I wrote to General Mills to suggest Caitlin Clark be put on the Wheaties box. Clark and the University of Iowa Hawkeyes are on the verge of an NCAA women’s basketball championship — Coach Bluder called them a team of destiny — while Clark is the Naismith national player of the year AND the Academic All-America player of the year (“Me and Caitlin, me and her are in the same class”, said LSU’s Reese).
If the cereal company needs more, Clark’s from the middle of middle America, where she attended a Catholic high school.
Magic Johnson tweets about Clark, and if Taylor Swift is as smart as she usually is, she invited Clark to join her backstage at her shows in Arlington.
In the absence of Paige Bueckers, women’s college basketball got a shot of Caitlin Clark at exactly the right time. She’s captured the nation’s attention when the men’s final gave us San Diego State (I think that’s great for San Diego State, who could use some feel-good after Matt Araiza blew up his generational football talent.), while her anywhere-in-the-building shooting range is appealing to shallow American basketball fans who think a dunk is of greater value than two free throws.
I don’t think it’s hypocritical of me to fume when Utah appears to see their options as Pili high or Pili low, but tell Iowa through my computer screen to ‘give the ball to Clark’. Relying on Clark to produce 60 percent of their offense by field goal or assist is what makes Iowa go, whereas Utah is at their best when it’s one for five, and five for one.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the team that eliminated your team: You hope for them to lose in humiliating fashion soon, or you hope for them to win the thing. I’m in the second group, so I would’ve been rooting for LSU if Iowa weren’t such a good story. (For the same reason, I was glad Washington State won the Pac-12 tournament, and certainly thought they’d get further in the NCAAs.)
Louisiana State is an intriguing story for Coach Mulkey reaching the finals with them in her second year. And if the Tigers do win today, she joins a small group of coaches who’ve won with more than one school, which is truly something. That accomplishment is so remarkable it redeems what her assistant gives her to wear.
I thought during our round-of-16 game that I’d donate $1000 to the Utah WBB program if Coach Roberts borrowed Coach Mulkey’s fuzzy pink number for a nationally-televised game. I thought Coach might go for that if Utah weren’t flush with all that Huntsman loot.
If I wasn’t clear enough about this on Facebook: Jenna, we love you.