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A little girl. An orange round ball. A ring to put the ball in. A nylon net. A court. Asphalt in her driveway, a playground court down the street, hardwood inside a gym. In America. In Iowa.
Alone she practices. For hours and days and years imagining of one day becoming great playing in sold old stadiums. So many little girls grow up hoping they will become basketball stars. Many do. Many become All State and some McDonalds All Americans. Others fade. Not quite gifted enough or willing to take 500, 1,000, or 5,000 shots a day, just don’t want to be great if it means missing events with friends and doing other things.
Some become stars in college, all Big Ten. Good players with, fine work ethics. Then there’s another type. She was one of those tens of thousands of hopeful little girls who rose so much higher than all the others, and ascended to places almost none of them ever has and so few ever will.
This is a phenom of the highest rank, a savant shooting the basketball from 35 feet away making everyone admit she’s a better shooter than anyone, man or woman, in college basketball which is really saying something.
Last night she broke the all-time scoring record for a college basketball woman with a logo 3 — the shot she has always baffled us with because she makes them so often from so far away.
Broke the record of 3,527.
Not finished. Poured in 41 more after that for an Iowa record of 49.
Is Caitlin Clark the Wayne Gretzky of women’s college basketball? Yes. Has she really had a better college basketball career than Michael Jordan? Yes. Is she really a better shooter than every guy in college basketball? Undoubtedly.
I want you to think about this: she is going to break the all-time men’s scoring record of 3,667 career points set by Pistol Pete Maravich over 50 years ago, a record many said would never be broken.
Let the countdown begin. Ninety-eight to take Pistol’s name off the list and put hers on it – probably for 100 years at least.
Pistol’s scoring record is beyond rational thinking. There’s another record like that. Joe DiMaggio got a hit in 56 straight games one season. No one thinks that’s breakable and they’re probably right. Which explains why she will be immortalized forever when she passes Pistol. It would be like getting a hit in 57 straight games — so insanely incomprehensible to seriously think is possible.
What she’s doing is so impressive it feels crazy as if we’re not really pausing long enough to contemplate how staggering this is. What is she doing? How great is Caitlin Clark? Are we not appreciating how great she is?
The answers are: I’m not sure, the best I’ve ever seen in women’s college hoops, and no.
Almost nonchalantly she scored 49 points tonight breaking Iowa’s single-game record with the basketball universe mesmerized by her rare talents. Bright lights, big game, bombs away, from the logo. That’s Caitlin Clark. After she dropped 49 and her team and Iowa fans lavished her with praise, I thought to myself: did she really expect to become this great? Was this her vision as a little girl practicing in her driveway? How did she become so superior? How much was raw talent and how much fierce determination? A whole lot of bots. You can be certain of that. She ended the celebration with one unforgettable quote for the packed stadium that will reverberate all over the basketball world for the next several weeks: “We’ve got a whole lot more winning to do.”
Scoring record schmeckerd.
Caitlin wants a natty.
She was getting her mindset locked in to win the national championship this year after losing in the title game last year. Can she do it? Can she will herself and her teammates to climb to the apex of the college basketball mountain? Should any of us doubt this young lady?
I kind of think not.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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