Looking back on winter sports before moving on

The calendar and the recent storm surge tell us it’s spring.

The temperature outside has been, well, spotty at best, telling us winter does not want to give up its grip.

But we must move on. Before we shift to tennis, soccer, the Drake Relays and baseball, however, let’s revisit GOAT talk.

So much has been written about Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, there’s not a lot to add in this space.

But this was a remarkable season for Clark and the Iowa women’s basketball team. Put the records on simmer for a while and think about what Lisa Bluder’s team in general — and Clark specifically — has done for women’s basketball in the past year.

People care.

Some people always have cared, but there are a lot more of them now. There’s more in Iowa — season ticket sales for 2023-24 are on pause because there was so much demand — and there are more around the country.

The NCAA championship was the most-watch women’s basketball game ever, with an average of 9.9 million viewers on ABC Sunday afternoon.

That, as The Gazette’s Mike Hlas pointed out in a post on Tuesday, was “more than last season’s Cotton, Orange and Sugar bowls. It was more than the season-average for the NFL’s Thursday night telecasts on Prime last year.”

Is there any doubt Clark, with at least one more year of eligibility, is the Greatest Of All Time at Iowa? The West Des Moines product arguably is the best basketball player — female or male — the state has ever produced.

Who’s better?

Nick Collison of Iowa Falls? He, along with Sioux City’s Kirk Hinrich, led Kansas to the NCAA title game in 2003. His jersey is retired at Kansas and with the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he spent his entire 14-year NBA career.

The aforementioned Hinrich? He, too, had a long NBA career and was drafted higher than Collison (seventh overall in 2003). He also has his jersey retired at Kansas.

Keegan Murray? The Cedar Rapids Prairie product and Iowa star was the fourth pick in last year’s NBA Draft and is having an outstanding rookie season with the Sacramento Kings.

Raef LeFrentz? Harrison Barnes? Doug McDermont, who actually was born in Grand Forks, N.D., but went to high school in Ames?

Clark, at the very least, is on equal footing with any male player from Iowa — and she’s not done.

But what about Lee? Where does he rank among Iowa wrestlers?

After getting pinned in the semifinals at the NCAA Championships last month, Lee was denied the opportunity to become the Hawkeyes’ first four-time national champion.

Does that disqualify him from GOAT talk? Hardly.

At worst, it puts him in the mix with other Hawkeye greats, others who won three NCAA titles.

Ed Banach won his three from 1980 to ’83, finishing second his junior year. Barry Davis won three NCAA titles in a row after finishing seventh as a freshman, losing only three more times in his career.

Joe Williams also won three straight titles after a seventh-place finish as a freshman — and only lost two more times in his last three seasons. Lincoln McIlravy was on pace to win four titles, but lost his junior season in the finals. He still won three championships, made four finals and lost only three times in his entire career.

Former coach Jim Zalesky placed fifth as a freshman in 1981, then reeled off three straight championship seasons — losing only twice in those years and winning his last 89 bouts.

Current coach Tom Brands has to be in that GOAT conversation, winning three straight titles after placing fourth as a freshman. He won 158 career matches, second only to Davis.

What about Duane Goldman? He only won one NCAA gold, but was in the finals all four years, including as a freshman 177-pounder.

Brands, Davis, McIlravy, Williams and Zalesky all won the Outstanding Wrestler award at the NCAAs. That’s something Lee never did. But he did win two Hodge Trophies as the best wrestler in the country.

The bottom line is GOAT talk is fun and interesting, but also pretty subjective. When it comes to Iowa wrestling, even being in that conversation puts you in rarefied air.

But, Clark? There’s no doubt.

Comments: (319) 398-8461; jr.ogden@thegazette.com