Caitlin Clark is known for her long-range 3-pointers and for her passion on the court. Don’t expect the Iowa basketball star to tone down either heading into her senior season.
Clark’s emotion on the court can lead to viral moments. Take her hand-waving “you can’t see me” celebration during the Hawkeyes’ Elite Eight win over Louisville, which captured fans’ attention in the moment — and then set the basketball world on fire one week later, when LSU’s Angel Reese mimicked the gesture to cap her team’s national championship win against Iowa.
Still, the reigning National Player of the Year has no regrets — even if she’s ready to move on from that particular moment, she told the Associated Press.
“If I’m just straight-faced and play with no emotion, I’m not going to play good basketball, and nobody wants to watch that,” Clark said. “Whether it’s high-fiving your teammate, picking them off the floor, pointing and smiling and thanking your passer after you make it 3, those are the emotions you need to have.
“You get feisty about something, that’s the competitive juices that you have inside you and that’s what makes you great.”
NBA star Kevin Durant praised Clark’s feisty play ahead of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
“When you couple her edge with her skills and her IQ, that’s what takes her over the top and makes her rare,” Durant told the Washington Post. “She can pretty much do everything on the floor, score from any angle, shoot deep threes and create for her teammates. But she has that feisty side to her.
“She has that dog in her, as people call it. She’s trying to do everything for her team because she can’t lose.”
