"Feisty" Caitlin Clark Ready to Get It

Iowa's All-American PG Determined to Lead Hawkeyes to Great Heights

Caitlin Clark (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - The best description I’ve heard of Caitlin Clark came from Clark herself.

"I’m feisty,” Clark told me. “I’m passionate. If you want something, you’ve got to go get it.”

Feisty. That word should be stitched on the back of her Hawkeye basketball uniform. Passionate. You don’t become a generational talent without a love of the game, because God-given gifts only take you so far. You’ve got to go get it. No one will give it to you.

Two more words come to mind when I watch the 6-foot junior guard with the mercurial release and unlimited shooting touch. Fearless is one. Confident is the other.

“When you have someone who loves it that much and is so passionate, those are kids you want to coach,” Iowa’s Lisa Bluder said.

Assistant coach Jan Jensen, a great player in her own right, said that Clark is wired for greatness.

“She’s poised,” Jensen said. “She’s confident. She’s swag.”

Clark has taken women’s collegiate basketball by storm as she enters her third season with the Hawkeyes. She’s an all-American who is in such high demand that she’s signed NIL deals with Nike, Hy-Vee, Topps trading cards and H&R Block.

And there’s this: her game keeps getting better.

“She has something new every day,” teammate McKenna Warnock said.

Like anyone else who loves the game, I’m a big fan of Caitlin Clark. And I’m glad there’s much more to her than first impressions.

The first time I saw Caitlin play was as a junior at the 2019 Girls’ State Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Her Dowling team lost in the Class 5A semifinals to Southeast Polk, 72-61, getting outscored 25-9 in the fourth quarter. Clark was clearly the most gifted player on the floor. And though she made just 12 of 33 shots from the field and missed 12 of her 17 3-point attempts in a 31-point night, she added 10 rebounds.

But Clark’s body language in that game wasn’t good. I sensed a lot of negative energy in her wake. And she didn’t strike me as a team player. Bluder and Jensen were there that day recruiting her, and I wondered if they knew what they were getting into.

But here’s the other side of the coin. They had a much better idea of what made Clark tick than my misguided first impressions.

Bluder and Jensen had done their homework. They talked to Dowling Coach Kristin Meyer. They talked to Dickson Jensen, Clark’s AAU coach. They noticed the leadership classes Clark was taking at Dowling.

“We heard so many great things about her,” Bluder said.

Add it up and they were convinced that Clark would be a team-first player, not a me-first colossal individual talent. She committed to the Hawkeyes as a Top Five national recruit in November of 2019.

“She wants to win,” Bluder said. “Everything.”

Clark’s desire to win was inherited. She is the 11th family member to play college sports. Her dad, Brent Clark, played baseball and basketball at Simpson. Her mom, Anne Nizzi-Clark, is the daughter of former Dowling football coach Bob Nizzi.

“I grew up playing with the boys,” Caitlin said. “My parents never told me I couldn’t do anything. If you want to, OK go get it. I got picked on by my two brothers and boy cousins. My parents told me, “You can’t cry. You’ve just got to be tougher.’ ”

Things were extremely competitive, especially on the Nizzi side of the family.

“My mom’s side of the family is probably the most competitive people I’ve ever been around,” Caitlin said. “If you came to a family function you would want to leave because it gets a little hostile, no matter what we’re doing. We’re so competitive. Whether you’re first in line for food or playing a game, somebody’s got to win.”

It was that Nizzi family intensity people saw, and often misunderstood, when Clark played for the Maroons.

“And that intensity makes me who I am,” she said. “If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t be the player I am today. That’s something that I will never lose, that competitive spirit, that passion, that fire.”

She knows she has her critics, even though they live in the minority, with opinions that are not always kind.

“My mom always taught me that you’ve just got to move on,” Caitlin said. “Only focus on the small circle you have around you. The team is around you every single day. They know the true person you are, the competitive spirit you have. And my coaches always have my back. People are starting to see that women’s basketball players can be emotional and passionate. And that’s how the game should be played.”

Jan Jensen said that Clark found gold when she committed to Iowa.

“I think Lisa is the perfect head coach for her,” Jensen said. “Lisa loves offense. And I don’t know if anybody else would have been able to let her shine this much.”

Clark has averaged 26.7 points in 63 career games. She was a consensus all-American and the Big Ten player of the year last season, and won a second straight Dawn Staley Award that goes to the outstanding collegiate guard in the country.

“Now that I’m here I know I made the right decision,” Clark said. “And I think Coach Bluder has really allowed me to be myself and flourish. And that’s so important. I wanted to play for a coach that inspires me, and coaches me. I think some people don’t think she coaches me super hard. She coaches me very hard. And that’s what I want. I want to be coached. I want to get better.”

Bluder has coached four of the last five Big Ten players of the year in Clark, Kathleen Doyle and Megan Gustafson (twice).

“I think that speaks to the coaching and what she develops at Iowa,” Clark said. “I just knew the possibilities when I signed here. And it’s been more than I could have ever dreamed. Zero regrets. I’ve loved every second.”