Caitlin Clark ordinarily makes playing basketball look graceful, a beautiful ballet of flash and flair and pull-up jumpers from places on the court that should count as four points because of their distance from the basket.
Sunday brought a different wrinkle.
Clark crawled through mud. A game that looks so easy to her suddenly looked vexing. She missed shots that she probably makes with her eyes shut most days. She slammed her fist in frustration. She complained to the refs.
Those who packed Target Center expecting to see another episode of the Caitlin Clark Show were treated to something else in the first half against a tough-minded, ready-to-rumble Nebraska squad.
Clark missed all nine of her three-point attempts before halftime. She missed 11 of 13 shot attempts overall and had just four points when she ran to the locker room.
“Probably my worst half, yeah,” Clark said, alluding to her entire record-setting college career, not just this season.
She then offered another equally pointed admission: her team would have lost if that same shooting display materialized during her freshman and sophomore seasons. Why? Because she needed to learn how to harness negative emotions so that a slow start or some bad shooting doesn’t snowball into something worse.
The senior Caitlin understands that now.