003: NCAA Basketball – Rivalries, Legends, and the Caitlin Clark Effect

College basketball gets the Almost Fans treatment! We’re breaking down iconic rivalries like Duke vs. UNC, the history of basketball, and the powerhouse programs leading up to NCAA March Madness. Plus, we'll highlight Caitlin Clark’s record-breaking achievements and her impact on women’s sports – the glowing stats AND the drama. Join us for some laughs plus a few fun facts that will make you the MVP of bracketology conversations.

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Chapters

• 00:56 Our Favorite Hype Songs
• 07:53 The Rich History of NCAA Basketball
• 14:20 Dynasties and Legendary Coaches
• 16:39 Celebrated Women’s Programs
• 18:36 Test Your Knowledge: NCAA Team Riddles
• 25:42 Get to Know NCAAB Conferences
• 30:19 The Caitlin Clark Effect

Transcript

Almost Fans (00:00.814)
So there's also some stuff out there about why Caitlin Clark is controversial. Things like she regularly commits some infractions, flapping, falling to the ground, pushes off other players. Some players call her a little bit bully. She bickers with referees and she trash talks. I love all of this, by the way. I know. What about this is negative? If this were a man doing this in men's college basketball, nobody would say a single thing.

Have you ever wondered why people get so hyped about their favorite sports teams? Well, it turns out it's not just about the game. It's about the community. My name is Teryn. And I'm Ambre. Welcome to Almost Fans, the sports podcast that's fun, a little bit educational, and will give you plenty to say when you're trying to keep up with those diehard sports fans in your life.

Almost Fans (00:56.302)
Hey everyone, today we are talking NCAA basketball. We're talking the conferences, the rivalries, all the juicy good stuff. But you know, before we get into that, we're gonna kick things off with our starting five. Our topic this week is our top five favorite walk-up slash game hype songs. So I'm gonna start. We're gonna go five, four, three, two, one. We're gonna alternate my number five

favorite hype song is whoop there it is whoop there it is. Boom shuckle. Yep. That one. it is. 1993 by tag team. What you got? Oh my gosh. So good. Okay. My number five in mine aren't just necessarily just walk up songs, but like the songs that just get you the most hyped. So my number five is a classic. Don't stop believing by journey. It's just a small town girl.

Living in a l-

Classic. Classic. think you should sing the whole episode. Okay. Also, we're not stopping with my number four because it's can't stop the feeling. I got that feeling inside my bones. It goes electric, baby, when I turn it on. Justin Timberlake. Justin Timberlake? Okay. Yeah. I mean, Trolls, but like Justin Timberlake. Yeah. That's what everyone knows it from Trolls. All right. Cool. All right. You're going to know mine.

by the sound that I'm going to make and hopefully you can hear it. But are you ready for my number four? I'm so ready. We will rock you. Yes. Like queen. You can't hear that first like couple beats and not just get piped up. can just hear feet on bleachers as soon as you hit that rhythm. my gosh. I love it. OK.

Almost Fans (02:57.613)
Next one out of left field, Spice Up Your Life by the Spice Girls. What? It goes, if you're having a good time, shake it to the left. you're feeling it then I don't think I know that song. Maybe I do if I heard it. You're maybe just doing it. I'm it justice there. I'm doing a terrible job. Okay. But an important question that I need to ask you since we're talking about the Spice Girls, which is your favorite Spice Girl? I mean,

Obviously, Sporty Spice. Okay. She was my favorite too, but let's just be clear. Neither one of us is saying that just because it's a sports podcast. Like she was my ride or die Spice Girl. For sure. Yeah. For sure. For sure. Spice Girls is a little bit out of my generation. Slightly. Not like completely, but just slightly. Yeah. It's like in my generation. Yeah. Sporty Spice all day. Yeah. Absolutely.

Okay, this one is my number three and this could be number one. My three, two, one are just so good. This could be number one best hype song in the entire world. is, Lose Yourself, Eminem. Michigan girl here has to support Eminem, like there is.

Nothing. was telling you earlier that I heard one of my songs on it was this one. It was a hype song for the lions because he's a Detroit guy. Got to support my Michigan, my Michigan man. But like you just, you hear that M and M is voice at the beginning. Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity, goosebumps everywhere. I that. Um, my number three is shake it off by Taylor. this the one that you had by Taylor? Oh, no. Shake it off.

