Unmatched: Caitlin Clark’s Remarkable Journey, From Her Iowa High School Career to Breaking Collegia

UNMATCHED

Caitlin Clark’s Remarkable Journey, From Her Iowa High School Career to Breaking Collegiate Records and Captivating the Nation

Credits

Stories

Chad Leistikow

Dargan Southard

Matthew Bain

Photography

Zach Boyden-Holmes

Joseph Cress

Julia Hansen

Bryon Houlgrave

Kelsey Kremer

Brian Powers

Lily Smith

Rodney White

‘She’s just Caitlin’: Inside the national recruitment of Dowling blue-chip guard Caitlin Clark

MATTHEW BAIN, THE DES MOINES REGISTER • FEB. 21, 2019

Kristin Meyer knew she had something special in Caitlin Clark. She marveled at the incoming freshman’s abilities during Dowling Catholic’s summer camp in 2016, when newcomers got their first chance to practice as a Maroon.

She might not have realized just how special Clark was until later that summer, though, when she got a phone call from Texas assistant coach George Washington.

The Longhorns were already interested in Dowling’s soon-to-be-freshman.

“I had never talked to that high level of a Division I coach — especially about someone who hadn’t played a high school game yet,” Meyer said. “Right then I was like, ‘OK, this could get interesting over the next couple years.’”

It did.

Clark blossomed into a national recruit.

By her sophomore year, she was already regarded as a five-star, top-10 prospect. Iowa, Iowa State and Drake were all over her. Texas was quick to jump in. National powers such as Notre Dame, Louisville and Oregon State started calling.

Now, as Dowling prepares for next week’s Class 5A state tournament, ESPNW deems Clark the No. 4 recruit in the country’s 2020 class. Blue Star ranks her No. 3.

The 5-foot-11 point guard is averaging a state-best 32.2 points per game. With at least one game next week at Wells Fargo Arena and her senior season left, she could break Iowa’s all-time large school scoring record of 2,494 points, which was set in 2000.

A prospect like that can take her time with her college decision. Clark is doing just that.

“I’m not really close to any decision,” she said with a laugh. “I wish I was, but I’m not.”

Clark does have a main group of schools on her radar: There’s the in-state trio of Iowa, Iowa State and Drake, plus Texas, Oregon, Oregon State, Notre Dame, Duke, Florida and Creighton. Missouri has also been in to see her this year.

In addition to many visits to the in-state schools, Clark and her father, Brent, took unofficial visits to Oregon, Oregon State and Texas in the fall, and she has taken unofficials to Notre Dame the past two summers.

“I just don’t think she honestly knows where she wants to go,” Brent said. “There’s so many positive reasons to (stay) local. And there’s positive reasons maybe to going more that national-brand route, if you want to say that.”

OPPOSITE: Caitlin Clark, center, listens to Peg Conlon with her lab partners in advanced chemistry class. Caitlin Clark, a West Des Moines Dowling Catholic guard, is the subject of a recruiting battle between the country’s top women’s college programs.

RODNEY WHITE/THE REGISTER

Juniors can start taking official visits on the Thursday following the NCAA women’s basketball championship game. Clark doesn’t know how many, if any, officials she’ll want to take.

She does, however, know she wants to play out this spring and summer with All Iowa Attack and then make her college decision before her senior year. Or, before her senior basketball season, at the latest. Among the top factors in her decision? Style of play and coaching, family culture and, maybe most importantly, the

opportunity to make an impact right away.

Iowa, Iowa State and Drake are pulling out all the stops to land the instate mega-recruit.

On Drake, Clark said: “I grew up a Drake fan. I went to a lot of girls’ games, I was a big fan. (Head coach Jennie Baranczyk) went to Dowling so she comes to our games, and she’s just been a good resource for me to talk about recruiting and things like that — even if it’s not about Drake. But she has something special there.”

On Iowa State, she said: “Iowa State, they’re really good and they have a lot of really good recruits already. So they’re definitely building for the future, I would say. They’ve been recruiting me probably one of the longest, for sure. Same with Iowa.”

On Iowa, she said: “(Associate head coach Jan Jensen) is the one recruiting me from there. I really like Iowa. I’ve taken two or three visits there. They’re really good. I watch a lot of their games. Megan Gustafson, she’s crazy. Megan Meyer, who will be playing there next year, I play Attack with her so I know her well.”

