Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark, who hit the shot seen around the world on Sunday — no really, she was trending worldwide — appeared on the Dan Patrick Show to talk about that shining moment, her biggest influences, her celebrity fans and her surprisingly uncertain future.
“I was the second option,” Clark told Patrick of the game-ending play against No. 2 Indiana.
Iowa’s plan was to get the ball inside for the tie, but because she wasn’t double-teamed as expected, she kept it. And it was, as she said, “money.”
“Monika Czinano set a really, really good screen,” Clark explained for the national audience. “She kind of hit the girl and she almost fell over a little bit, which gave me a second to get it off. It’s a play we practice and practice all the time. 1.5 seconds is plenty of time for me to get it off.”
Much like one of the idols she referenced: Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors.
“The way he shoots the ball, gets into it with the crowd… those are a lot of the things that I love to do, too,” Clark said, adding later that Maya Moore of the Minnesota Lynx was her favorite player growing up.
Clark’s also a fan of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Their quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, took note of her game on Sunday, the latest in a long line of professional athlete praise from the likes of Ja Morant, Trae Young, LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
“He’s like the most exciting football player maybe ever,” Clark said. “Maybe there’s a little comparison between me and him in what we do — a little unorthodox.”
But the most surprising revelation came when Patrick asked her how important the WNBA is to her — and if she’d take a pay cut if she decided to pass on the COVID-year option teammates like Czinano, Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall are taking advantage of.
“I really have no clue of what I’m going to do — stay for an extra year or leave after next year,” Clark said, adding that it’s not about the money, as the endorsements and sponsorships she has at Iowa now would follow her to the WNBA. “It’s not something that I would really factor into my decision of staying or going too much.”
After some small talk about classes, Patrick pressed her on the idea of staying two more years with the Hawkeyes. But Clark didn’t back down.
“I love this place,” she said. “I love getting to play in front of a sold-out crowd every single night. I love college basketball. It would be hard to leave. What we’ve been able to build has been super special, too. But more than anything, I love this program. I love getting to play for Coach Bluder. I love getting to play with my best friends. They’re not only my teammates, but I hang out with them every second off the court. It’d be really hard to leave that, especially when you know you can go to the WNBA even the year after that. There’s pros and cons to both sides and I think it’s been hard for a lot of college athletes to decide what to do, just because there are pros of staying in college, but also your dream of reaching the next level is right there as well.”
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