“Honestly, I feel like it hasn’t really hit me at all,” Clark said. “As a competitor, you don’t have the time for that emotion of this being the last of something. I think it’ll definitely hit me when the final buzzer sounds.”
Clark’s final home game could be the final game of her collegiate career.
The Hawkeyes are heavy favorites, similar to Clark’s sophomore season, when second-seeded Iowa was upset on its home floor by 10th-seeded Creighton in the second round.
Last year, Clark’s magical tournament run and introduction to mainstream America nearly never happened, with seventh-seeded Georgia holding the ball and a chance to pull ahead in the final minutes of the second-round battle.
On Sunday, Iowa, which hasn’t lost at home since Nov. 16, saw the team that finished above it in the Big Ten (Ohio State) eliminated on its home floor.
“Certainly I know the spotlight is there,” Clark said. “Certainly I know that pressure is there, but that’s not anything you ever shy away from. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
“It’s not gonna be handed to you on a silver platter. That’s now how this works.”
Caitlin Clark’s career at Carver-Hawkeye Arena will end.USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
Before Clark arrived, Iowa hadn’t been to the Final Four since 1993.
They will arrive hours early, as always, standing and chanting in the cold, as they wait for the doors to open to an inconspicuous building tucked into a quiet corner of campus, where the ceiling is low and the court is near the earth’s core, where noise doesn’t escape and luxury suites have no place, where a skinny girl with a ponytail became the biggest star the sport has ever seen.
Leave a Reply