Clark’s recruitment started in the summer before seventh grade. That’s when Brent first remembers coaches actually paid attention to his daughter as she

played up two age levels with All Iowa Attack.

That fall, Clark received her first letter of interest. It was from Missouri State.

Things moved quickly. The summer after seventh grade, Clark played with high school freshmen on All Iowa Attack’s 15-and-under team. The following summer, she played up with the 16-and-under and 17-and-under rosters.

Yes, a kid who’d never played a high school game teamed up with soon-to-beDivision-I players such as Ashley Joens, Grace Berg, Hannah Fuller and Mary Crompton.

“She can do things on the basketball court that very few athletes can do,” Meyer said. “(Colleges) know they can make her a little bit stronger, a little better shooter, a little bit quicker and all those things. But to have that understanding of the game — and to be able to play at a high level at a fast pace and have pretty good size for a point guard — I think all those factors make her stand out.”

Colleges can’t directly contact girls prospects until Sept. 1 of their junior year, so all the earlier communication went through Meyer or Brent. After live periods in April or July, Meyer would sometimes have 10 schools asking her to contact Clark on their behalf.

Meyer’s phone would light up on Clark’s birthday, too.

“(It was) a little bit strange to pass along — to tell a 16-year-old happy birthday from an adult,” Meyer chuckled.

Clark said Meyer and her parents did well to insulate her from the pressures of a blue-chip’s recruitment while she was still a freshman and sophomore. Clark’s parents would talk plenty with coaches,

ABOVE: Caitlin Clark clowns around with her younger brother, Colin, at their home, Feb. 13, 2018.

RODNEY WHITE / THE REGISTER

but they never forced their daughter to pick up the phone.

Only if she wanted to.

They wanted Clark to live a normal high school life.

“I would actually say to any parent, if they’re in a similar situation, I think it’s really a smart thing to do,” Brent said, “because you also get a feel for what the programs are like.

“I say there’s almost two camps on this. There’s a group that I think is genuinely interested in your daughter for everything — the entire college experience, not just to be a basketball player. And then there are programs, which you can kind of sense that you’re kind of viewed as an asset to help them remain successful.”

The result of Clark not being thrown head-first into an intense recruitment?

She’s the same silly kid who showed up at Dowling’s 2016 summer camp, Meyer said.

“I’ve been asked the question, ‘What’s it like to coach her?’ And, to myself, to her coaches and to her teammates, she’s just Caitlin,” Meyer said. “Just fun-loving, passionate, goofy Caitlin. It’s hard to keep in mind that she’s such a top-tier player. “Until you watch her on the court.”

LEFT: Caitlin Clark gives a treat to the family golden retriever Bella at her West Des Moines home.

RODNEY WHITE / DES MOINES REGISTER

Dowling Catholic star Caitlin Clark has lofty goals for her career at Iowa

MATTHEW BAIN, DES MOINES REGISTER • JAN. 24, 2020

Caitlin Clark isn’t bashful about what she wants from her career as an Iowa Hawkeye.

The five-star, top-five nationally ranked, McDonald’s All-American, Iowabound Dowling Catholic point guard said her goals would have been the same no matter which college she picked.

“To win a national championship,” Clark matter-of-factly told the Register last Tuesday, like she’d been asked what color the sky is, or what she had for breakfast.

Iowa women’s basketball is no stranger to success. It has played in the NCAA Tournament 26 times. It’s gone to the Sweet 16 seven times, the Elite Eight four times and the Final Four once in 1993.

But it has never won a national championship. It has never advanced to a national championship game.

Especially in the modern age, national

titles haven’t felt realistic for programs such as Iowa. With the way schools like Connecticut, Notre Dame, Oregon and Mississippi State recruit, they’re simply on a separate tier.

A recruit like Clark can help change that, though.

A recruit like Clark can elevate a program like Iowa and make a championship feel like more of a tangible, reasonable, rational … realistic possibility.

