Caitlin Clark would have been forgiven for an unspectacular performance in No. 21 Iowa's game at Michigan on Sunday evening. The Hawkeyes had only seven players healthy enough to play—with two starters among the injured—a challenge even if Iowa hadn't been on the road and facing the best team in the Big Ten. But where the 20-year-old sophomore star Clark goes, spectacle follows. Please enjoy these highlights from her completely bonkers game, in which she played all 40 minutes, scored 25 fourth-quarter points, hit a bunch of comically deep, from-the-logo threes, and almost singlehandedly closed what had been a 25-point Michigan lead late in the third. If you were rooting for Michigan (guilty), at one point you started to measure the lead by number of Caitlin Clark possessions, and by those terms, it felt like hardly a lead at all.
"I mean, I just didn’t even know what the heck was going on," Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico said afterward. "I’ve coached for a long time and that was some display. I mean, she dribbled it one time over half court and she shot the ball from half court. It was pretty ridiculous for sure." In the end, Clark just ran out of time. She finished the game, a 98-90 Michigan win, with 46 points and 10 assists for her 12th double-double and third 40-point game of the season.
I feel compelled to point out that Michigan didn't defend her all that poorly! Note the possession that begins at the 36-second mark of this video: She's double-teamed her entire way down the court, and with two pairs of arms right in her face, Clark still manages to find a sliver of space to get a shot off. Also note how much time is left on the shot clock at the 19-second mark, when she launches a three from the top serif of the block M! What on earth are you supposed to do?
The Wolverines can take comfort in the knowledge that this is an equal-opportunity, conference-wide clowning.
It's nothing personal—if there is a logo on the court, she will pull up from it.
