Caitlin Clark changed the women's college game. Will she do the same for the WNBA?
Now we’re about to see how influential Caitlin Clark really is.
On Thursday, three days before Iowa’s last regular-season game, Clark announced on social media that she would forgo her COVID year and enter the 2024 WNBA Draft.
There’s no question Clark’s game will translate to the highest level, though of course there will be an adjustment period. She’s expected to go No. 1 overall to the Indiana Fever, and Thursday, it’s likely Lin Dunn & Co. were doing backflips in Indianapolis with the news that they will get the opportunity to draft the best scorer in the history of women’s Division I basketball.
Clark would make the Fever, who have gone 43-121 over the past five seasons, relevant. But can she do the same for the WNBA as a whole?
The league, which is about to enter its 28th year, has so many issues you’d think it was still a startup. The problems have nothing to do with the quality of play; skillsets have never been better, players have never been more versatile.
It’s more about how the league treats players (very few charter flights) and markets itself (scheduling playoff games at the same time as NFL games). Even the NBA, the WNBA’s partner, doesn’t treat the W as a premier product. That has a major ripple effect.
But Clark is a transcendent superstar, the likes of which we haven’t seen for a few decades. She’s brought millions of eyes to the game, and lifted all of women’s basketball with her. The fact that she’s sparked such heated debate — Will she thrive in the pros? Is she overrated? Should we be comparing her to Pete Maravich anyway? — is proof of her influence.
But will those eyes travel with her to the WNBA? Surely she’ll sell out arenas in Indianapolis, as she’s done in most of the Midwest for all of her senior year. But what about when the Fever travels to Los Angeles or New York or Dallas, areas that don’t run short on summer activities? Will more people tune into the 2024 WNBA All-Star game if she’s playing? Will watching her help spectators find and appreciate other, more established superstars?
The fact that a generational player was even considering staying a fifth year instead of going pro needs to be a serious wakeup call to WNBA power brokers. This is their shot to elevate their league, and they better not screw it up.
On the other end, Clark is leaving the college game in great hands. When she and Angel Reese trash talked back and forth last year during the most-viewed title game in the history of the women’s NCAA tournament, fans also got to watch players like Flau’jae Johnson, a gifted sophomore and one of the better defenders in the country, who happens to also be a rap star.
As Clark’s star has risen this year, fans who have tuned in also got to see the likes of Cotie McMahon (Ohio State), Georgia Amoore (Virginia Tech), Audi Crooks (Iowa State) and Mackenzie Holmes (Indiana), who also will be in the WNBA sooner than later.
After USC’s JuJu Watkins, one of the favorites for national freshman of the year, scored 51 points on Stanford on Feb. 2, the Fox broadcasters calling Iowa-Maryland the next day spent most of the game talking about if Clark could hit that point total, too (she didn’t).
But I’m betting that after that game, more than a few people went to find Watkins’ highlights, and fell hard for the Watts, California, native with a pull-up so smooth, she could go pro right now. They’ll be excited to watch her next season, not to mention the rest of this one. March Madness is just around the corner, after all.
Heck, maybe there could be a national poll on who should be freshman of the year — Watkins, or speedster Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame, who leads the country in steals and whose passion is infectious? There are probably enough people watching to get an accurate result — and that’s because Clark made them want to tune in first.
The college game is going to be just fine as Clark passes the baton to a new crop of superstars.
But we’ll really know the power of Clark in a few years, when this group of college standouts heads pro themselves. Are we talking excitedly about what it will be like to watch them dominate in the WNBA? Or will we be having the same conversation, about how generational talents could help elevate the league to the next level?
If Clark is as good as I think, it’ll be option one. And I can’t wait.
Follow Lindsay Schnell on social media @Lindsay_Schnell