“Caitlin wants to get to the Final Four,” said Dickson Jensen, Clark’s AAU coach with national power All Iowa Attack. “They’ve got a very legitimate chance. That’s what that program can build. Even (when Clark is) a freshman, that team next year is a Sweet 16-type team. They’ll contend for the Big Ten championship all four years, I guarantee it.”

When Clark picked the Hawkeyes over Notre Dame and Iowa State in November,

she gave Lisa Bluder and her staff a bluechip centerpiece to build a potential championship roster around over the next four years.

Jensen has seen all 25 girls who were named McDonald’s All-Americans this week. He says with confidence that Clark is the best — that she’s the national player of the year.

With that kind of player, the Hawkeyes will likely become contenders for other elite, top-tier recruits during Clark’s career, Jensen said. Adding Clark and the rest of Iowa’s 2020 recruiting class to next year’s roster projects as a strong group. Add a couple more five-stars over the next few years? That’s how champs are made.

“They’re going to grow something great and maybe have an opportunity to do something here in Iowa that nobody’s done in a long time — get to the Final

OPPOSITE: Dowling’s Caitlin Clark cheers from the bench after fouling out in the third overtime of a Class 5A state quarterfinal against Waukee on Feb. 25, 2019, at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. KELSEY KREMER / DES MOINES REGISTER

Four,” Jensen said. “She’s not afraid to cut the nets down.”

KELSEY KREMER / DES

Clark always maintained she wanted to sign with a school where she could play and make an impact right away. While she says that likely would have been the case with any of her final three schools, the timing is almost perfect at Iowa. It was Megan Gustafson’s team last year.

Senior guards Kathleen Doyle and Makenzie Meyer have the keys this year.

It helps the future seem bright when Bluder and her staff are in the midst of one of their most impressive seasons of coaching.

Iowa’s offense was completely built around Gustafson last year. She was the player of the year and, rightfully so, touched the ball on just about every possession. In many ways, she was Iowa’s offense.

This year’s offense is completely different. Bluder and her staff have built things around Doyle and Meyer. They’re back to running a four-out, read-and-react, perimeter-oriented style. And it’s working wonders. The Hawkeyes are ranked 21st in the latest coaches’ poll and tied for first in the Big Ten Conference.

“That’s why I chose Lisa. I know she’s a great coach. She’s been in the game for a long time,” Clark said. “It just shows that she’s ready for change. She’ll adapt to players. She’s definitely a players’ coach, and I think that’s a huge thing for me. I want to be able to play for somebody that will listen to me and I’ll also listen to them.”

Then, next year, the door is open for Clark and her state-leading 34.6 points per game to slide into Carver-Hawkeye Arena and start leaving her mark right away as the team’s lead guard.

“Obviously,” Clark said, “I have to earn that.”

“Lisa will give (Clark) the ball Day 1. She’s going to be an impact player on a national scale Day 1,” Jensen added. “Timing is great. The future of basketball for the University of Iowa is really strong.”

Brent Clark, Caitlin’s father, is also impressed with how the Hawkeyes are playing this winter. He said he was probably like a lot of people who thought this would be a rebuilding year.

He’s confident Bluder and her staff are the right coaches for his daughter.

And not just because of how well they’re coaching right now.

They had recruited Clark ever since middle school, but they were never overbearing. They showed consistent interest, but also respected how the family wanted space and room to figure out what was best for Caitlin on their own.

ABOVE: Dowling’s Caitlin Clark takes a shot during a Class 5A state basketball quarterfinal game against Iowa City West on Feb. 26, 2018.

MOINES REGISTER

“She wants to help lead (the Hawkeyes) or take them somewhere they’ve never been. I think she should be applauded for those goals,” Brent Clark said. “I’m just very proud of her, I know my wife is as well, for maybe ignoring some of the noise that goes on with recruiting and trying to stay in-state and do something special at a state university.”

LEFT: Iowa City High guard Aubrey Joens (23) defends Dowling Catholic’s Caitlin Clark, left, during a Class 5A varsity girls’ basketball game, Feb. 1, 2020, at City High School in Iowa City. JOSEPH CRESS / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN

Iowa women stunned by Creighton in second round of NCAA Tournament

DARGAN SOUTHARD, DES MOINES REGISTER • MARCH 21, 2022

IOWA CITY — Regardless of how or where this Iowa women’s basketball season ended, the narrative surrounding next year wasn’t going to budge.

