Indiana
Caitlin Clark Changing The Popularity Of WNBA And Indiana Fever
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark brings the ball upcourt as the WNBA basketball team practices in … [+]
INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark is already aware of her place in sports and the WNBA. The Indiana Fever guard hasn’t even played a professional game yet and is already among the World’s most popular athletes. She recently signed a reported eight-year, $28 million endorsement deal with Nike — her brand is growing rapidly after dominating the sports news cycle for nearly two months.
The Fever are seeing massive ticket demand as a result of Clark’s arrival. There were more than 6,000 fans at the team’s draft party earlier this month who just wanted to watch the franchise select Clark, and the media presence after team practices this week is over 10 times greater than what it has been in past seasons. The buzz around Clark and the team is massive.
“I think that just shows the excitement regarding our team,” Clark said this week of the number of people at the draft party and the team’s growing popularity. She expects a big attendance number for Indiana’s preseason opener on Friday in Dallas.
The Fever are looking forward to having large crowds at their games. Veteran guard Erica Wheeler thinks that Fever outings will have some of the biggest attendance numbers she’s seen since Wheeler battled UConn in college while at Rutgers University. NaLyssa Smith remembers playing in front of smaller crowds at Indiana Farmers Coliseum during her rookie season with the Fever. Now, that will look a lot different.
It won’t just be the home crowds that are massive. The demand for tickets to see Clark and the Fever play in non-Indiana markets is high. The Las Vegas Aces are playing a home game against the Fever in T-Mobile Arena instead of Michelob Ultra Arena to accommodate about 6,000 more fans. The Washington Mystics will host Indiana for one game this season in Capital One Arena instead of Entertainment & Sports Arena. That change will up the total capacity by about 16,000 fans.
Fans in Chicago are petitioning for something similar to happen. Clark and the Fever will be popular wherever they go, and that could change the landscape of the WNBA.
“The day she declared, we immediately started selling tickets,” Fever general manager Lin Dunn said after the 2024 WNBA Draft. “From the business side, she’s already had a great impact on the excitement in this city… She’s just created this unbelievable attention. But she’s earned it. Look what she’s done.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 15: Caitlin Clark poses with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert after … [+]
Clark averaged 31.6 points and 8.9 assists per game in her final collegiate season. She became the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s all-time leading scorer that season, which boosted her status significantly.
Clark explained that she’s still in a hotel in Indianapolis as she acclimates to her move to a new city. She likes Indianapolis — the city’s size and speed are fitting for Clark and how she likes to live.
“Just have a quiet presence about me. I mean, I don’t really go out in public and do much,” she shared after her first official practice with the Fever. Clark said her free time consists of recovery and watching movies — she brought her PlayStation 5 to Indy but hasn’t hooked it up yet.
Her life has changed significantly due to her skill and popularity. She was a star in college basketball for years, but after Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes had a dramatic run to the NCAA Title game during her junior season, things changed.
“Probably after my junior year of basketball in college. But it’s kind of grown on a level that’s a lot different than what it was then,” Clark said when asked about the moment her life became different and abnormal. “I probably still don’t really go about my life in the way that I probably should. I still try to do normal things and live as a normal person,” she added before joking that she has a security team that follows her around now.
That level of popularity comes with a ton of off-court experiences. Clark has appeared on Saturday Night Live, signed with Nike and will get a signature shoe, and will be an executive producer for a show, among many other things. She’s in countless commercials and has become one of the planet’s most recognizable athletes.
That will change everything for the Fever and the WNBA. Indiana hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016 and has ranked bottom-two in attendance in each of the last two seasons. That will certainly change this year.
“I think there’s gonna be a lot of new fans coming into the WNBA. There’s already a lot of fans here,” Clark said. “Just continuing to grow that and attract that and keep those fans will be super important.”
The star guard is aware of her status and what it means for her and the Fever. But she has carried herself well in recent weeks and will hope to translate that to the court when Indiana’s season begins next month.
