fans because they thought Clark’s impressive statistics should have secured her a guaranteed spot on the roster. Her ability as a playmaking guard and a facilitator are skills that many believe would have been a great addition to the Olympic squad. What further aggravated fans was that Angel Reese, a popular rival of Clark, was picked.
Regardless, Clark’s remarkable performance during the 2023-24 season would outshine her missing the Olympics. She set the record for most points by a rookie in a game, which was 45 points, most assists by a rookie in a game, which was 12, and also set the record for most points scored by a rookie in a single season, which was 650. While being such a new player to the league, Clark has been nothing short of a phenom on the court and won the Associated Press NFL Rookie of the Year Award for the 2023-24 season. Her outstanding performance as a rookie earned her this recognition, highlighting just how impactful she has been to the league in such a short amount of time. There is no debate that Clark is the generally agreed upon face of women’s basketball and will go down as an all-time great in her many years to come.
This article was originally published in print Volume 24, Issue 3 on Thursday, November 7.