The Hawkeyes return just about every pivotal piece, including the entire starting lineup that features the likely national player of the year, and will again shoulder lofty expectations from the opening tip.

All that still remains intact after Sunday’s stunning, 64-62 NCAA Tournament loss to No. 10 seed Creighton, which saw the No. 2 seed Hawkeyes’ postseason dreams collapse in front of a sold-out crowd and national television audience. However, this unplanned obstacle doesn’t arrive without repercussions.

After spending much of the last few seasons basking in the spotlight as Iowa’s athletics darling, these Hawkeyes are about to experience an untapped level of pressure extending beyond the usual demands of delivering an exciting product while thriving in the Big Ten’s upper echelon.

“It’s overall just going to be a lot of fuel to the fire next year,” Iowa standout Caitlin Clark said after Sunday’s loss. “I think that’s really all you can use it as.” While the wins and championships that precede a shocking NCAA Tournament exit can’t be taken away, ending on a massive disappointment casts a cloud over the entire operation. The only way to fully change that is delivering more emphatically the following March.

Another strong record and solid conference finish are likely coming next season, just as they did this year and the season prior with this same veteran nucleus. But there’s not room for another situation like Sunday. All-Big Ten center Monika Czinano is gone after next season, and Clark’s collegiate years are precious given her transcendent talent. A second flop on such a grand stage will hurt even more than this one.

It’s easy to question everything under the hood when a loss like Sunday’s happens. Have Iowa’s defensive and rebounding issues really been corrected? Does Iowa have enough pieces around

Clark and Czinano to have the kind of postseason run it’s envisioning?

And what about the Hawkeyes’ two superstars, both of whom came up short late with a chance to avoid disaster? Selfreflection is widespread when things end so abruptly, even if plenty of positives came before.

There’s not much Lisa Bluder and her coaching staff haven’t experienced in their decorated run leading Iowa women’s basketball. But a situation like this happens to be one of them. Bluder’s only Iowa season that ended like this one — a highly seeded team falling short of NCAA Tournament expectations — was 2001, when the Hawkeyes earned a No. 4 seed and lost in the second round. But that was Bluder’s first season. A large part of why Sunday stung so badly for the Hawkeyes was all the goodwill Iowa had generated beforehand. Not just on the court — where Iowa had won eight straight games en route to a shared regular-season title and a Big Ten Tournament championship — but off it too, as the Hawkeyes continued their

rapid growth as one of the nation’s most popular women’s basketball programs. Selling out three consecutive home games placed Iowa into a spotlight that once seemed unreachable.

“It does suck to have that volume of people here and not be able to perform,” Czinano said. “But I really think that getting that many people in one gym to watch women’s sports is huge, and it just goes to show the love and dedication that they show to us here.”

The bulk of that isn’t going to change next season. Clark will have another round of basketball stardom and far-reaching influence. Iowa’s fan-friendly style of offense should deliver plenty of points and several monumental victories.

There just isn’t room for something like Sunday to happen again. This Iowa group has burned its March Madness mulligan and must navigate next season accordingly.

No matter all the positivity that arrives prior to the 2023 NCAA Tournament, it’ll be a hard Iowa sell if a deep postseason run doesn’t come with it.

OPPOSITE: Iowa basketball coach Lisa Bluder and her team were dealt a shocking loss in the second round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Creighton, a 10 seed, beat the No. 2 seed Hawkeyes 64-62.

JENNA WATSON / INDY STAR

Caitlin Clark’s NIL deal with Nike further accentuates her value to college basketball

DARGAN SOUTHARD, DES MOINES REGISTER • OCT. 11, 2022

If you needed another example of how significant Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark is to the game of basketball, look no further than this week’s news.

Clark’s signing with Nike on Monday added a massive name to her growing name, image and likeness (NIL) brand, which already features deals with HyVee, H&R Block and others. Nike, though, is in a different category — especially for a college basketball player. Nike chooses its NIL athletes carefully, and the fact Clark was included shows just how big her national profile has become.

Likewise, Clark has been picky about which brands she wants to represent. With Nike, it was an easy choice.