It's a good one though. Yeah. My favorite part. I never miss a beat. I'm lightening on my feet. Like if I were going to do a walk-up song and I was going to choose Shake It Off, that's the part that I would play. Can I say something that's maybe a little bit? Hit me. Yeah. I don't love that song. Really? Nope. That's shocking. I had to put like all of my Taylor songs on a list that might be one of the very, very, very, very last. I love that one. Yeah. Okay.

Almost Fans (05:13.932)
My number two hype song is About Damn Time by Lizzo. And I cannot sing it. I can't hum it. I know it's just so good. It like, it can't, it doesn't stick in my brain, but da da da. It's about damn time. Like that's just such a, such a hype song. I love that one. I love Lizzo. She is hype woman number one for sure. sure. Okay. My number two is every single millennial in all of the land you will find.

On the Dance Floor When This Song Comes On. boy. Yeah, by Usher featuring Lil Jon and Lugr. That's excellent. Yeah. You cannot avoid the dance floor when that song comes on. Yep. Yep. I'm with you. Love that. Okay. My fifth and finals, my number one hype song is This Is How We Do It by Montel Jordan. This is how we do it.

Yep. This is the hype song that you play when you know you're about to capital C crush a team. Like this is all confidence and you can't help but swagger on this one. What you got for your last one. Okay. I told you we agreed there was going to be Taylor on our list and I just like couldn't end my list without putting this as number one. Probably people aren't going to are going to disagree with this, but this was also my number one most listened to song on my Spotify wrapped this year.

I did something bad, Taylor Swift. It's so good. Do know that one? Yeah. I'm going pull a disagree card on this one too. Oh, I like that song, but that would not hype me up. Fair enough. Okay. I think maybe being in the stage of life that I'm in, that one just hits. It hits different. Okay. That makes me like it way more.

Almost Fans (07:10.444)
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Okay, well, that was awesome. I'm so excited today because we're diving into something super exciting for me. Full history and a lot of rivalries and some fun about NCAA basketball. It's a sport that has so much to it and I'm really excited to talk about it and how it all came to be, the big rivalries and conferences and all that. I personally really love basketball because I kind of grew up in a basketball family.

We all did a lot of sports, but we really did basketball. My brother played at a division two school in college. He coaches now. My dad's been playing basketball his whole entire life. Even now in his sixties, he coached both my brother and I in basketball and many, many, many years of that. My grandpa was a coach. It's just a very long line of coaches in basketball. So, my dad and I even like chit chatted about this episode a few days ago. So it's.

pretty near and dear to my heart. I'm really excited for this one. But I wanted to start today with a little bit of history because you can't just get into the fun without going into the history, which I personally think is pretty fun. So Ambre, if I was to ask you on the spot who invented basketball, would you know? Wilson.

Almost Fans (09:14.49)
Great guess. idea. Okay. So it all begins with Dr. James Naismith. He invented basketball back in 1891. Your face is saying everything. did you, have you heard that name before? No, but I was researching a certain somebody who won a Naismith award. More about that later. Continue. Yes. So that would be everything in, in basketball awards. Basically you're named after him because he invented it.

So it wasn't the flashy hoops fast-paced game that we know today. So Naismith was a phys ed teacher in very cold Kansas, similar to here in Wisconsin. And he was looking for something for his students to do inside to keep them active during the cold months. And in gym class, they had these peach baskets and they tied them up high in the gym and they actually used a soccer ball to throw it into the basket.

And that is basically how basketball was invented. Funny story about that is I didn't know this. My dad actually brought this up. He wasn't smart enough at the time to think to put a hole in the bottom of the basket. they literally had ladders to the baskets so that they could pull the ball out every time someone scored. Isn't that funny? that. Yep.

But Naismith eventually shared basketball with the world and landed at Kansas University. He wore many different hats while there, including being their very first ever basketball coach in 1898. Okay. So that brings me to my first pop quiz for you, Ambre. Hit me. So fun fact, Kansas University since 1898 has only had eight head.

basketball coaches. That's over 120 years of history of playing basketball. How many of those eight head coaches do you think had losing records? Five. Good guess. No. The answer is one. Wow. And one and only, James Naismith.

