Iowa Coach Reveals How She 'Tamed' Caitlin Clark's 'Toddler Behavior'
Caitlin Clark produced the greatest college basketball career the sport has arguably ever seen.
While the former Iowa Hawkeye icon didn't win a National Championship, she accomplished just about everything else; including breaking the NCAA all-time scoring record.
There's no question that Clark is a generational talent. But her fierce competitiveness and relentless passion for winning also contributed to her greatness.
Yet, there have been times when Clark's competitiveness — and resulting negative body language — has rubbed others (even her teammates and coaches) the wrong way.
This was sometimes the case early in Clark's career at Iowa; which then-Hawkeyes lead assistant and now-head coach Jan Jensen referenced during an appearance on the "No Cap Space" podcast that aired on September 3.
When Jensen was asked whether she had any discussions with Clark about her body language while at Iowa, she said, "Yeah, I mean there were several.
"I just think it's kind of like raising a child," she continued. "Sometimes what you see, it looks like toddler behavior. Right? It's like, you kind of have to keep telling them sometimes. And sometimes you're going to reprimand right away and sometimes you put them in timeout later. And all of those you're constantly assessing as a coach."
She then noted that she and the Iowa coaching staff noticed Clark's "eruptions" during recruiting, which caused some other (unnamed) schools to not recruit her. But Jensen (and former Hawkeyes head coach Lisa Bluder) understood that Clark was just operating at a different level mentally compared to her peers, which her occasional frustration was rooted in.
Jan on working on Caitlin body language (1/3) pic.twitter.com/4e2f6RU00K
— sofia (@slowlyslide) September 4, 2024
Later on in the episode, Jensen said that she told Bluder, "The trick is, we want to tame her but never break her," when talking about Clark's passion and volatility.
She also admitted that it was tough to make Clark's teammates understand early on in her career that Clark, "didn't mean it" when she yelled at them for missing a pass.
"But when it hits — and you're seeing not with Indiana — they start to get her," Jensen added of Clark.
(2/3) pic.twitter.com/ofVhxU0npu
— sofia (@slowlyslide) September 4, 2024
Hearing Jensen speak about Clark's greatness — and what it took to help get her to that point — is truly fascinating, and a must-listen for any Fever or Hawkeyes fan.
GRANT YOUNG
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.