“I’m pretty selective about who I work with,” Clark said Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days in Minneapolis. “I think that’s probably a no-brainer for just about

anybody in the world. They’re one of the best brands, and obviously a brand that’s so prevalent in basketball and has a lot of athletes that I look up to, especially in the basketball world. I was kind of shocked at first like, ’Oh my gosh, Nike.’ But it’s super cool and I’m super-blessed to have that opportunity.”

Clark praised her parents, Brent and Anne, and their business background for being an asset as she deals with overwhelming requests and time demands in the NIL world.

“If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know where I would be,” she said. “Those two have really, really helped me.”

She also has gotten help from an uncle, Mike Nizzi, her mom’s brother. Nike reached out after last basketball season, so the deal has been in the works for quite a while.

Clark was one of five high school and college basketball players to sign with Nike this week, joining Sierra Canyon High School stars Bronny James and Juju Watkins, Camden High School’s DJ Wagner and Stanford women’s basketball standout Haley Jones.

“She’s made such a difference, obviously at Iowa and in the country,” Maryland coach and Cedar Rapids native Brenda Frese said at Tuesday’s Big Ten basketball media days. “She’s a game-changer and just a special player to watch. Not fun to have to scout and coach against, but she’s truly one of those you have to appreciate as a once-in-alifetime player.”

It didn’t take long for Nike to set up its newest signees with merchandise. Clark and Jones both posted on social media what appeared to be a cooler-sized

container of gear, clothes, shoes and more.

It won’t take long for one of Nike’s premier college athlete signings to make a huge impact on the season ahead. The Hawkeyes enter Clark’s third season as the Big Ten favorites while ranking fifth in ESPN’s latest “way too early top 25.”

Iowa begins the regular season Nov. 7 against Southern, with Clark the likely favorite to bring home another helping of national accolades.

“Caitlin is so electric,” Frese said. “Obviously can score the basketball as soon as she steps on the court from anywhere, that kind of range. It’s not by accident. You see a player like Caitlin Clark. When you watch those all-Americans and those players come through, it’s so rare. So you’ve got to appreciate them in the time they get in their college careers.”

OPPOSITE: Caitlin Clark’s Nike shoes are seen during a Big Ten Conference women’s basketball game against Michigan on Feb. 15, 2024. JOSEPH CRESS / DES MOINES REGISTER

Caitlin Clark’s walk-off winner for Iowa basketball is the stuff of legends

CHAD LEISTIKOW, DES MOINES REGISTER • FEB. 26, 2023

IOWA CITY — Most incredible weekend in Iowa basketball history?

Good luck topping this one.

Junior megastar Caitlin Clark pulled out the most historic shot of her already legendary career, burying a step-back 3-pointer from a good 25 feet out to deliver the sixth-ranked Iowa women to an improbable 86–85 win Sunday against second-ranked Indiana.

Clark, who just over 24 hours earlier was hollering and sprinting behind the basket as a fan at Carver-Hawkeye Arena after men’s player Payton Sandfort hit a tying 3-pointer to cap an unbelievable comeback against Michigan State, was back in that same spot again after canning the walk-off 3 heard ‘round the women’s basketball world.

The Iowa men had to go overtime to win, 112–106, Saturday.

On Sunday, the Hawkeye women got

it done in regulation. They played with the lead for more than 35 minutes in this thrilling game but faced a final-seconds deficit and overcame it to deliver their second win over a No. 2-ranked team this season.

Clark was mobbed as sold-out Carver reached 119 decibels, according to the phone app of a reporter on press row. That topped Saturday’s 116 decibels after the Sandfort bomb.

“Those are the situations I would put myself in with my two brothers out in the driveway,” Clark said. “That’s what we would do, and that’s still what I do when I come in the gym and shoot by myself. Those are the situations you dream of. I’m lucky enough to be able to do it for this team, and in front of 15,000 people that want to come scream about it.”

And for the second straight year, Clark had delivered quite the regular-season

sendoff for these passionate Hawkeye fans. Her logo-shot barrage helped Iowa knock off No. 5 Michigan 12 months ago, 104–80, and the Hawkeyes cut down the nets to grab a share of the Big Ten regular-season title then.

