Iowa City, Iowa-For two hours on Sunday afternoon, she was nothing more than a female basketball fan admiring a generational talent and watching her Alma Mater get tackling the top-cinq.
Caitlin Clark rebounded when Iowa players launched attempts of 3 points, made a gesture furiously for travel calls and an irritation expressed to perceived missed faults. When Iowa increased by 16-1 on the N ° 4 of the USC and the national competitor of the year Juju Watkins at the end of the first quarter, the entire Clark contingent was standing and roared with the crowd On closed counters Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
As the Hawkeyes won a signature victory of 76-69 Big Ten, the top scorer of all time in the NCAA made a smile behind her in the stands while the students took the courtyard. Clark slipped on a university jacket with emblems of his high school, college and professionals teams to maintain a silver necklace describing the state of Iowa. When the dust settled, she joined her former former, flanked by security, to celebrate.
No one in the arena has moved. For two hours on Sunday afternoon, they ate an unexpected dessert with stray eyes to Clark, their hero of the hometown. They hit the shutter on their phones, hoping that their own generational talent appears in the background. For many, that was why they were here. Or why they watched a retirement ceremony in a home jersey on national television.
Clark returned to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first time to see her jersey getting up with the rafters between Megan Gustafson and banners for the 2023 and 2024 national championship teams that she managed. The crowd first completed this house for her and made it cut again as if she was drawing from the Clark 22 logo installed where she broke the score record.
“It’s fun for me to come back and say thank you to everyone who spent so so much and allowed me to be great,” said Clark before the ceremony. “Whether it is people in social media, be it the marketing team, whoever made me look really well. None of this happens without all these people pouring into our team and our program every day. »»
Former teammates Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall and Monika Czinano sat. The head coach of fever Stephanie White and the director of Amber Cox operations were present. David Letterman, from Clark’s new house in Indianapolis, discussed the former head coach Lisa Bluder. He entered some of the brighter roars of the night and filmed the Rising banner after the match.
In this arena, no one receives a bellows stronger than Clark. Everything was centered on Clark, time -died video montages at Jersey 22 replica n ° 22 on each seat. She said that before the match is back without adapting was “weird”. She made an appearance in a football match to receive the team’s rings, but she hadn’t turned much over Indiana, training and free time. Friday, she practiced with the team of new starters under external pressure to reproduce the magic of Clark.
She said that she thought it could be one of her most emotional ceremonies at Carver because she did not play in advance. The most touching came when Bluder has put in perspective how Clark changed the landscape not only in Iowa, where the “big game tomorrow” means that women play, but in the wider women’s basketball world , where players like Watkins receive more attention than previous stars.
“I spent my whole career trying to allow young women,” said bluder. “This is what it is. You have done more in the past four years than anyone could imagine.
“You have shown people why it is wise to invest in female sports. Why is it wise to invest in women. It’s not just the right thing to do, but it’s the smart thing to do. »»
A video editing played with fans thanking and congratulating Clark. This understood a man saying that Clark brought him and his mother, who had passed since, more and more. A new mother granted her newborn with the second first name “Cece”, for the initials of Clark. Another mother thanked Clark for taking the time with her son at the children’s hospital and later signing the photo for her eldest son after the death of her brother.
A young girl thanked her and quickly added a message.
“Say hello to Taylor Swift for me,” she said in reference to Megastars sharing a box in the Kansas City Chiefs AFC championship match.
There are few other athletes with an imprint as important as Clark currently. Everything she does is news and wherever she goes are photos or videos. In the ascent of women’s basketball, she sent it through the rafters before her jersey joined her.
“We thought she would be entirely American and we thought she would take us in the Final Four,” said Iowa coach Jan Jensen. “But have we thought that she would be the most recognizable athlete on the planet?” Probably not. “”
From the defeat of the national championship in South Carolina and throughout her recruit season, Clark had been reluctant to treat her prolific rise and his legendary Iowa career. Everything happened too quickly, she said, and she hadn’t experienced a basketball break to fully appreciate the trip.
Looking back now, empty seats during her first year season during the cocovio-19 pandemic to the overwhelming sound pandemonium when she broke women and later the men’s marking record, she can see it.
“(This is) how things change not only for our program, but for the quantity of things that things have changed for women’s basketball in my time,” said Clark.
Iowa has sold its subscriptions in the regular season, with a waiting list, for a second consecutive season. Students are now paying tickets when they have entered for free in the years. The request for tickets, already raised for a visit to the USC and Watkins, increased when the university announced the retirement ceremony of the Clark jersey. The average listed price increased by 223%, according to VIVIDSEATS. It is the hottest basketball match this season with an average price of $ 343, according to the site.
“I would like to thank all those who are here today,” Clark told the crowd during the ceremony. “It means a lot for me and I know it was probably not cheap to enter the door.”
Tricia Homann, an Iowa fan for life, waited as she was thinking of paying the four figures.
“I would pay $ 1,200,” Homann told Yahoo Sports. “It’s Caitlin and Juju. How often will you see them both in the same house?
It will be at least a few years until they are faced several times a year in the WNBA. For the moment, watching one looking at the other from the stands was to do.
On Friday, Homann found cheaper tickets and chose to wear his new Dowling Catholic No. 22 Clark Jersey that his parents offered him for Christmas. He completed his Clark Jersey collection.
Allison Long hung tickets for $ 84 on Saturday after following the secondary market for months. His 10-year-old daughter Lillian Sparks obtained a shot to defeat Clark in a direct elimination match at the star basketball camp in 2023 at monks. It was after the first Iowa national championship match, but before Clark Mania burst out his charge at the record of all time. Lillian celebrated while Clark ran around the court, chanting “Lilly” and she received a copy of the first commercial card of Clark.
Lillian learned the surprise surprise trip after a full day of his own basketball matches. She waited for the pre-match in a line that extends two sections for a long time to take a photo with a Clark box, an activation for which the arena generally uses Mascot Heky. Twenty minutes to the end, the hall has completely spread out and the fans burst in their seats.
“We have played in many brilliant atmospheres,” said USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who kept his team on the ground to watch the ceremony. “It was the first time that people were in their place like 10 minutes before the match.”
Before the National Match match worked and the distinctions, Iowa fans have always been proud, one of their own children in the midwest was able to raise their program to heights, they would have rarely or even seen. The most noisy roar rivaling with its previous record moments came when they heard the self-written reference as their own.
“Caitlin, you may be in Indiana now,” said Bluder. “But you’re still a hawkeye.”
Clark, a few minutes later with the microphone, reminded the 15,000 more than she would be back. Indiana fever will play a pre-season exhibition match against the Brazilian national Carver-Hawkeye team in May. Fans are already waiting to take tickets.
“You’ll better save,” she said, “because I’m sure it’s going to be quite expensive.”
This had never been the case before.
(Tagstotranslate) Caitlin Clark (T) Iowa City (T) Iowa (T) Iowa (T) Jersey Retry (T) Carver-Hawkeye Arena (T) Women’s Basketball (T) Megan Gustafson (T) Indiana Fever ( T) kansas city chiefs
