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Women’s basketball has taken a while to take off, but now has the look of a rocket
Caitlin Clark has been an enormous contributor, obviously, but the women’s game has a lot of other good teams, players and buzz
Feb. 18, 2024 11:03 am
IOWA CITY — Billie Jean King phoned Lisa Bluder Wednesday night.
That thrilled Bluder, who long has idolized King and often has borrowed and shared King’s phrase “Pressure is a privilege.” The admiration shoe was on the other foot this time.
“Billie Jean King called and expressed her excitement for our program and for (Caitlin Clark’s scoring) record,” Bluder said. “That was pretty special to me.
"I can remember sitting on the couch with my parents (in 1973) and watching Billie Jean King play Bobby Riggs and thinking ‘Wow, we can play sport, too.’ “
“Wow” was the operative word here Thursday evening. Sellout crowds for the Iowa women’s program have been season-long. Thursday was next-level, the excitement and joy soaring throughout Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The way the 14,786 fans here and the millions beyond Elliott Drive have embraced Clark and Bluder’s team has been next-level.
This is the 50th season of women’s basketball at the University of Iowa. While Clark’s star power rocketed the Hawkeyes into the national consciousness, the launchpad was built slowly and steadily.
Before Title IX, Iowa got in the women’s basketball business. But it was at the level of intramurals in the beginning. In the Hawkeyes’ first season, they lost to William Penn three times by an average of 51 points. They lost to Mount Mercy.
OK, you start somewhere, and William Penn and Mount Mercy had great established programs.
Title IX, the 1972 legislation prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any education program receiving funding from the federal government swung open the doors of gyms and many other things to women.
“Now we have women who were Title IX babies that understand the value of sport and the lessons that can be learned from sport,” Bluder said. “They want to support it. We didn’t have that 20 years ago.”
In the words of Ringo Starr, time takes time. A half-century is a blink of an eye historically, but can be a slow slog when you want to see positive change. Yet, here we are. In 2024, women’s basketball has become big stuff in far more places than where it has long thrived, like Iowa State and Iowa.
No longer do Connecticut and Tennessee own the women’s game, with the two in possession of a combined 18 national championships. Really good teams are in a lot of places, and more are coming.
The next Caitlin Clark isn’t a generation away. In fact, she may be coming to the Big Ten next season. USC freshman guard JuJu Watkins averages 27.7 points.
Watkins scored 51 against Stanford on Feb. 8 with what the Los Angeles Times described as “a dizzying array of stepbacks, crossovers and silky jumpers.”
Sound like anyone you know?
As for this season’s Big Ten, as good as Iowa is, it has major work to do to finish ahead of or tied with Ohio State and Indiana. In bigger-picture categories, the Hawkeyes are joining those teams and many others in winning.
As women’s players and teams keep improving, so do attendance and television ratings. Iowa went to the 1993 Final Four, so the school is far from new at winning. C. Vivian Stringer had a Big Ten dynasty in her 12 years here with six Big Ten titles.
But in 1993, Iowa hosted the NCAA’s Mideast Regional semifinals and final, which the Hawkeyes won against Auburn and Tennessee. The Thursday night crowd for the Auburn game was 8,376. The Saturday afternoon attendance for the final was 12,343.
If NCAA regional semis and finals were held at Iowa this year, ticket scalpers could pay off their mortgages and have enough money left to spend a week at a luxury villa in Lake Como.
The public has never wrapped its arms around the WNBA. That will start to change once Clark is in its midst. Even though the games are from May through September, which has never been ideal, the presence of Clark with other present and future stars will only lift that league.
If Clark was a hot ticket at Minnesota, Northwestern and Maryland — and she certainly was — she’ll be the same at WNBA games in those three metro areas.
But living in the moment, Iowa’s next game is at Indiana Thursday. It is, of course, sold out.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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