On Sunday with the national ESPN spotlight on her, Clark finished with 34 points, nine rebounds and nine assists and assured the Hawkeyes (23–6, 15–3 Big Ten) of a No. 2 seed in its Big Ten Tournament opener at 5:30 p.m. CT Friday in Minneapolis, and that they would be back here for the NCAA Tournament in mid-March.

Indiana (27–2, 16–2) will be the No. 1 seed at the Target Center. What a rematch that could be next Sunday if the seeds hold.

And give Sunday’s final co-assist to Monika Czinano, even though Kate Martin threw the winning pass. How many times

OPPOSITE: Iowa guard Caitlin Clark makes the game-winning 3-point basket during a Big Ten Conference women’s basketball game against Indiana on Feb. 26, 2023, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. JOSEPH CRESS / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN

Game Stats

37:51 MINUTES

12-22 FIELD GOALS

4-12 3-POINTERS

34 TOTAL POINTS

in her Iowa career has Czinano received assists from Clark on her way to 2,261 career points? But on this final play, the senior in her final regular-season game at Carver cleared a path for Clark to get the ball from Martin with a hard screen on Indiana’s Chloe Moore-McNeil.

Just 1.5 (clock) seconds earlier, Czinano was called for a disputed foul that sent Indiana all-American Mackenzie Holmes to the foul line. Holmes’ two free throws sent the resilient Hoosiers to an 85–83 lead.

But in the women’s game after timeouts in the final two minutes, the ball goes past halfcourt, like the NBA does. And that benefitted Iowa in this case, as coach Lisa Bluder drew up a winning shot, with the best women’s basketball player in the country pulling the trigger.

Bluder said she pulled the play from a Las Vegas Aces WNBA game last summer. Clark came around the double screen from McKenna Warnock, then Czinano. She was surprised that she was that wideopen. The play had an option to go to

Warnock for a tying two, but Clark had enough space for 3.

No surprise, she took it. That’s what stars do.

“I remember in practice not setting (the screen) great and her not getting the shot,” Czinano said. “I knew that was going to have to be there. I told her in the huddle, ‘Really wait for it, let me come get there.’ And it just worked out perfectly.”

Martin should be mentioned here, too. The senior who earlier this week announced she would return for a sixth year put up

RIGHT: Iowa guard Caitlin Clark (22) celebrates after an NCAA Big Ten Conference women’s basketball game against Indiana, Feb. 26, 2023.

JOSEPH CRESS / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN

19 crucial points, her highest total since scoring 20 on Nov. 27 against UConn. Martin showed she’s a big-game player, too.

A pretty amazing show with “ESPN’s College GameDay” in attendance. This one lived up to every bit of the hype and then some. These were two tremendous teams playing at an extremely high level. There were only 15 turnovers in the game and the teams combined to shoot better than 50%. And the crowd was electric, from when the doors opened at 9 a.m. until Clark’s shot rattled home at 2:57 p.m.

“Honestly, I feel like this is part of our growth,” Bluder said. “Being able to get ‘GameDay.’ Being able to have sold-out crowds. People talking about women’s basketball around this state, and people being excited about women’s basketball around this state. It’s what you dream about. It’s what you want to have happen.”

Bluder was almost stoic after Clark’s thrilling shot. As Clark ran into the mob of fans and teammates, Bluder remained stoic.

“I think I said a quick thankyou to God, honestly,” Bluder said. “It was one of those things you dream about. And for her to make this shot, she’s made so many of them in practice like that. That’s truly what stories are made about. I’m just so thankful.”

Clark? Of course she believed. She has the eye of a tiger, an uncommon

competitive drive. This Iowa team is never out of a game with the 21-year-old junior at the helm. A mere 1.5 seconds is plenty of time for the inevitable national player of the year to change a game, and deliver another moment to remember.

And as a result, another boisterous

end-of-season celebration unfolded at Carver-Hawkeye.

“I just kind of ran into the crowd and was just getting everyone hyped and got tackled by my teammates,” Clark said, laughing. “It was a pretty awesome moment.”

