Swanson: Iowa’s Caitlin Clark puts on display of greatness against LSU

The Iowa star, whose record-setting exploits have brought unprecedented attention to women’s basketball, hits nine 3-pointers on her way to 41 points and 12 assists as the Hawkeyes oust defending champ LSU from the NCAA Tournament, 94-87.

ALBANY, N.Y. — It was every women’s basketball fan’s birthday, Christmas, graduation, April’s fool’s wish granted.

Iowa. LSU. The rematch.

Another heavyweight showdown, a good game between proper, worthy rivals. Wonderful theater ending with the Hawkeyes’ 94-87 victory in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

But mostly, inevitably: Greatness.

noun

the quality of being great, distinguished, or eminent, Caitlin Clark.

Beyond impressive, awe-inspiring and so, so important.

Because there will be no putting the genie back in the bottle now that Clark has arrived, her gravitational pull drawing millions of new fans to women’s basketball like she draws extra defenders on the court.

That’s how the world changes, and how someone ends up with 12 assists to go with 41 points in regional final against the team that beat her Hawkeyes for the national championship a season ago – a trip to the Final Four (against UConn on Friday) on the line.

Folks with longer memories made out Monday’s Iowa-LSU game to be like we were getting a rematch of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird’s 1979 classic championship. And folks rooting for the WNBA hope these matchups between Clark’s Hawkeyes and Angel Reese’s Tigers will bring similar magic to their league – anyone have Indiana Fever fever? That’s the WNBA team with the No. 1 overall pick later this month, and if you thought the Spurs drafting Victor Wembanyama was a no-brainer …

But first, we got a second bite at the matchup that changed these women’s lives and changed ours too, any of us among the record 9.9­ million viewers who tuned in to witness that initial spectacle 364 days earlier.

Blessed were we as an audience Monday, though no one appreciated the redo more than Clark, the ponytailed assassin who wears the expression of a test-taker and moves like a dancer on roller skates – a creative competitor, a competitive creative. Unstoppable and uncontainable, too.

“It’s about being present, being where your feet are,” Clark said after the game, ball cap pulled low. “Don’t worry about being in the Final Four, be in this moment, be in the Elite Eight, enjoy that and soak that in.”

And, oh, beneath her intentionally stoic exterior, she enjoyed it.

College’s all-time leading scorer – she has 3,871 points now and counting – made more history.

She sank 9 of 20 3-point attempts to set the record for the most career 3-pointers in NCAA Tournament history and most overall Division I 3-pointers – and almost kept a straight face all the while, all business except when she accidentally got “hyped” after her eighth 3-pointer to make it 80-69 with 5:05 to play.

She also became the first player in tournament history with three career 40-point games, and the only player since 2003 to have 40 or more points and 10 or more assists in a tournament game – something she’s done twice.

LSU coach Kim Mulkey, at least, will be glad not to experience an Iowa-LSU Part 3 with Clark atop the marquee: “Sure am glad you leavin’,” the coach with 40-some years of experience told Clark before leaving the court. “Girl, you’re something else. Never seen anything like it.”

Like, I know Caitlin Clark is a big deal. But being at a Sweet 16 and having it feel a lot like an Iowa home game, seeing ALL these fans — these moms and daughters — reppin’ Iowa, wearing her 22? It’s hitting me how *important* she is. pic.twitter.com/7JhoMJp6D0

— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) March 30, 2024

The Caitlin Clark Effect is plenty tangible on TV, but I’ve never seen anything quite like the scene in Albany.

Maybe it’s me, a mom? But there was something that got to me about seeing so many moms and daughters in Iowa’s black and yellow this weekend and thinking about my 16-year-old girl, who’s just recently awakened to the brilliant, buoyant beauty of basketball. For that I can thank, in particular, Austin Reaves and Anthony Davis. And USC’s JuJu Watkins. And Clark.

And I do. Thanks, y’all, for and making the game so appealing, giving us hoop to watch and debate and discuss and gossip about.

Because once upon a time, not long ago, in this land of the free, when Americans thought about how sports got passed down, you pictured a dad and his son, havin’ a catch. “Field of Dreams” stuff.

More recently, Kobe made being a #GirlDad the cool thing.

But what got me this weekend in Albany, N.Y., was seeing MVP Arena filled with The Real MVPs – Moms.

Moms and their daughters. Young daughters. Teen daughters. Adult daughters.

Bonded over sport. Over a shared appreciation of No. 22. Clark, Iowa’s real-life build-it-and-they’ll-come phenomenon. This slender, serious woman who built her skillset against her brothers, who linked up with Coach Lisa Bluder, built a program, an audience, a crescendo …

Don’t anyone dare try to talk to Kailie Nolan and her 10-year-old daughter Lydia when they’re locked in and watching an Iowa women’s basketball game. They felt lucky to be among the 13,888 fans in the building Monday, they said, after falling in love with the Hawkeyes last season – when Lydia found Clark, that gravitational pull so strong she’s a magnet for young fans like Nolan in tiny Union Springs, N.Y., to my place in L.A.

Kailie grew up playing softball and volleyball in Union Springs, and now her daughter is playing basketball there. Dad isn’t a sports guy and big sister is into the arts. But Lydia is a hoops head, “Because basketball is fun.” So, says Kailie, “this is our thing.”

A mom and her daughter, havin’ a ball.

Who could wish for anything more?