Almost Fans (11:26.826)
how funny is that? Somebody has to come first, you know, and take the fall and make all the mistakes. The inventor of basketball is the only coach at Kansas that had a losing record. That's a team-team bet, I know, it really is. It really is. Okay. And so we can talk about Kansas, basically the home of basketball and all of its history without mentioning one of the all-time

greatest basketball players basically to have ever played who also came from KU. You've maybe heard of him before. name is Wilt Chamberlain. Chamberlain made his NBA debut on October of 1959 and he holds 72 NBA records, 68 of which are all by himself. So not team records. Um, but my next quiz for you, Ambre,

is which of these records, I'm going to list a couple off by Will Chamberlain, are considered likely to be unbreakable forever. Okay. Unbreakable records. A, his average points per game, which was 50.4. His total minutes played in his career, which was an insane amount. I won't even give you the number because it's ridiculous, which included 79 games where he played every single minute of the game.

That was B. C, his 65 consecutive games with 30 points or more. Or is it D, the fact that he scored a hundred points in a single game? D. So it's a trick question because all of these are considered his many records that will probably never ever, ever be broken. That's amazing. He was insane. Um, so yeah, it's really, really interesting fact. And people don't always

put him up there with like the Michael Jordans and the LeBron James, but he definitely should be. He was like seven feet tall, seven one, I think. That's amazing. If you could be any height in the world, what would you be? I always said when I was in high school and played basketball, volleyball and softball, that I would be significantly better athlete if I just had four inches. Four inches. like five, five, 10. Although that feels really tall. I think in high school I thought I was five, four.

Almost Fans (13:54.481)
I realize now that I'm like pushing five, six. I grew. You grow? I think so. Or just never measured myself correctly. So when I think in high school, I thought five, eight, I would be a far better athlete because I wasn't like small and fast, I was, but I, like played bigger. Like I could post up every so often. Yeah, fair enough. All right, moving on. So Kansas isn't the only school.

with a huge basketball legacy. So we ought to talk about UCLA because they really have a dynasty. So their men's team under coach John Wooden became an absolutely unstoppable force. Coach Wooden, known as the wizard of Westwood, led UCLA to 10 national championships in 12 years. That's stupid. Yeah. You heard me. 10 in 12 years.

It's unheard of in college sports. So Alabama football won six in 12 years, which is really the most recent one that people talk about that they know about really. So, but what made Wooden so great was that he built a legacy, not just on winning, but on character building and discipline. So he's got 13 different books that you just have to read. I mean, I haven't gotten to all of them. I read a bunch in college.

but they're all on leadership and different types of coaching things. But yeah, he's a really wonderful, but UCLA success during that era honestly set the bar for what it means to be a powerhouse in terms of college basketball. Even the ones that you think of aren't even close to that. Okay. Since we're talking about where we were talking about unbeaten records in the NBA, I thought this was super interesting about John Wooden.

He played both collegiate and professional basketball. He was actually the first person to be elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and a coach. But when he played in the pros, listen to this, he once made 134 consecutive free throws in a 46 game stretch. That record's still holding strong. Can you imagine? Consistency.

Almost Fans (16:16.52)
That's amazing. I can't even imagine making 10 free throws in a row. 134. In different places, like in booing crowds and cheering crowds. In the NBA, where the pressure is really on. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. While UCLA was the dominating force in the men's game, we cannot forget about the women. On the women's side, we have Yukon's women's basketball team, which has been an

Absolutely legendary program under the lead leadership of coach Gino Oriyema. They've become a dominant force, racking up 11 national championships, the most in women's college basketball history. Oriyema has the most wins and the highest winning percentage, which is 88.3%. It's the highest of any coach with at least 10 seasons under their belt. Tennessee too has had a huge impact on the women's game. So Pat.

Summit the co that name. Yeah. Who tell me I know that name, but give me like a 30 second on her. Maybe you were about to. Yeah. Well, she is the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history. both genders. Yes. She's one of one of the winningest. she obviously built a powerhouse. She Tennessee was one of the first programs in women's history to basically make women's basketball as competitive as it is today.

