Caitlin Clark reflects on how she soaked up her final game in front of Iowa home crowd

Iowa knocked off West Virginia in the Round of 32 on Tuesday night, doing so in front of a massive crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It was the perfect sendoff for superstar Caitlin Clark, who has had a storybook career.

In total, 14,324 fans showed up to watch Clark drop 32 points as the Hawkeyes advanced. It was the fifth-largest crowd in the first round in NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship history.

Clark did her best to take it all in.

“I think at the beginning of the game during the national anthem, that’s just something I tried to do all year long is soak in our crowds and look around and enjoy it and kind of take a deep breath,” Clark said. “You look around, and it’s like standing room only. The place is so hot because there’s so many people in there and there’s no air conditioning.

“I just look around, and that’s when I try to soak it in the most. Then obviously the game starts and you’re not really too worried about it. At the end of the game, I would have never left the court if I wasn’t forced to get off. I think those are the two moments that I soaked it in the most.”

Iowa won 64-54, getting a scare at times but mostly remaining in control of the contest, in large part thanks to Clark. It was smooth sailing to the Sweet 16, where the Hawkeyes have been four times since 2019.

The fans played a huge part in it all, roaring every time Clark had the ball and cheering on the Hawkeyes as every basket swished home.

“I think I could probably talk about them for a really long time,” Caitlin Clark said. “I think more than anything it’s just like thank you. I’m very grateful that I got to play in an environment that supports women’s athletics the way that they do, not only women’s basketball — and to be honest, they’ve been doing this before I ever stepped on campus. Maybe it wasn’t quite at the magnitude it is now, but these people and these fans have showed up, and they’ll continue to show up.

“They understand how good our sport is. They understand how good the sport is going. But they’ve shared in a lot of really special memories for myself in a journey that I’ve changed a lot as a person and as a basketball player over the course of my last four years, and they’ve been a big part of that too.”

Clark won’t take the floor at Carver-Hawkeye Arena again eyeing up a triple. She won’t look for the perfect dish in front of the home fans that way again.

She will, however, be remembered. For a long, long time.

It’s been a two-way relationship that has been fruitful not just for Clark and the Hawkeye faithful, but for all of college basketball. It’s an example of what’s possible, especially for future generations.

“I think the biggest thing is just thank you. I’m forever grateful,” Caitlin Clark said. “I hope there’s a lot of times that I can come back and be in the crowd at sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena and cheering for young girls that want to be like us.”