ABOVE: Iowa guard Caitlin Clark (22) cheers on seniors as they are acknowledged after an NCAA Big Ten Conference women’s basketball game against Indiana, Feb. 26, 2023. JOSEPH CRESS / IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN

Iowa women’s basketball survives late UConn rally to advance to championship game

DARGAN SOUTHARD, DES MOINES REGISTER • APRIL 5, 2024

CLEVELAND — They arrived in the building with the confidence that they belonged, that the I-O-W-A across their jerseys boasted all the firepower to handle the five-letter dynasty on the other side. But this was UConn after all, hardly in the mood to play good sport. The Hawkeyes would have to empty the tank to survive. Survive, did they ever.

Despite rallying out of a double-digit hole to go up multiple possessions in the closing five minutes, Iowa had to hold off this basketball giant all the way down to the final horn. The drama was deep until the last whistle, but the Hawkeyes are right back where they proclaimed they’d be — four quarters from a national title after Friday’s 71-69 Final Four win over the Huskies inside Cleveland’s Rocket

Mortgage FieldHouse.

Everyone knows who comes next Sunday afternoon.

“Going to the national championship game, everybody’s stepping up,” said Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark, who fought through a tough shooting first half en route to 21 hard-earned points with nine rebounds and seven assists. “It’s not just me. It’s not just one player. That’s not what this is. We wouldn’t be at this point right now if it was just one player. And everybody comes up and makes really big plays when we need them.”

There’s only one place to start when dissecting this basketball marathon, which packed an evening’s worth of tension into just the final 10 seconds.

After a Nika Muhl trey preceded another

Iowa turnover — that sequence pulling the Huskies within one point before giving them possession with a chance to swipe it — Iowa was suddenly reeling. It would require one more strong defensive effort to escape this madness.

But just as UConn began to go, Aaliyah Edwards’ moving screen on defensive guru Gabbie Marshall was whistled for an offensive foul, sending possession the Hawkeyes’ way in one chaotic sequence. The Huskies bench erupted in disbelief as Iowa sat just three seconds from advancing.

“I mean, there’s probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I just know there were three or four of them called on us and I

OPPOSITE: Caitlin Clark takes questions from reporters after the Hawkeyes beat UConn in the Final Four, April 5, 2024, in Cleveland.

ZACH BOYDEN-HOLMES / DES MOINES REGISTER

Caitlin Clark falls short in title quest but, like always, she gave Iowa a chance

CHAD LEISTIKOW, DES MOINES REGISTER • APRIL 7, 2024

CLEVELAND — From the beginning of this incredible Iowa women’s basketball season, there has always been an intense curiosity about how the career of the greatest player to ever wear a Hawkeye uniform would end.

Would Caitlin Clark go to the WNBA or stay in school for one more year? Could she reach impossibly big expectations after taking Iowa to the NCAA national title game as a junior? How would her final moments, surely in front of one more raucous sellout crowd and a wildly entertained nation, wearing an Iowa jersey unfold?

Well, we have reached the end. And we have our final answer.

Clark ended her generational college career in the last moments of the last

game of the 2023–24 women’s season.

But for the second straight year, she and the Hawkeyes finished one spot shy of the ultimate prize.

South Carolina’s juggernaut roster and deep waves of talent overwhelmed the Hawkeyes, who even with one more 30-point performance from Clark didn’t have enough. The Gamecocks are your NCAA Tournament champions after posting Sunday’s 87-75 victory.

Clark, like she did from Day 1 in a Hawkeye uniform, gave everything she had and gave Iowa a chance to compete for even the biggest prizes, which was previously unthinkable. Iowa came out on the court Sunday and believed it could take down a roster loaded with future WNBA talent. Why?

“We have Caitlin Clark,” junior Sydney Affolter said. “She’s obviously the greatest player of all-time.”

Iowa came out firing with a 10-0 haymaker out of the gate and led, 20-9, in the first 4½ minutes.

But by the end of Sunday’s game, the legs of every Hawkeye were drained. Clark’s, too.

“Obviously we started out really hot, but you know they’re going to make a run,” Clark said, managing to smile in defeat throughout her final 12-minute press conference as a Hawkeye. “They were making some tough shots. They’re really good. There’s only so much you can do. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”

She was removed from the game in an

OPPOSITE: Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark (22) leaves the court after the NCAA Tournament championship basketball game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, April 7, 2024, in Cleveland. ZACH BOYDEN-HOLMES / DES MOINES REGISTER