Caitlin Clark is the first TRUE star in the history of woman’s basketball.

[spanishninja]

Caitlin Clark is proof that people will tune in if the players make exciting plays that ordinary people can’t. She pulls up from the logo on a pull up over a defender like Steph Curry. If they lower the rims and allow dunks, people will tune in.

ordinary people can't dunk on lowered rims?

[CraftylikeaFox]

A lot of this can be chalked up to being in the right place at the right time. It wasn't that long ago that Kelsey Plum was doing what Caitlin Clark is doing when she was at Washington. Most people probably don't even know that it was thought that Plum would be the one to beat Pistol Pete's scoring record. Clark is benefitting from the fact that mens college basketball has the least amount of star power/intrigue in recent memory, plus a general lack of interest in the NBA regular season in recent years. It all came together at the perfect time for Clark.

I swear my friend group talks more about the women's college basketball prospects like Caitlin, Juju than prospects in men's college basketball.

Same. We just made plans for this Friday to watch UConn vs Iowa. We haven't met up yet to watch one mens game. Also we were texting last night about the fall off of Hailey Van Lith and how she went from being a top 5 pick to probably undrafted. The rise in popularity for womens basketball right now is absurd. Can't remember the last time a sport increased so dramatically in popularity after only one season.

[Asianiac_24]

Caitlin Clark is proof that people will tune in if the players make exciting plays that ordinary people can’t. She pulls up from the logo on a pull up over a defender like Steph Curry. If they lower the rims and allow dunks, people will tune in.

ordinary people can't dunk on lowered rims?

It doesn’t matter people will be playing on regular rims. From the visual perspective it doesn’t make a difference

[disoblige]

You cant really compare nba and wnba. Men and women have different physique.

[spanishninja]

Caitlin Clark is proof that people will tune in if the players make exciting plays that ordinary people can’t. She pulls up from the logo on a pull up over a defender like Steph Curry. If they lower the rims and allow dunks, people will tune in.

ordinary people can't dunk on lowered rims?

It doesn’t matter people will be playing on regular rims. From the visual perspective it doesn’t make a difference

lowering the rims is going in the slamball direction. you don't want to go in the slamball direction.

[Pelon chingon]

ordinary people can't dunk on lowered rims?

It doesn’t matter people will be playing on regular rims. From the visual perspective it doesn’t make a difference

lowering the rims is going in the slamball direction. you don't want to go in the slamball direction.

It's already smaller court, less mins, smaller ball I always found it funny that lowered rims was some sort of bridge too far.

[Onus]

A lot of this can be chalked up to being in the right place at the right time. It wasn't that long ago that Kelsey Plum was doing what Caitlin Clark is doing when she was at Washington. Most people probably don't even know that it was thought that Plum would be the one to beat Pistol Pete's scoring record. Clark is benefitting from the fact that mens college basketball has the least amount of star power/intrigue in recent memory, plus a general lack of interest in the NBA regular season in recent years. It all came together at the perfect time for Clark.

I swear my friend group talks more about the women's college basketball prospects like Caitlin, Juju than prospects in men's college basketball.

Same. We just made plans for this Friday to watch UConn vs Iowa. We haven't met up yet to watch one mens game. Also we were texting last night about the fall off of Hailey Van Lith and how she went from being a top 5 pick to probably undrafted. The rise in popularity for womens basketball right now is absurd. Can't remember the last time a sport increased so dramatically in popularity after only one season.

It's cool to see. I wonder if it's just because there's no one good in college on the men's side or if they can keep this momentum up. I think JuJu has a chance to keep people interested.

[shi-woo]

Yes and no. I grew up and live in UConn, she isn't getting any more love than someone like Diana T or MM did. She's also not really a better player than they were at college either if I'm being honest compared to her peers atleast.

I compared Clark and Juju to Steph and Kyrie. Kyrie can be better than Steph on any given night, and outplayed him in 16, but Steph changed the game forever and was the perfect player to take over the league after The Beautiful Game Spurs showed the way. Clark is obviously Curry in this point.

Just a perfect combination of years and years of marketing finally paying off, the need to open up new markets for capitalism, an influx of new talent that;s actually created competition and storylines, and finally a game that is perimeter oriented did the womens game so much good.

I always felt like the biggest issue with the WNBA and NCAAW was that they tried to market it as the same as the males, and focused on promoting size and girls dunking. Something nothing with a penis is interested in when they literally can watch dudes jump from the free throw line year round. I think this is still an issue that the game needs to work out, because too many girls are still trying to make plays at the rim like they are LeBron James, when it's pretty evident from watching women's basketball that having a float game is more necessary than your ability to get to the rim.

Clark is def. what the sport needed to help push it foward, and she's doing it by not throwing race and gender in our faces every ten seconds. She's also the first female player that's so disliked by her own peers that we've been able to talk about and criticize her without being called racist or sexist (take notes LSU coach). That again causes discussion, and through that, interest.

RRight player at the right time really. So fars shes done more than deliver (same with Paige, and to a lesser extent Juju)

[spanishninja]

It doesn’t matter people will be playing on regular rims. From the visual perspective it doesn’t make a difference

lowering the rims is going in the slamball direction. you don't want to go in the slamball direction.

It's already smaller court, less mins, smaller ball I always found it funny that lowered rims was some sort of bridge too far.

your proposal is to change the game so that we go from hardly seeing any dunks to a lot of players dunking. if you don't think that's a drastic change I don't know what is.

[IMF]

umm Cheryl Miller?

Big enough that opposing fans used to chant her name to taunt Reggie during NBA games in the 90s. That displays some cultural relevance.

