Women's Fastbreak On SI

Iowa Confirms Caitlin Clark's Excited Eight-Word Message Amid Win Over Iowa State

Caitlin Clark could only imagine what the Iowa Hawkeyes' home arena was like during her alma mater's big rivalry game win on Wednesday.

Grant Young

Iowa women’s basketball’s Caitlin Clark shows off her rings during a second quarter timeout during Iowa football’s game against Northwestern Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa.
Iowa women’s basketball’s Caitlin Clark shows off her rings during a second quarter timeout during Iowa football’s game against Northwestern Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. / Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Few games in college sports inspire more excitement and vitriol among players and fanbases than those played against another school from the same state.

This is certainly the case between the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones; especially in the women's basketball world, where both of these teams are elite year in and year out.

Fans of both squads were treated to a fantastic back-and-forth affair on Wednesday that took place at Iowa's Harver-Hawkeye Arena. And despite them losing heading into the fourth quarter, the No. 21 ranked Hawkeyes outscored the Cyclones by nine points in the fourth quarter (largely because of a fantastic 25-point performance by Hawkeyes standout Lucy Olsen) to emerge with a 75-69 win.

Even when former Hawkeyes superstar and current Indiana Fever icon Caitlin Clark was in college, these two teams always played each other tight.

This is why Clark was stoked to see her alma mater's success on Friday night — and was imagining how hyped up the Hawkeyes' home crowd must be.

She conveyed this in an X post from Wednesday night that wrote, "I know Carver is on one right now !!! @IowaWBB".

And the Hawkeyes women's basketball account quickly responded to Clark's assumption by writing, "Can confirm."

Clark is likely wishing she was able to be on the court (or at least in the stadium spectating) on Wednesday, And perhaps she would have, if she didn't have to attend the A Year in TIME celebration event in New York City Wednesday night, which celebrated her winning Time Athlete of the Year for 2024.

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Grant Young
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.

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