Caitlin Clark fever running high as hottest show in sports comes to Minnesota

The mission was to check around the Twin Cities for Caitlin Clark fever. I accepted that mission, and my car drove itself to Minnetonka High School, home of a 24-2 Skippers team that just knocked off No. 1 Hopkins.

Coach Brian Cosgriff had arranged for a motivational speaker to address the team as it prepares for state sectionals this week. But instead I showed up — sorry, kids — wanting to talk to a couple of players before practice.

Guard Tori McKinney has great court vision and might be the best defensive player in the state; she’s committed to play for the Gophers next season. When asked about how much range she has on her jumper, the 6-1 senior said, “The college three for now. I’m working on extending it.”

And her impression of Clark’s range, which begins basically as soon as she crosses midcourt?

“That’s crazy,” she replied. “That’s actually insane. I hope to get that range one day. You have to guard her full court and even then you have to make sure she doesn’t blow by you and then hit like a step back three.”

Crazy. Insane. Caitlin.

The Clark Eras Tour stops at Williams Arena on Wednesday when Iowa visits the Gophers. It’s a tour because she’s attracting sellout crowds across the Big Ten, and Wednesday will be no different. The Big Ten women’s tournament, to be held at Target Center next month, already is sold out. Clark drives revenue.

The Gophers have requested that their fans wear maroon on Wednesday, but it’s going to look like a spec among waves of gold-clad Hawkeyes fans rooting for their 24-4 team. This is an easy trip for Iowa fans, who already travel as well as any fan base in the conference.

Another reason for the sellout is an opportunity to witness greatness. Clark isn’t just the face of women’s college basketball. She’s not just the face of college basketball in general. She’s the face of college sports. Swishing 35-foot jumpers. Stacking triple-doubles. Amassing an NIL empire. Crushing the record book. She’s averaging 32.1 points in 34.3 minutes a game. Outrageous production.

People with pedigree already are speaking highly of Clark. Former WNBA player Sue Bird recently said that Clark could enter the league next year and immediately be an All-Star. Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve says Clark could be the Steph Curry of the WNBA.

Skippers sophomore guard Lanelle Wright threw in a few deep threes against Hopkins. She grew up idolizing Curry, as well as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. She gets the Clark-Curry comparison. And Wright lived in Hopkins for a while and watched Paige Bueckers become Paige Buckets.

“Caitlin Clark’s attitude for the game is changing girls basketball today,” Wright said.

To be clear, Lanelle, you would still take Paige over Caitlin, right?

“Um, yeah,” said Wright, who also claimed that she, too, can shoot from the mid-court logo. “I went to a lot of her games when I was younger.”

Clark recently passed Kelsey Plum to become the NCAA’s all-time Division I scoring leader. She enters Wednesday’s game needing 33 points to surpass Lynette Woodard’s Division I women’s record (Woodard scored 3,649 while playing for Kansas from 1977-81, when the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women was overseeing the sport). Clark would need 51 points to break Pete Maravich’s all-time college scoring record of 3,667 points, a record that has stood for 50 years. She will chisel away at that mark against the Gophers. If she stays healthy, those records will be hers.

“It’s really incredible,” McKinney said. “Not just for women’s sports but for sports in general. She is setting a standard that they are equal. She’s just not breaking records on the women’s side. She’s breaking records, period.

“It’s cool to see all the young girls look up to her — like here in Minnetonka. I’m so excited to go to the game on Wednesday.”

Mission accomplished. Caitlin Clark fever is running high here.