ALBANY — Who is she? Magic Johnson with a ponytail? Pete Maravich with a ponytail? Steph Curry with a ponytail? Take your pick. At any moment, she can be any one of them.
The seats inside MVP Arena on Saturday were filled with fans young and older clad in Iowa No. 22 jerseys and shirts, and their MVP, the MVP of the sport, gave them Showtime.
And now Caitlin Clark, No. 22, an 89-68 winner over Colorado, and LSU’s Angel Reese — the faces of women’s college basketball — have a heavyweight showdown scheduled for Monday night for a berth in the Final Four.
Two charismatic women who have impacted their sport so much and could impact the WNBA enough that they have drawn comparisons to how Larry Bird and Magic Johnson grew the NBA’s viewership and popularity in the 1980s.
“The biggest thing is I think women’s basketball is in a really great place, it’s not just me and Angel and I know she would say the exact same thing,” Clark said, a white Elite Eight towel wrapped around her neck. “There’s so many stars in our game. So many young stars, so much young talent, and I think what we’re both able to do for our respective programs has been really special and the way we’ve elevated women’s basketball has been really cool.”
Much will be made of Reese taunting Clark when she gave her the ring finger in LSU’s national championship win over Iowa last season and used John Cena’s “you can’t see me” hand gesture.
“There’s no rivalry, oh no,” Reese reiterated to me on Friday.
I asked her why people think there is. “I guess ’cause of last year’s game, I’m not really sure,” she said.
I asked Clark if there is any rivalry between them and she replied: “No, I would not say that at all.”
They played AAU ball together. If you listen to them, no harm, no foul. “Just two competitive players playing against each other wanting to win,” Reese said.
Caitlin Clark is mesmerizing. You can’t take your eyes off her. You don’t want to take your eyes off her.
This is a basketball savant with a rare sixth sense, basketball I.Q. and court vision.
She is The Natural.
She plays chess as everyone else is playing checkers.
She is a 6-foot, 155-pound coach on the court.
She rifles pinpoint passes to open teammates, sometimes with one perfect bounce in stride.
Her vaunted 3-point shooting (3-for-11) was off and it didn’t make any difference. She missed her first three 3s and Iowa led by eight after one quarter because she had six assists, mostly in transition.
“When people really run the floor I want to reward them,” Clark said.
Then she drilled a stepback 3 over Kindyll Wetta midway through the second quarter. Then she drove with lightning quickness to the hoop for a quick pair of buckets.
She finished with 29 points, 15 assists and six rebounds … and two turnovers in 35:47.
She wore the black-and-gold, school-color sneakers and made everyone around her better.
She is fire and she is ice … a demonstrative, competitive fire that rages for all to see, and an ice in her veins that never melts in the biggest and brightest moments.
“Honestly I think when I step on the court like a calming sense comes over me,” she said.
When it was over, she spent a good five minutes signing hats and jerseys and anything planted in front of her by fawning, pleading young fans in the front row of the stands.
“I think it’s something that never gets old and something that I always try to make time for, those young boys and those young girls,” Clark said, “and being able to inspire them is one of the best parts about what I get to do, so I love it.”
Her locker-room interviews over, she retreated to her seat and scoured through her cell phone.
LSU recognized Winning Time to survive UCLA 78-69, and Reese played to the LSU crowd when it ended, borrowed a pair of pom-poms from one of the cheerleaders and led a quick cheer in front of the band before leaving the court.
“We can’t focus on any other team until we handle our business,” Reese had said.
LSU handled its business. LSU defeated Iowa 102-85 in the 2023 national championship game despite a 30-point night from Clark.
“We’re the good villains,” Reese said. “Coach [Kim Mulkey] talks about it all the time, she calls us the Beatles.”
Reese is a 6-foot-3 warrior who can impose her will in the paint and on the boards.
“I try to have a Kobe mentality, not caring whoever’s in front of me,” Reese said. “I don’t have no friends on the court.”
Neither, of course, did Bird and Magic.
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Steve Serby