Indiana
Police shoots man armed with knife in Gary, Indiana, officials say
A man wielding a knife was shot by a police officer on Sunday in Gary, Indiana.
A spokesperson for the city said officers responded to the 2100 block of Tennessee Street for a call of a suicidal man who was armed with a knife in his hand. The man had already stabbed himself a couple of times before they arrived.
Officers found the man in the east alley of 22nd and Ohio. At this time, he was standing in the alley still with the knife in his hand and refused to drop it as ordered by officers. The man then started to advance toward the officer, who shot the man three times in the arm, the spokesperson said.
The officer notified the department that shots were fired, and the man was down. The condition of the man is unknown as of Sunday night.
Other officers responded to the scene to set up a perimeter around the area. The Gary Fire Department and Lake County Crime Scene Investigation personnel were also contacted.
No further information was immediately available.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress, get help from the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. Trained crisis counselors are available 24 hours a day to talk about anything.
Indiana
50+ Indiana counties under travel advisories after snow storm. See map
Safety and preparation are the keys to staying safe this winter
Officials talk about winter preparedness, safety, tips. Safety and preparation are the keys. Here are some tips.
At least 50 Indiana counties are under a travel advisory, and 20 counties were issued a travel watch for Dec. 14, following an overnight snow storm.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) travel advisory map has each county shaded in red for a travel warning, orange for a travel watch, yellow for a travel advisory and gray for a county without an elevated status report on it’s current travel conditions.
Here’s how you can check your county to see where it lands on the map.
Travel advisory
According to DHS, a travel advisory is the lowest level of a related advisory.
“Routine travel or activities may be restricted in areas because of a hazardous situation, and individuals should use caution or avoid those areas,” the department says on its website.
Watch advisory
According to DHS, a watch advisory is issued when conditions are threatening to a county’s safety.
“Only essential travel, such as to and from work or in emergency situations, is recommended, and emergency action plans should be implemented by businesses, schools, government agencies and other organizations,” the department’s website states.
Warning advisory
According to DHS, a warning advisory is the highest level of a related advisory, where people may be told not to travel at all.
“Travel may be restricted to emergency management workers only,” the department’s website states.
Here’s the winter weather info you need
🚨 Indiana Weather Alerts: Warnings, Watches and Advisories.
⚡ Indiana power outage map: How to check your status.
💻 Internet outages: How to track them.
🚫 What you should and shouldn’t do when the power is out.
🐶 Your neighbor left their pet outside. Who you should call.
Indianapolis weather radar
Jade Jackson is a public safety reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.
Indiana
What Darian DeVries, Tucker DeVries Said After Indiana Basketball’s Loss at Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Indiana basketball coach Darian DeVries and senior forward Tucker DeVries met with reporters after the Hoosiers’ 72-60 loss to Kentucky on Saturday night at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
Here’s what the DeVries duo said during their near-seven-minute press conference.
Q: I guess, Darian, it’s sort of another night where it feels like it just kind of gets difficult to really break down an opponent off the dribble, kind of get that inside-out sort of paint touch to three looks you want, just like what, I guess, are you guys, what’s not happening there, what’s just kind of sort of failing at the source offensively when that’s not working?
DD: Yeah, I thought the first half, you know, we got some pretty good action, pretty good movement, I thought the second half, Kentucky certainly turned up the pressure and was able to get into us and we didn’t respond well enough and we turned the ball over too much and live ball turnovers against them are really hard because now they’re out in transition playing in space, so the turnovers and the offensive rebounding, I mean, that flipped the game around that second half.
Q: On Kentucky’s long run, what was the problem there?
Yeah, I thought the turnovers, it was a combination of things, I thought, you know, we left our feet a few times, I thought we just, you know, got on our heels a little bit and didn’t play as disciplined as we needed to, you know, as that, you know, the crowd got cranked up and things, that’s the time where you got to really dig in a little bit more, your screen’s got to be better, you got to play off of two feet more, and then the offensive rebounds, you know, they just went and got them and, you know, we didn’t do a good enough job of creating space and getting bodies and going and securing the ball.
