Lisa Bluder has had the privilege of molding Caitlin Clark into a transcendent phenom throughout her career with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
On Sunday, that all came to an end, as the Hawkeyes fell just short of their ultimate goal of a national title once again, but that’s not dampening the shine of Clark’s star. Bluder took some time afterwards to reflect on what Clark has meant to the sport, and where women’s college basketball turns to now.
“Caitlin has certainly been a tremendous star for our game, but there are so many stars in our game. We have, many, many. So we’re just going to latch onto that next one next year,” Bluder explained. “And there’s lots of them. There’s not just one. Even this year, there were so many. That’s what makes her getting the player of the year award so special because it wasn’t a runaway. It was a really, really hard decision because there’s so many good players out there.
“I’m hoping with our success, I think success breeds success. Definitely I feel recruiting going forward. We’ve opened up our geographic footprint. And I think that’s going to bode well for Iowa in the future.”
Evidently, Bluder believes Clark has helped lay the foundation for future success, and that’s because she does all the little things right, including the off the court responsibilities the Hawkeyes star has handled.
“She has raised the excitement of our sport. There’s no doubt. Just because she does things in a different way than anybody else can do. Plus she has all the intangibles. She’s a great student. She’s a great role model. She does everything — she loves being that role model,” Bluder added. “I really think that, when she came in as a freshman and she said, we’re going to the Final Four, a lot of people laughed at her and maybe even laughed at her for coming to Iowa, quite honestly.
“But she believed, we believed, and she got everybody else in that locker room to believe. And that is not an easy thing to do. So her just belief in everybody around her, it just grew and grew. You could say the same thing about this year, quite honestly. I don’t know if I answered your question completely, but I think that she has done amazing things to grow our game and doing it the right way.”
Time will tell what the future holds for Caitlin Clark in the WNBA, but it’s obvious she’s been a godsend for women’s college basketball, and the Iowa Hawkeyes. Even though she didn’t win a national title, she’s a champion in her own right.
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