[theforumblue]

women's tennis/golf/volleyball/soccer for example, and lot of olympic stuff, shows you what's needed to make women's sport popular. it can't just be one person being way better than her peers. you need to see challenges, rivalries, skills across the board in terms of number of other players who are also high level. it's why i couldn't watch women's basketball, yeah there have been very skilled players in wnba, but i just couldnt watch their teammates for extended period of time.

now the overall talent level has risen to the point where what CC is doing legit looks impressive. other girls too. Juju plays like she had to play her male siblings all her life Paige is clutch. but it's the role players and bench players whose talent level needed to be higher.

but with all that, you still needed a spark, to bring eyes. CC beating records and doing it in style brought eyeballs. it's the right person at right time situation.

having said that, i dont think i'll watch wnba anyways. but who knows.

[Meat]

women's tennis/golf/volleyball/soccer for example, and lot of olympic stuff, shows you what's needed to make women's sport popular. it can't just be one person being way better than her peers. you need to see challenges, rivalries, skills across the board in terms of number of other players who are also high level. it's why i couldn't watch women's basketball, yeah there have been very skilled players in wnba, but i just couldnt watch their teammates for extended period of time.

now the overall talent level has risen to the point where what CC is doing legit looks impressive. other girls too. Juju plays like she had to play her male siblings all her life Paige is clutch. but it's the role players and bench players whose talent level needed to be higher.

but with all that, you still needed a spark, to bring eyes. CC beating records and doing it in style brought eyeballs. it's the right person at right time situation.

having said that, i dont think i'll watch wnba anyways. but who knows.

the should follow gymnastics lead what's the wnba equivalent of of the uneven bars or balance beam.

[azcatz11]

Also nothing against the OP, but this is like when someone discovers something for the first time and just assumes nobody else knew about it either since they didn't. It's just an inability to understand the world operates independently from them.

There have been star female hoopers before obviously. One can argue about the difference in exposure due to social media, more TV etc... but Cheryl Miller was undeniably a star. Swoopes. Leslie. Moore. Lobo. Taursi. Griner. And countless more.

But welcome to women's hoops OP. Glad you are no longer one of those posters who just wants to bag on them because they don't dunk like Vince Carter.

#GrowtheGame #whateverittakes

I think he has a point. Cringe worthy or not, I was listening to the Dan Patrick show this morning and the game last night was the lead story and was talked about for like 25 minutes. I can't remember women's basketball ever getting this amount of coverage and it's all because of Clark.

Griner was the last huge star but I'm pretty sure Clark is bigger from the coverage I'm seeing...

There's a pretty big difference between biggest and first though. I don't think anybody could argue that she's achieved transcendent, crossover stardom. But my only knowledge of women's basketball comes from being a sports fan in general and I've known all about all those names Chuck mentioned for years.

I think she's the first that has achieved the crossover success...although I'm not sure if that's even a point worth arguing.

Taurasi, Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, etc. were still firmly encased in the 'girls basketball' bubble IMO. I don't think people were talking about them the way people are talking about CC rn.

I think at this very moment in time she's the most popular athlete in the country.

[Michael Jackson]

That is pretty awesome. Going sideway again, I always wondered why the hell your avatar is a picture of Ted Bundy., but you don't have to answer that

Well goes back to the Michael Jackson name which was pre realgm and that got stuck that (I was young and I made the joke asking if "anyone knew a good place to blow bubbles at the staples center") Got stuck and couldn't change my name. Then I found that insane pic of Bundy and just kept it these years to not confuse people. Lol I get confused when people change their pics or names!

[Tottery]

I can't escape her name and people who don't watch hoops know of her. I agree.

[HMFFL]

Sure, if you think women's basketball started in 2023.

Exactly this.
I have been watching WNBA for as long as I can remember and I have seen plenty of stars.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

[Handlez]

What will people say if she loses to Paige in the final 4?

Remember, before Paige got severely injured, she was the best. And she may be the best complete player now. Look up her stats.

[KembaWalker]

What will people say if she loses to Paige in the final 4?

Remember, before Paige got severely injured, she was the best. And she may be the best complete player now. Look up her stats.

Caitlin needs more help!

[lobosloboslobos]

What will people say if she loses to Paige in the final 4?

Remember, before Paige got severely injured, she was the best. And she may be the best complete player now. Look up her stats.

Caitlin needs more help!

Paige is missing half her team. It'll be a fair fight.

The answer to OP is that terrific as CC is it's also a case of right time and right place. She's standing on the shoulders of all those other stars. Doesn't mean she's not above them in both popularity and skill, i think she is, but it's partly a result of the whole game improving with more players better coaching, etc. Also doesn't mean those who came before her weren't true stars. She's just the biggest, because the women's game is bigger than ever and finally lots of men are realizing it's fun to watch talented women compete too.

[Ice Man]

Is Caitlin Clark the biggest media/public star in NCAA women's history? Of course.

Is Caitlin Clark the best player in NCAA women's history? Of course. She is 1st in career points and 3rd in career assists. No other player makes the Top 25 for both categories. She also has the career tournament record in assists (stated last night in the broadcast) and probably also in points. (I can't find that statistic.) She also has taken a team devoid of Top 30 recruits to two consecutive Final Fours, with only South Carolina among all the powerhouse teams that are loaded with All Americans able to match that achievement. (And she scored 40 when facing South Carolina last year to knock them out in the Final Four.)

Honestly, it's not even close. There's no debate at all.

Will Caitlin Clark be the best player in WBNA history? I have no idea. If you want to argue that she will be terrible, that's fine. I won't quarrel because I do not know.