And the really fun fact that I like about Pat Summit is that she was named Naismith basketball coach of the century in 2000. That's pretty sweet. Yeah. so I'd be insane if I didn't shout out Caitlin Clark from Iowa. She's now playing for the Indiana fever. If you haven't seen her play yet, she's completely changed the game for women's basketball with her.

just incredible skills, especially her ability to hit a deep three pointer. And her performances have elevated women's college basketball and now the WNBA to be far more mainstream than they ever were. And I'll just say it, a whole lot more people are watching and paying attention to women's sports because of Caitlin Clark. She's amazing. She really is. Okay, moving on, switching gears back to the men's side. Way before we move on.

Almost Fans (18:37.827)
I have some quizzes for you. okay. Okay. So get ready for this. I have NCAA men's basketball teams and I'm going to give you a riddle and see if you can guess what team I'm talking about. And the first one is an easy one. Here's the riddle. A sticky name with skies of blue. Legends are made where I hail true.

Wait, say that first part again. Sticky what? A sticky name with skies of blue. I think this is like your team. Oh, the Tar Heels. Yeah. Whoa. Carolina Tar Heels. Okay. The next one. In a Texas den, fierce and strong, gold and green roar all day long. Texas den. Oh, goodness.

this is, is this where, this is where Chip and Joe live. What can I think of it? Waco. can you just tell me the Baylor bears Baylor? Yes. Okay. Number three, with fiery grit and Royal hue, they raised their horns in courtside blue.

fiery grit, royal hue, blue. The Duke, the blue devils. Yep. You got it. I'm going to do my puking noise again. We'll get into that. We'll get into it. Number four, whirling might through planes of gold. Their storms fury never grows old. I would have never in a million years gotten this. There's storms. We're talking about like the Crimson Tide.

Mm-mm. Iowa State Cyclones. the cyclones. Yeah, Iowa State.

Almost Fans (20:41.829)
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Okay, what I'm going to talk about now is some rivalries and you literally cannot talk about college basketball without mentioning one of the fiercest rivalries in all of sports, which is, do you know? No. Duke and North Carolina. So these two teams are in the ACC and every time they face off, it's like a huge event. The energy in those games is unmatched. So I used to, I did an internship at UNC when I was out of college.

So I've been to a few games. Never did I go to a Duke UNC game, but they are so fun. Hey, rookie question. So I know that UNC is in like Chapel Hill. Correct. Where is Duke? Durham. It's all really they're right there. Yeah. Neighbors. Okay. And then you have Raleigh, which is Raleigh, this NC state. So they're all right there. They call it the triangle.

That's true. Yeah. So, I mean, this isn't just my personal opinion here, but UNC is obviously the better team and they're up 143 to 117 in the series. So they've won 143 of the games. Oh my gosh. That's how many times the two teams have faced off. Yeah. 143 plus 117. Holy, that's amazing. 143 to 117, huh?

It's all about the bragging rights for the whole year. The fans live and breathe these games in Chapel Hill where UNC is. Like you mentioned, there's a street downtown called Franklin Street and everyone storms the street on a big win. Like they'll be climbing the light poles and it's insane. Some other big in state rivalries actually are Purdue and Indiana. yeah. Then of course you have Michigan, Michigan state, always a big matchup.

Almost Fans (23:06.918)
Kentucky, Louisville. Those are some prominent in-state matchups that you see a lot. These rivalries always add so much drama to the season. My dad and I were talking about it and it's like, when you see the March Madness bracket come out, you feel like you can tell that they've intentionally put some of these matchups early on. sometimes they do across the bracket from each other depending on if they're both good or not, you know, but it is,

It's a big moneymaker to see these teams play each other. All right. Ambre, have you ever heard of the term blue bloods? No. If you had a guess on what it means, what would you think? Blue bloods. No idea. Not even a guess. All right. right. Fair enough. Okay. So I always thought I've heard this term before and I always thought it referred to the college basketball teams.

that obviously had a long history of success, but also just wore the color blue. That would make a lot of sense. LOL, right? In doing this research, I learned that it refers to a select group of elite programs with a long history of success, tradition, and consistent excellence. These programs are typically recognized for winning multiple national championships, producing top-tier talent, and obviously maintaining a strong culture and competitive legacy. But...

