We can’t measure history until it becomes … well, history. Five years ago, who’d have believed our world would shut down? Five years from now, who knows if we’ll have a world?
Working under the assumption we will, I’ll venture this much. Our world in 2029 will look back on 2024 as the time women’s basketball broke big.
Cue Buffalo Springfield: There’s something happening here. The women’s NCAA Tournament has become a greater talking point than the men’s event, which hasn’t been half-bad itself.
A women’s regional final felt like a championship game. (Actually, LSU and Iowa met for last year’s title.) A regional final matching Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese felt like – just going to say it, OK? – Magic vs. Bird. It drew the biggest TV audience for any women’s game ever. It outdrew every game of last year’s World Series. It outdrew four of the 2023 NBA finals’ five games
One of tonight’s women’s semifinals might feel like another championship game, except that neither Iowa nor UConn is undefeated, which South Carolina is. The men’s Final Four has Zach Edey, who’s a very good player. But he’s not Clark, and he’s not Paige Bueckers, who was almost Caitlin Clark before Caitlin Clark. Except that there has never been anyone quite like Caitlin Clark.
I know, I know. We’re babbling now. How many people, places or things have bettered than their hype? The Beatles. There’s one. (Or four, depending on your feelings re: Ringo.) LeBron James – person. Austin, Texas – place. iPod – thing.
The watching world wanted to see if Clark could do this spring what she hadn’t quite managed last time. Doggone if she didn’t deliver. Her first 3-point shot was true. She scored 41 points. She made 12 assists. Basketball is a team sport, but sometimes it happens. Sometimes one player has a game we’ll recall as this team sport at its apex.
St. Louis, March 26, 1973: Bill Walton scores 44 points against Memphis State, making 21 of 22 shots. Philadelphia, March 28, 1992: Christian Laettner makes every shot he takes, including one you’ve seen. Albany, N.Y., April 1, 2024: Clark sails home nine treys and chases Hailey Van Lith into the transfer portal and we can never again ask, “Is she really that good?”
But here’s the thing. Clark didn’t arrive in a vacuum. Per HoopGurlz, these were the top five recruits in 2020.
No. 1: Bueckers, the 2021 college player of the year.
No. 2: Reese, 2023 national champ.
No. 3: Cameron Brink, Stanford All-American and part of Under Armour’s ubiquitous ad, alongside Kawhi Leonard and Dejounte Murray.
No. 4: Clark.
No. 5: Kamilla Cardoso, South Carolina’s best player.
(Oh, and Hailey Van Lith. She was No. 7. She’s a good player whose lot it was to be matched against a great one on her night of nights.)
Clark was part of a women’s movement, if you will, to match the male group of 1979: Ralph Sampson, Isiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins, James Worthy, Clark Kellogg and – oh, yeah – Dereck Whittenberg, whose air ball begat the dunk that ended the greatest Final Four ever.
N.C. State was the 1983 men’s champ. N.C. State is represented in both Final Fours this time. As is UConn.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but UConn became – as happened with UCLA on the men’s side – the best and worst thing about the women’s sport. From 1995 through 2015, Geno Auriemma’s Huskies took 11 titles. From 1991 through now, they’ve made 25 Final Fours. Bueckers was the eighth UConn woman named player of the year.
As much as the women’s game needed a Clark, it especially needed a Clark who wasn’t just another among many greats. The Iowa teenager signed with Iowa. Four years later, she’ll leave as the Hawkeye who filled not just arenas but, for one famous scrimmage, a Big Ten football stadium.
We can’t know yet how women’s hoops sans Clark will be, but this we know. The leading lights of women’s basketball – Clark, Reese, Bueckers, Brink, Flau’jae Johnson – have, through the magic of NIL, become not just athletes but celebrities. They’ve made us want to know more about them and their sport. The more we know, the more we watch.
“I’m glad you’re leaving,” Kim Mulkey told Clark in the handshake line Monday night, which was the nicest thing the LSU coach has said about anyone in a while. Everyone walked off that floor in Albany knowing they’d been part of a moment. Something happened there. Caitlin Clark took a niche sport and delivered it to the masses.
The above is part of a regular exercise available to all who register on AJC.com for our free Sports Daily newsletter. The full Bradley’s Buzz, which includes extras like a weekly poll and pithy quotes, arrives via email around 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Go to the AJC.com home page. Click on “Choose from a variety of newsletters” at the top. Click on “Sports Daily.” You’ll need to enter your email address. Thanks, folks.