Q: What do you think you need to improve on, the team needs to improve on against ball pressure at the point of attack?
DD: Yeah, the number one thing when you get at ball pressure is everything from an execution standpoint and a movement standpoint, it’s just got to be done with more force, you can’t continue just to get pushed out and everybody stands, so you have to find ways to give yourself up with a back hook, give yourself up with a screen, set up those screens with more force, you know, and get some movement to, you know, even as, you know, they had gotten ahead and we started to break it off a little bit, once we got movement again, we were able to get those clean looks or better looks, so it’s something we got to get better at, there’s no question.
Q: Tucker, your individual line tonight was really great, I mean, your effort was fantastic, 15 points, 7 rebounds, a lot of the three point shots tonight didn’t go down like they normally do for the Hoosiers, what do you think that is, was it just not seeing the basket as well, was it the defense, was it not in the offense where you were getting clean looks?
TUCKER DEVRIES: To be honest, making and missing shots, I thought tonight, honestly, wasn’t a problem, I know, certainly, I did not shoot it great, as a team we didn’t shoot that great either from three, but, you know, even with that being said, I think there were certainly areas that we needed to be a lot better at, as a group, and if we were able to, you know, especially in the second half, execute in those areas, I think that would have made up for some of those, you know, shooting habits and miscues, but, you know, making them missing shots sometimes is basketball, but I thought in the other areas, if we could just, you know, execute there a little bit.
Q: On that, if shots maybe weren’t the problem, what kind of was, do you think?
TUCKER: I mean, he hit on it pretty good, the turnovers and obviously the offensive rebounds they had, especially in the second half. I mean, I take full responsibility for both of those areas. Obviously, four turnovers is far too many. As a group, I think when they pick up the pressure, I think we just need to really focus on our execution a little bit more on every possession. But good thing is we get a good week here before we play again to really dial in on some of those areas that we’ve maybe lacked in the beginning.
Q: When Lamar picked up his fourth foul and missed nearly nine minutes, what went wrong offensively?
DD: Yeah, I don’t remember the exact sequences there, but, you know, not having Lamar out there is certainly a big part of our offense, and, you know, his foul trouble tonight certainly limited him with only the 21 minutes because he was, again, he’s, you know, a big focal piece of what we try to run our offense through, so, you know, I believe during that little stretch that he wasn’t out there, that’s when the turnovers started to happen and
we weren’t able to get into, you know, maybe some of our actions the way we needed to.
Q: Darian, you mentioned Kentucky’s offensive rebound and kind of flipping that game. Was that just their physicality, their effort out beating you guys or something else that you saw going on?
DD: Yeah, I thought their effort, their physicality in the second half was, you know, really good. I mean, they certainly cranked it up a notch in that second half and we needed to respond to it, but, you know, I thought their aggressiveness defensively, their aggressiveness in the offensive glass, you know, was ultimately the factor.
Q: Darian, you mentioned Lamar, but how much did the foul trouble for not just him, but other guys, affect you tonight?
DD: I mean, foul trouble is foul trouble. You have it every night, so you’ve got to figure out a way to deal with it and, you know, we just didn’t do a good enough job with that.
Q: Just to follow up on that, with this team, and you’ve talked about sort of where you are with the two bigs and things like that, like does foul trouble become sort of a compounding problem when it disrupts rotations? It felt tonight like maybe guys were just not either on the floor long enough to find the rhythm or maybe had to be on the floor too long because other guys were in foul trouble.
DD: Again, our guys, you know, their numbers are called, they’re ready to go. You know, certainly, you know, a guy like Lamar, you want him out there, but when he’s not out there, I feel very confident that the guys that are coming in are going to do their part and do their job and, you know, we certainly have a lot of faith in them, so, you know, unfortunately it just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to tonight.
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