OT: Iowa/LSU
- Thread starter NUCat320
- Start date
Caitlin Clark is a great female basketball player with extraordinary shooting range and creative passing. Iowa's shooting skills were good, whereas LSU's offense was miss a shot, grab the rebound and put it back up. Defense was an afterthought for both teams.
Cream Abdul-Jabbar!
The NCAA probably snubbed Indiana St. into the NIT because they knew there would be a big home crowd in the Final Four with Indianapolis hosting.
• Milk Chamberlain
• Larry Nerd
• Cream Abdul-Jabbar.
• Larry Blurred
• College Jokic
• Steph Blurry
• Rob Wave
It's almost as if women's basketball can generate viewers when it has awesome talent playing well. They should work on more of that imho.
Maybe…maybe not. Nobody in the WNBA is doing what she’s doing. There’s a reason everyone is talking about her.
Who's got the first pick in next wnba draft? This is going to be wild for whatever team gets to pick her with #1. Much like cleveland getting lebron.....Looks like indiana fever will get to choose her?? Expect some serious publicity about her everyhwere she goes/plays
Do you think Clark's popularity will have the same impact on the WNBA as it has on the college game? I don't know what it is but watching the women pros for me is like watching paint dry. Of course, I feel largely that way about the men pros as well. It is one thing to see the occasional premier matchup and quite another to watch game after game, night after night. Of course TV needs inventory and for sure they will push the league.
Especially at the beginning, there will definitely be a lot of people who want to watch her. Both out of curiosity and fandom. How she plays will determine the rest. If she lives up to the hype and becomes a phenom, she will absolutely change the popularity of the WNBA and become the face of the league(much to the chagrin of many WNBA players as strangely, there seems to be a racial component in this). If she doesn’t, it’ll be more like how Linsanity finished…a flash of brightness and then it’s over…
I wonder the extent NIL has played into this. NIL has allowed to appear on national commercials and have large sponsorships in a way that has increased her market presence incredibly. Her level of play justifies it all, but she might not have the same level of notoriety without all that. As a result, everywhere she goes is mobbed by young girl athletes who want to see her. We know that sports brands have been marketing to this major audience for years and that there is a significant consumer base here to tap if the sports leagues themselves can ever actually harness it. Maybe she’s the crossover hit the WNBA needs.
I met and had a wonderful conversation with elena deldonne/star of wnba for past decade and one of her teeammates at a petco in arlington heights several years ago. She is a legit 6'6". This was when she was playing for chicago sky. She was extremely intelligent and interesting to talk to and with no doubt...OUT. I don't think that Clark will have any problem whatsoever with the ladies in the wnba for being different (if she is). I went to a game for the wnba after meeting elena and found that the whole experience was liberating and exciting. This was when chi sky was really good. A lot of people in stands were of alternative lifestyles- just like the players. My impressions of talking to the players and experiencing gametimes was that they would accept anyone and respect differences as long as it is mutual. Clark is going to bring throngs of people to attend wnba games. And millions more will watch the wnba on tv because of her. Ratings will soar and the wnba/clarke will prosper regardless of any perceived differences
I saw USWNT play circa 1998, and the screams of MIA! were piercing. Clark gets and will continue to get the same thing.
There is a vacuum of monocultural sports stars. Seriously, Mahomes and who else? Things about Clark’s game excite people, with good reason.
What’s challenging is that the WNBA plays a schedule outside of the basketball season. It’ll be interrupted (maybe?) by Olympics this year. Between the short season and the odd time of year, it’ll be tough for her to be a constant presence.
That said, she’s already got so much banked income (she has a foundation!) that she won’t need to play in Europe during the ‘normal’ hoops season. She can spend her long offseasons promoting herself and the sport and improving both her jump shot and her State Farm jingle-singing.
That’s a great article. Let’s see JuJu break Clark’s scoring record in three years.That’s certainly the hope.
Then you have divisive (and frankly, racist) articles like this:
Women's basketball needs faces of future to be Black. Enter JuJu Watkins and Hannah Hidalgo
With Caitlin Clark headed to the WNBA, JuJu Watkins and Hannah Hidalgo will be the faces of the women's game - a sport built by Black players.www.usatoday.com
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JuJu is the best athlete and complete player in WBB that I have seen (I am projecting a little to make a point.). Tremendous. But her play, which is a coach's dream, doesn't elicit the whoops of pure joy from the casual fan that Clark does when she regularly lets loose a contested shot from forty feet and swooshes it. There is something magical and impossible in what she does. So while the basketball analysts may be more reserved in their comparisons, the occasional fan operates on emotion and CC is a show.
Agreed. Clark does things from a shooting and down court passing perspective that very few great men’s players can do. Given the huge disparity in explosiveness between the men’s and women’s games, watching women who are good in the post or finishing at the rim is not particularly compelling for me.
Good point. As much as some us bemoan NIL, this shows how athletes and even their sports can gain popularity.
There’s been big money in athletic brands marketing toward women for quite some time now but it hasn’t transferred to any athletes or the games themselves yet. College feels like an easier place to start than the pros for a variety of reasons (a little easier to get a generic Iowa fan or Big Ten fan to notice a different Iowa sport than a men’s sports fan to get interested in a WNBA player, I’d think).
When I went to NU, 68-72, I had my first opportunity to meet classmates from Iowa and Indiana - and a few other places as well, obviously. What I found out was that Indiana high school men's basketball and Iowa high school women's basketball were both on another planet in terms of statewide and, for many, national interest. In reading the many posts here I came away with the impression that many believe the roots of the women's game were largely in black urban America. I have no doubt that post Title IX and particularly in the past couple of decades or so that the growth has been explosive throughout the country and particularly among black women, but for those with an interest I thought I would share an article that traces the history of Iowa's women's basketball. It is a long one.
Interestingly, despite WNBA demographics, white players outnumber black players at the NCAA level almost 2 to 1. This data isn’t as easy to find, but at the HS level it looks like the divide is more like 3 to 1. As you say, the idea that women’s basketball is just an urban black sport is a harmful stereotype that hurts everyone involved.
If you're too tall for soccer and too short for volleyball, you might consider giving basketball a try...
Caitlin Clark’s shootaround was a near full house at the final four today. Nearly everyone would say what a great thing for women’s basketball this is! As the father of a toddler daughter who is quite tall so far, I’m excited!
ABC is sooooo thankful that Clark and Iowa made it to the final that they televise Sunday afternoon. Should be a big ratings draw and is great for women's basketball. A South Carolina-UConn final would not have had anywhere near the interest. Hopefully, the Hawkeyes can make it a good game. I didn't realize they upset the Gamecocks in the semis last year.
No Maybe for a short time but then it will settle in at a level similar to current
Really? So even if the team you’re surrounded by is by no means a championship team, you should still win it all?