ALBANY — In a year filled with record television ratings, Iowa State’s first two NCAA Tournament games were the most-watched games in their respective rounds ever.
Millions of people watch it for the first time.
It doesn’t matter if it’s 5 or 95.
They’ve heard far more about Caitlin Clark than any women’s basketball player ever.
From TV.
From the headline.
From a friend.
She is unlike anything this sport has ever seen.
She is the all-time leading scorer in Division I history and an iconic shooter whose logo 3 has been imitated across the nation.
And perhaps soon, those who have jumped on the bandwagon will see what all the hype is about.
Unlike last March — when Clark set the NCAA Tournament scoring record and sent Iowa to its first national championship game — the Hawkeyes’ superstar broke Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring record in the final game of the regular season. Since breaking the record, he hasn’t been able to show his true potential.
In his past five games, Clark has shot 39.8 percent from the field and 29.2 percent from 3-point range, but in his four seasons at Iowa, he shot 46.3 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from 3-point range. He has 6.2 turnovers per game.
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The pressure is on her to perform in the final game of her collegiate career, live up to her legacy, carry the state she put on the map, and then disappear into the cornfield in a few weeks.
Clark is being asked more than ever to balance media, endorsements, autographs, photos and an inexperienced supporting cast, with her usage rate exceeding 40 percent.
It became harder and harder to get the ball where she wanted it, and even harder to get the look she wanted.
Help is hard to come by – none of Clark’s teammates took 3-pointers in the second round – which makes it easy to introduce double teams, ball denials and face guards.
And the hit songs keep coming.
Holy Cross, the 16th seed, used its physicality to trouble Clark in mismatches.
West Virginia took it to another level, slamming her to the floor multiple times and nearly eliminating her from the tournament.
“That’s the mentality we’re going in with. We just have to be able to control the physical side,” Colorado’s Freda Forman said heading into Saturday’s Sweet 16 game against Iowa. She said, “With a good athlete like Caitlin Clark, she has to have some kind of physicality against her…We have everything we need to go up against them. I think.”
Clark’s final season was about what happens next: records, expulsion, and the last dance.
She makes it fun to look ahead, wondering if Clark can beat undefeated South Carolina again and imagining another duel with Angel Reese in Monday’s Elite Eight.
But Clark’s black cut could happen in a jarring, Sopranos-style way in the Sweet 16 against No. 5 Colorado (24-9). In this game, they led at halftime against weak Iowa in last year’s NCAA Tournament and had already defeated defending champion LSU. , This season, 2nd seed UCLA and 1st seed USC.
It’s been weeks since No. 1 Iowa (31-4) looked like a contender for a championship.
The Hawkeyes needed a last-minute comeback and overtime to defeat No. 5 seed Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament title game.
In Iowa City, Holy Cross trailed by 39 points, trailing by two points at the end of the first quarter.
West Virginia held the ball in a tied game late in Game 2, but Iowa State scored a season-low 64 points and dished out seven assists, making just one field goal in the fourth quarter.
“The biggest thing for us is I don’t think we were able to play a complete game in any of those three games, but I feel like that’s a positive,” Clark said. “We found a way to win all three of them…I look at it as, ‘Iowa State doesn’t have to rely on scoring 90 points a game to win every game.'” Others You can also find out how to win. … Having grit, being resilient and finding a way to win, that’s all that really matters when you play in the NCAA Tournament. ”
