Caitlin Clark discusses how unique a place women's basketball is in right now

Much will be written in the coming days about Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark and her lasting legacy in college basketball. Suffice it to say there will be no shortage of things to talk about.

Clark did it all in her journey from a relatively unknown shooting guard to the center of the women’s sports universe.

A national title, though, proved to be one of the few things that eluded her grasp. On Sunday, Iowa fell to South Carolina to end Clark’s career as a two-time national runner-up.

“Yeah I think the biggest thing is it’s really hard to win these things,” Clark said after the game. “I think I probably know that better than most people by now. To be so close twice, it definitely hurts but at the same time we were right there. We battled. We took down some really great teams to get back to this point. It’s something that’s really hard to do.”

What’s harder to do is what Caitlin Clark has done for the better part of the last two years: captivate the hearts and minds of millions of people across the globe.

Just about everything Clark did set records. From her individual scoring marks to viewership records, you could count on Clark giving you something to write about just about every time she took the floor.

That’s something that won’t easily be replaced, perhaps not even by the next sharp-shooting phenom. Clark just had a magical blend of charisma and clutch, of spectacular and selfless.

It was that special combination that helped vault the women’s game to new heights in 2023-24.

“When I think about women’s basketball going forward, obviously it’s just going to continue to grow, whether it’s at the WNBA level, whether it’s at the college level,” Clark said. “Everybody sees it. Everybody knows. Everybody sees the viewership numbers. When you’re given an opportunity women’s sports just kind of thrives, and I think that’s been the coolest part for me on this journey.”

Caitlin Clark may not have won a national championship on Sunday, but she sure won the hearts of even more fans who tuned in to watch. She accepted defeat with grace and class, putting on the same show we’ve been watching for years now.

She’s just hopeful the light doesn’t go out behind her when she leaves the room.

And it’s probably safe to say it won’t, given the joy Clark and her teammates helped provide every step of the way this season.

“You know, we start our season playing in front of 55,000 people in Kinnick Stadium,” Clark said. “Now we’re ending it probably playing in front of 15 million people or more on TV. It just continues to get better and better and better. That’s never going to stop. When you continue to give them the platform, things like this are just going to continue to happen.”