Caitlin Clark and her Iowa teammates give Hoosiers a bad case of senioritis

IOWA CITY — Calling Caitlin Clark sensational is from the handbook of the Department of Redundancy Department.

Her name symbolizes basketball excellence, and America has known it for a while now. Recently, an Uber driver in Orlando asked his Iowan passengers where they were from, than proceeded to tell them why Clark is so good.

Former Iowa men’s assistant basketball coach Kirk Speraw said Saturday that Clark wasn’t a once-in-a-generation player, but a once-in-two-generations players, comparing her skills and visions and fearlessness to past greats Pete Maravich and Ernie DiGregorio.

But no woman is an island. Without a crew of skilled, tough and intuitive players around her, Clark is scoring a lot of points without winning much of consequence, and she’d be the first to tell you as much.

Senior moments filled Carver-Hawkeye Arena Saturday night along with the amazingly large crowd that shrugged off the elements. Those fans simply had to be here to see who won between Indiana and Iowa teams that came in 5-0 in the Big Ten, 11 months after it took a last-second Clark 3-pointer to beat the Hoosiers.

Senior moments? Oh yeah. That’s seniors as in fourth-year player Clark, fifth-years Gabbie Marshall and Molly Davis, and sixth-year Kate Martin.

Davis had her Iowa-high of 18 points in this 84-57 Hawkeyes romp. She played superb defense against the Hoosiers’ Sara Scalia despite spotting her 4 inches.

Marshall rained in four 3-pointers after Iowa got off to a woeful start shooting from deep. Martin had a career-high 12 rebounds.

Clark seemed content to walk the ball down the court after an Iowa rebound with six minutes left and the game in hand, but saw Martin sprinting down the court. Clark hit Martin in stride, and there were two more points.

“They all just kind of understand,” Clark said. “I don’t always have to say what I want when I’m on the court. I think they can read my eyes pretty well.”

Davis had her best game as a Hawkeye since transferring from Central Michigan before last season. She had seven points, an assist and a steal in a second-quarter span of 1:50, with Clark on the bench with two fouls.

Clark was the straw that stirred this rout with 30 points and 11 assists, but Davis didn’t let the Hawkeyes do anything but gain ground during Clark’s brief absence.

It was a long way from playing her home finale at Central Michigan two years ago before 1,318 fans on a team that went 4-25 that season. The previous season, though, ended with CMU losing to Iowa in a first-round NCAA tournament game. Davis had 18 points and five steals, and left a good impression.

“She lit us up,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said.

Here Davis was Saturday, playing before 15,000 or so crazy-loud fans and a national, prime-time television audience. And she played so well.

“It kind of chokes me up a little bit thinking about it,” Davis said. “It’s really cool Coach Bluder gave me the opportunity to play at a place like this.”

“Molly, she had a couple really nice backdoor cuts tonight when I was able to hit her,” said Clark, “and that’s just a high basketball IQ play. Molly’s that type of player.”

Martin and Marshall, what don’t they know by now? How often do you see them get open for their shots? A lot. But you don’t see it until Clark sees it a second before you.

“They know what’s going to happen and what’s going on,” said Clark.

“It’s just kind of a comforting thing to be out there on the floor with three other people that really have your back and really know what your mind is thinking even if you don’t have to say it.”

In reality, this game ended late in the third quarter. Clark made one of her beak bombs, a 3-pointer from the Tiger Hawk logo. Then she stole the ball and hit a streaking Davis, who made an athletic lay-in with six seconds left.

It went from 60-48 to 65-48, the decibel count in the arena broke the needle, and No. 3 Iowa was soon to be 17-1.

“I think the sky’s the limit,” Bluder said. “Right now I’m just worried about beating Wisconsin on Tuesday. though. That’s my only concern right now.”

It’s supposed to be really cold again Tuesday night in Iowa City. Hawkeye fans will deal with it much better than the Badgers will handle their opponents.

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