Caitlin Clark is known for her smooth-as-butter 3-point shots. So it is only fitting that the Iowa basketball star is being honored with a life-size butter sculpture at the Iowa State Fair.

Clark’s sculpture will be on display from Aug. 10-20 at the annual event, which draws upwards of one million visitors each year. The 21-year-old guard swept the national player of the year awards for the 2022-23 season, in which she led the Hawkeyes to the national championship game and became the first Division I women’s basketball player to record more than 1,000 points and 300 assists in a single season.

She is one of three legendary Iowa athletes honored with a butter likeness at the state fair, alongside Kurt Warner, a former Northern Iowa football star turned NFL Hall of Fame, and Jack Trice, who made history in the 1920s as Iowa State’s first Black athlete.

The trio will appear at the Agriculture Building with the famed Butter Cow, which is sculpted each year from 600 pounds of butter. Much of the butter used in the sculptures will be recycled for future sculptures and can be reused for up to 10 years.

Twin sisters Grace and Hannah Pratt are serving as apprentices to their mother Sarah Pratt, the head sculptor for state fair, and helped craft the statues in a 40-degree cooler.

“The thing I love about Hannah and Grace is they have that drive,” Sarah Pratt told the Des Moines Register. “They have this amazing internal force that makes the creative process just part of their souls, which is so invigorating.”

Creativity and drive? Sounds like Clark.

Butter Caitlin Clark is the best thing at the Iowa State Fair pic.twitter.com/whQVUrkt1N

— Iowa Chill (@IowaChill) August 10, 2023

USC basketball star JuJu Watkins won't take the court this year, with the junior guard announcing Sunday that she'll miss the entire 2025/26 NCAA season while continuing to recover from injury.

"These last few months have been filled with a lot of healing, rest, and reflection," Watkins posted to social media on Sunday. "Following the advice of my doctors and trainers, I will sit out this season and fully focus on continuing to recover so I can come back to the game I love."

Watkins tore her right ACL in the second-round of the 2024/25 NCAA tournament, just days after earning her second straight All-American nod.

The reigning Player of the Year's 23.9 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game were instrumental in leading the Trojans to the 2024/25 Big Ten regular-season title.

Though ACL recovery timelines can vary, recent history has shown that taking a measured, methodical approach can make an athlete's return even more powerful — an outcome that Watkins is clearly banking on.

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While Watkins remains key to the longterm USC game plan, the Trojans' 2025/26 season hopes are still very much alive on the heels of back-to-back Elite Eight appearances.

That said, with the additional loss of USC alums Kiki Iriafen and Rayah Marshall to the WNBA, there are big shoes to fill on the roster — though the Trojans did snag this year's No. 1 high school recruit Jasmine "Jazzy" Davidson to boost their lineup this season.

"While we will certainly miss her impact on the court, [Watkins] continues to play a vital role in our program as a leader and teammate," said USC manager Lindsay Gottlieb. "The strength and maturity she has shown through this process is a reflection of who she is, and we know the Trojan Family will continue to rally behind her."

The No. 4 Phoenix Mercury are headed to their first WNBA Finals since 2021, clinching their spot in the 2025 season finale after sweeping a two-game semifinals homestand against the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx with Sunday's 86-81 Game 4 win.

The Mercury are now the first team in WNBA Playoffs history to battle back from multiple 14-point deficits in a single series, with Phoenix star forward Alyssa Thomas putting up a team-leading 23 points to complete Sunday's comeback win.

"No one has had expectations for us except ourselves," Phoenix head coach Nate Tibbetts said following Game 4. "The pride and the togetherness for such a new group, it's pretty impressive."

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After ceding a 20-point lead in Game 2, the Lynx's championship prospects took an even bigger hit on Friday, as leading scorer Napheesa Collier exited Game 3 with a serious ankle injury that left her sidelined for Sunday's big Game 4.

"You just want it for the people around you," said Minnesota guard Kayla McBride, who posted a game-leading 31 points in Sunday's loss. "You want it for the people who grind with you every single day, good days, bad days, bus rides, locker room."

"In pro sports, it doesn't get any better than what we have in our locker room," McBride continued. "I would feel [this emotion] one hundred times over to be with the people that I've been with."

While Minnesota's season is officially over, No. 4 Phoenix will now await the winner of Tuesday's semifinal Game 5 between the No. 6 Indiana Fever and No. 2 Las Vegas Aces, with the best-of-seven 2025 WNBA Finals set to tip off on Friday.

The championship dreams of the injury-plagued Indiana Fever are still alive after the No. 6 seed held off the No. 2 Las Vegas Aces 90-83 in Sunday's Game 4, forcing a winner-take-all decider in the 2025 WNBA semifinals.

Following an 84-72 Game 3 loss that saw Indiana fall behind 2-1 in the best-of-five series last Friday, Fever center Aliyah Boston and guard Kelsey Mitchell stepped up on Sunday, putting up a combined 49 of Indiana's 90 points.

"The desperation and the urgency that we play with when we're in those positions has been exactly what we need," Fever head coach Stephanie White said postgame.

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As for Las Vegas, the fired-up Aces expressed frustration after Sunday's upset loss, with officiating issues continuing to take center stage throughout the 2025 WNBA postseason.

"[Indiana] shot 34 free throws, and we shot 11," Aces head coach Becky Hammon told reporters, with game-leading scorer A'ja Wilson adding that Boston alone shot 13 free throws — more than Las Vegas's entire team.

"I did appreciate it was a little tighter call, but tighter on both ends would have been nice," continued Hammon.

How to watch Indiana vs. Las Vegas in Game 5 of the semifinals

The No. 2 Aces and No. 6 Fever will close out the 2025 WNBA semifinals with a high-stakes Game 5 clash in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

The action tips off at 9:30 PM ET, with live coverage airing on ESPN2.

Minnesota competed without their sideline leader in Sunday's 86-81 Game 4 semifinals loss, as the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury ousted the No. 1 Lynx while head coach Cheryl Reeve served a one-game suspension following her ejection from Friday's Game 3.

In the dying seconds of Friday's 84-76 loss, a collision caused Minnesota star Napheesa Collier to collapse with an ankle injury.

In reaction, Reeve ran onto the court as her staff worked to restrain her, earning the Lynx boss her second technical foul of the game for confronting the officials.

"The officiating crew that we had tonight, for the leadership to deem those three people semifinal-playoff worthy, it's f—ing malpractice," Reeve said after the game.

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In a Saturday statement, the league said that Reeve's suspension stemmed from "aggressively pursuing and verbally abusing a game official on the court, [and] failure to leave the court in a timely manner upon her ejection," as well as "inappropriate comments made to fans when exiting the court, and remarks made in a post-game press conference."

Officiating has been under fire throughout the 2025 WNBA Playoffs, with coaches like Golden State Valkyries' boss Natalie Nakase and Las Vegas Aces leader Becky Hammon expressing concerns about the quality and consistency of postseason calls.

"If this is what the league wants, okay, but I want to call for a change of leadership at the league level when it comes to officiating," said Reeve.

With support from the National Basketball Referees Association, the three-person officiating crew from Friday's Game 3 in Minnesota also oversaw Sunday's Game 4 between the No. 2 Aces and No. 6 Fever in Indiana.