Iowa
Caitlin Clark became a legend at Iowa. Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame almost changed history
Caitlin Clark avoids punishment after criticizing WNBA refs
USA TODAY’s Christine Brennan weighs in on why Caitlin Clark hasn’t faced discipline over comments about WNBA officiating.
Sports Seriously
Caitlin Clark became a national sensation at Iowa − but her rise to stardom nearly didn’t happen as a Hawkeye.
The current Indiana Fever star is an Iowa native and attended Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines.
In her senior season in 2019, she was committed to playing at Notre Dame, which had just won a national championship in 2018. Clark’s desire to be part of the Fighting Irish is revealed in the upcoming book “On Her Game,” by USA TODAY Sports’ Christine Brennan.
Then-coach Muffet McGraw was among the top women’s coaches in the country, and her strong team was appealing to Clark. McGraw first saw Clark play at an AAU tournament when she was a high school sophomore and remembered how great of a passer she was.
“Just how much she wanted to win, her competitive spirit. I just liked her right away,” McGraw said. “I remember talking to her, thinking, ‘I want to coach her.’ I just could relate to her. I thought we had a pretty good connection, which doesn’t always happen, because as I got older and kids got younger, I have nothing in common with them. But with her, it was different.
“I always came away from my conversations with her thinking, ‘Man, I really want her, I really want her to come here. I think she’d be great.’”
Clark’s ‘soft commitment’ raises questions
However, something was off. Even though Clark told McGraw she’d play for her, she didn’t publicly reveal it.
McGraw noticed the “soft commitment” and how Clark was in contact with Iowa coaches. The Notre Dame coach ran into one of the Iowa staffers at a funeral and asked why they were still talking to Clark, at which point the Hawkeye staff member revealed it was Clark who was calling them.
“That’s when I knew, yeah, okay, we’re done,” McGraw said.
Clark told McGraw in November 2019 she would not attend Notre Dame, the same month she announced her commitment to the Hawkeyes.
Clark’s decision was widely expected by college basketball coaches, as several knew she wanted to stay close to home. Even though McGraw and other coaches missed out on having the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, the two-time national championship winning coach believes Clark made the right call, adding her career could have been vastly different at a perennial women’s college basketball power such as Notre Dame or Connecticut.
“It would have been great to have her at Notre Dame, and our fan base would have loved her,” McGraw said. “But Iowa just made so much sense. She made a great decision, looking at how it turned out.”
Aside from scoring 3,951 points during her time at Iowa and becoming the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, Clark led Iowa to back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2023 and 2024, making it all the way to the national championship game in both seasons.
(Reprinted from “On Her Game” by Christine Brennan, Simon and Schuster, 2025)
HOUSTON — Freshman Keaton Wagler scored 25 points and Illinois ended Iowa’s underdog March Madness run by dominating in the frontcourt, beating the Hawkeyes 71-59 on Saturday to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2005.
This will be the sixth trip to the Final Four for Illinois, which has never won a national title. The Fighting Illini will face either Duke or UConn next weekend in Indianapolis.
The much taller Illini (28-8) outrebounded Iowa 38-21 in the South Region final. David Mirkovic led the way with 12 rebounds.
Coach Brad Underwood’s emphasis on recruiting in Eastern Europe has paid off in this tournament. Tomislav Ivisic of Croatia, who stands 7-foot-1, and his 7-2 twin brother Zvonimir have shined in March.
Andrej Stojakovic, who was born in Greece but whose father is Serbian three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic, scored 17 points for third-seeded Illinois.
His famous father watched proudly as his son punched his ticket to the Final Four, and Wagler’s parents — who met when they played basketball at a junior college in Kansas — cheered wildly throughout for their son, who was named MVP of the region.
Bennett Stirtz scored 24 points for the ninth-seeded Hawkeyes (24-13), who knocked off top-seeded Florida in the second round as part of an impressive run under first-year coach Ben McCollum, a four-time Division II national champion at Northwest Missouri State.
No. 6 seed Tennessee (25-11) defeated No. 2 seed Iowa State (29-8), 76-62, on Friday in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 at United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
The Vols advanced to their third consecutive Elite Eight under 11th-year head coach Rick Barnes.
“One, very humbled by it,” Barnes said. “Certainly proud of our basketball team. They worked really hard. Defensively, I thought we knew we would have to have a great effort defensively. Certainly Iowa State, outstanding. T.J. (Otzelberger), outstanding program, coach.
“This time of year is always tough when you lose a key guy like they did, and that’s part of the tournament. That’s the tough part about it, but just really proud of our guys and the effort they made and against a team that they play as hard as any team we played all year. The start of the game, I don’t think we’ve seen anything like that all year, and we were able to withstand it. Again, just really proud of the effort from our entire team. Everybody had a hand in us winning this game.”
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CHICAGO − Tennessee basketball’s Men’s NCAA Tournament game against Iowa State will start a little later than planned.
The Sweet 16 game between the No. 6 Vols (24-11) and No. 2 Cyclones (29-7) will now tipoff at 10:25 p.m. ET at the United Center on TBS.
The game was originally scheduled for 10:10 p.m. before the 15-minute delay. There is also the standard 30-minute break in between tournament games. Tennessee and Iowa State won’t begin until 30 minutes after the end of No. 1 Michigan (33-3) and No. 4 Alabama (29-5).
Iowa State forward Joshua Jefferson status
Iowa State’s star forward Joshua Jefferson is questionable against Tennessee basketball according to the NCAA player availability report released at 6:32 p.m.
Jefferson sprained his ankle in the opening minutes of Iowa State’s first-round game against Tennessee State. He sat for the remainder of the game and missed the Cyclones’ win over Kentucky on March 22. Iowa State didn’t need the All-Big 12 forward as it generated 20 Wildcat turnovers in its 19-point victory.
Wynton Jackson covers high school sports for Knox News. Email: wynton.jackson@knoxnews.com
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