ALBANY — Who is she? Magic Johnson with a ponytail? Pete Maravich with a ponytail? Steph Curry with a ponytail? Make your choice. At any given time, she could be any of them.
The seats inside MVP Arena on Saturday were filled with fans, young and old, dressed in No. 22 Iowa jerseys and shirts, and their MVP, the MVP of sports, gave them Showtime.
And now, No. 22 Caitlin Clark, an 89-68 winner over Colorado, and LSU’s Angel Reese — the faces of women’s college basketball — have a heavyweight showdown scheduled for Monday night for a spot in the Final Four.
Two charismatic women who had such an impact on their sport and could have enough of an impact on the WNBA to draw comparisons to how Larry Bird and Magic Johnson grew the NBA’s audience and popularity in the 1980s.
“The biggest thing is I think women’s basketball is in a really great place, it’s not just me and Angel and I know she would say the exact same thing,” Clark said, a white Elite Eight towel wrapped around his neck. “There are so many stars in our game. There are so many young stars, so much young talent, and I think what we’re both able to do for our respective programs has been really special and the way that we raised women’s basketball has been really cool.
Much will be made of the fact that Reese made fun of Clark when she gave him the ring finger during LSU’s national championship win over Iowa last season and used John Cena’s “you don’t” hand gesture. can’t see me.”
“There’s no rivalry, oh no,” Reese reiterated to me Friday.
I asked him why people think that is the case. “I guess because of last year’s game, I’m not really sure,” she said.
I asked Clark if there was a rivalry between them and she said, “No, I wouldn’t say that at all.”
They played AAU ball together. If you listen to them, there is no harm, no foul. “Just two competitive players going against each other and wanting to win,” Reese said.
Caitlin Clark is fascinating. You can’t take your eyes off her. You don’t want to take your eyes off her.
He is a basketball savant with a rare sixth sense, basketball IQ and court vision.
She is the natural one.
She plays chess like everyone else plays checkers.
She is a 6-foot, 155-pound trainer on the court.
She throws precise passes to her open teammates, sometimes with a perfect bounce in stride.
His vaunted 3-point shot (3 for 11) was missed and it made no difference. She missed her first three 3s and Iowa led by eight after one quarter because she had six assists, mostly in transition.
“When people really run on the floor, I want to reward them,” Clark said.
Then she nailed a stepback 3 on Kindyll Wetta midway through the second quarter. Then she moved with lightning speed to the hoop to quickly retrieve a pair of buckets.
She finished with 29 points, 15 assists and six rebounds… and two turnovers in 35:47.
She wore black and gold sneakers in the school colors and made everyone around her look better.
She is fire and she is ice… a demonstrative, competitive fire that rages in plain sight, and an ice in her veins that never melts in the biggest and brightest moments.
“Honestly, I think when I step on the field, a feeling of calm comes over me,” she said.
When it was over, she spent a good five minutes signing hats, jerseys and whatever else was planted in front of her while begging and pleading with the young fans in the front row of the stands.
“I think it’s something that never gets old and that I always try to make time for, for these young boys and girls,” Clark said, “and being able to inspire them is the one of the best parts of what I get to do, so I love it.
Her locker room interviews over, she retreated to her seat and scrolled through her cell phone.
LSU recognized Winning Time to outlast UCLA 78-69, and Reese performed to the LSU crowd at the end, borrowed a pair of pom-poms from one of the cheerleaders and led a quick cheer in front of the group before leaving the field.
“We can’t focus on any other team until we take care of our business,” Reese said.
LSU was running its business. LSU beat Iowa 102-85 in the 2023 national championship game despite a 30-point night from Clark.
“We’re the good bad guys,” Reese said. “The coach (Kim Mulkey) talks about it all the time, she calls us the Beatles.”
Reese is a 6-foot-3 warrior who can impose her will in the paint and on the boards.
“I try to have a Kobe mentality, not worrying about who’s in front of me,” Reese said. “I don’t have any friends in the field.”
Nor, of course, Bird and Magic.
New York Post
