Caitlin Clark Main Attraction at B1G Media Day

Iowa Basketball Standout Transcends Borders, Relationships

Iowa's Caitlin Clark warms up before an NCAA Tournament game against Georgia on March 19, 2023 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

MINNEAPOLIS — Rutgers coach Coquese Washington can’t get away from the Caitlin Clark talk.

“In New Brunswick, New Jersey, going to get a coffee one morning, and this guy that looks like a construction worker, he had a construction hat on and I had my Rutgers basketball shirt on, and he was like, ‘You're with the women's program?’” Washington said. “I'm like, ‘Yeah.’

He was like, ‘How about that Caitlin Clark?’”

Even at home, there’s no escape.

“My daughter lives in my house and she's a Caitlin Clark fan, so I have to tell her, you know, we're at Rutgers,” Washington said, laughing.

The Big Ten has its stars, and there’s no star bigger than Clark, the Iowa senior guard who is the reigning national player of the year, one who drives TV ratings and ticket sales and everything.

And there was plenty of attention on Clark at the first day of the conference’s basketball media days on Monday at the Target Center.

It also prompted Iowa coach Lisa Bluder to make a joke about all of it.

“We do have this young girl coming, maybe you know her, Caitlin, I think, something?” Bluder quipped. “She's pretty good, too.”

Clark was a big part of Iowa’s run to the Final Four and the national championship game last season. But as she heads into her senior season — she said she likely will wait until the end of the season to decide whether to take her final season granted by the NCAA during the COVID-19 pandemic — she said she plans to take in every moment.

But Bluder wants something else from her — patience. And Clark understands that.

It will be the first time Clark will be playing without center Monika Czinano and forward McKenna Warnock. They were veterans who understood to always be on the lookout for a Clark missile of a pass.

Now, there will be frontcourt hands Clark doesn’t have much of a connection with yet. Hannah Stuelke, a freshman who was the Big Ten’s Sixth Player of the Year last season, is expected to start in Warnock’s spot, and Addison O’Grady is the likely choice for Czinano’s position. Both have had court time with Clark before, but not to the extent where there is that similar chemistry.

“The biggest challenge might be understanding this is a new team,” Bluder said. “It’s not last year’s team. There are players who are younger that need to be brought along. So I think that’s going to be a challenge for her.”

“The biggest thing to me is patience,” Clark said. “Losing someone like Monika, it’s a big loss.

It’s going to be patience. It’s going to be a learning curve. It took me and Monika three years to build that trust and be really great together.”

And if one of those passes goes sailing through someone’s hands, Bluder wants Clark to be a teacher, not a scold.

“You have to build up younger players,” Bluder said. “Caitlin is a great passer, but sometimes it comes in like a missile. You’ve got to be ready to catch the ball.

“You’re in the locker room, and she got everyone to believe we could make the Final Four. Now she’s got to make everyone believe that we’re a great team without Monika and McKenna. She is working on it. She really is. And I think we’re seeing more of it lately. If someone misses a pass, you, as a leader, take responsibility when things don’t go right.”

Clark understands the task.

“They need to understand that we don’t need them to be what Monika was,” Clark said. “One, that’s not going to happen and two, they’re going to do things that Monika couldn’t. It’s finding what you’re good at, and bringing it to your role on the team.”

Stuelke knows what to expect, and why she needs to be ready for the passes that will be zooming her way.

“I don’t want her to have any extra turnovers because of me,” Stuelke said, which made Clark laugh.

“That number is already pretty high,” Clark responded.

New season, new team, same Caitlin.