Caitlin Clark has caught up to the WNBA, and may be starting to zoom ahead of it

Yes, yes, Iowa State plays Iowa in football Saturday. Now let’s move on to the top Iowa-related sports story of all-time, which continues to grow.

Caitlin Clark. You can go in a lot of directions talking about what the former Hawkeye basketball player is doing in the WNBA, and it’s all pretty amazing.

Clark’s Indiana Fever open a six-game home stand Wednesday night when they face the Los Angeles Sparks. The 17-16 Fever came home after weekend wins in Chicago and Dallas. They are over .500 for the first time since they were 4-3 in June 2019, and for the first time this late in a season since 2016, the last time they reached the playoffs.

It’s the same team that began this season 0-5 and 1-8. I was at their 102-66 loss to New York in their home opener. It was gnarly.

Clark’s teammates have learned how to play with her and vice versa. Indiana is 6-1 since the Olympic break, a month off that surely did Clark good.

In Clark’s last eight games, she has averaged 24.5 points and 10.3 assists. That’s crazy-good, especially for a rookie against the best women players on the planet.

Clark has had help. Seventh-year pro Kelsey Mitchell has scored at least 21 points in each of her last seven games, and had 36 in the Fever’s pulsating 100-93 win at Dallas Sunday.

Ohio State alum Mitchell was the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer and maker of 3-pointers until Clark broke her records this year. Mitchell has experienced a lot of losing in Indiana. You think she likes playing with Clark?

If a team overplays either Clark or Mitchell, it’s asking for trouble from the other. It’s reminiscent of the Golden State Warriors when longtime teammates Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson drove opponents nuts together with their shooting.

Not having NBA TV, I listened to the second half of Dallas’ telecast of the game via satellite radio Sunday. If I hadn’t known the game was in Texas, I’d have sworn it was an Indiana home game with all the cheering for the Fever in general and Clark in specific.

A total of over a half-million people have attended Clark’s 33 games. Crowds of over 20,000 saw her in Washington and Las Vegas, where games were moved from smaller venues. The Atlanta Dream did the same, and had crowds of 17,575 and 17,608 for Indiana’s two games there.

The Fever averaged just 4,067 fans at home last season, which made Gainbridge Fieldhouse feel pretty empty. This year’s home average is 16,979.

Predictably, the first half of Clark’s first pro season was an adjustment period. Lately, she’s played far more comfortably and has looked so much like her Iowa self. She had 59 points and 24 assists over the last two games, and made 10 of 20 3-pointers.

Chicago’s Angel Reese has been very good in her first pro season, but Clark is the Rookie of the Year and it’s not close.

Now, one can wonder if Clark will can be first-team All-WNBA as a rookie. There is no shortage of other candidates, mind you.

Las Vegas center A’ja Wilson is the obvious MVP with averages of 27.5 points and 12 rebounds. But with averages of 18.7 points and a league-high 8.4 assists on a team that has gone from lousy to good in months, Clark may arguably be one of her league’s top five players.

If not now, then soon. Who’s to say what she’ll do in the final seven regular-season games?

Clark isn’t on a roster as stacked with talent as New York, Las Vegas and Connecticut, but the wins have started stacking up. Clark has such a long way to go to become considered the greatest women’s player ever, but would you bet against it happening given her recent trajectory?

People will watch the WNBA playoffs in late September and early October, football season. They have watched all season. The league’s ratings have nearly tripled from last year, and attendance at league games is up 156 percent.

By the way, Wednesday’s Los Angeles-Indiana game is on CBS Sports Network. You know if you watch it you’ll see something sensational at some point.

And now, we return to focusing on Saturday’s all-important Cyclones-Hawkeyes football game.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com