The schools that are commonly regarded as blue bloods are Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, and then I always thought UCLA. What do those five schools all have in common? Blue. They all wear blue. So when I was looking it up, because I was like, oh, that should be an interesting thing to look into, Indiana is actually also considered a blue blood. So I was like, wait a minute. Indiana doesn't wear blue. Yeah, exactly.

It's actually Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Indiana. UCLA and Louisville are sometimes in the mix with those teams, but Louisville also does not wear blue. Do they get anything from it or is it just kind of like a brand No, so it's just a term. So what I learned was that the term blue blood originates from the idea of nobility where blue blood was used to describe families with aristocratic heritage.

Almost Fans (25:33.422)
So in the context of basketball, it just signifies programs that are considered royalty within the sport.

Almost Fans (25:42.469)
Okay, so we're gonna zoom out a little bit and look at the conferences. This is where things get really interesting. So historically, the Big Ten and the ACC, the Atlantic Coast Conference, have been our top basketball schools. But lately- I never knew what that stood for. Yeah, yeah, and lately the SEC, the Southeastern Conference, there you go. The SEC was typically known as a football school, ACC basketball schools, but-

The SEC's kind of given the ACC a run for its money. Like South Carolina. Yep. Alabama, Tennessee. They're just given SEC new looks and making it a more competitive conference. So it's interesting to see the changing dynamics. It makes the tournament a little bit more exciting because you're seeing some new teams that are becoming more prominently basketball schools. Interesting. Yeah. So how does this all play into the NCAA tournament?

Well, these conferences, they all have their own regular season where teams compete to earn their spot in the NCAA tournament. The best teams from each conference, along with a few wild card teams, get selected to play in March Madness. Who chooses those teams? I believe it's like a committee of mysterious people. Probably some dudes in a room. Yep, that's exactly what that means. Undoubtedly some dudes in a room.

undoubtedly some dudes in a room. Yeah. I don't know exactly how they determine it. That could be a good question for our March Madness episode that we're going to do a little bit later. We can look into that. Yeah. So that's a single elimination tournament. So one bad game means you are out. We need to go back to the Tinder thing. So yeah, we can skip the Rose Bachelorette. Yeah, exactly.

The tournaments obviously very unpredictable. We're always getting new teams that are kind Cinderella stories. Yes, the Cinderella stories, which is always really fun. It's the bracket Busters is what they call it. Super unpredictable. And like I mentioned, speaking of the NCAA tournament in March Madness, we're going to have a whole episode dedicated to this as it gets closer. We'll do a little bit more research on who's doing the selection. And then we're going to have some NCAA brackets that either

Almost Fans (27:58.985)
us or our kids put together for us, maybe make some risky bets. Who knows? See if you guys have any predictions, send it over our way to at Almost Vans Podcast on social media and send us some bet ideas. What do you think, Ambre? What do you think we're going to bet? Okay. So for our listeners, our top idea at this moment is that the loser, Teryn or I, will jump into the lake. We live in Wisconsin.

So we'll have to chisel a hole in the ice before one of us jumps in. But that is our current fan favorite bet. We're not into tattoos, anything permanent, but something a little bit painful like jumping into a frozen lake is totally on limits. I might actually prefer a tattoo over that. That's true.

I'm going to go with the lake for now. being cold. Okay, great. Let's all hope Teryn loses. So, if you have any better ideas than jumping into a frozen Wisconsin lake for the loser, hit us up. We're still debating on what the final form of punishment is going to be, but we're super excited. The NCAA tournament time is coming up. We're going to do the bracket thing. We're going to play some bets and ...

and keep you posted every week. And maybe let us know if you have any ideas on how we should create our brackets because I mean, just picking by ourselves is kind of boring. So I mean, if you have ideas, darts at a wall, kids, know, yeah, some fun ideas could, we could throw that there. the, pin the, pin the tail on something. Maybe that has potential. Okay. So that's pretty much all I have to wrap up NCAA basketball.

It's not just about the games, it's really about the history, some of those rivalries and that excitement that builds year after year. And whether you're a fan of the powerhouses like Yukon or Duke, so sorry if you are, or if you're just getting into the game, there's always something to learn and enjoy. And I hope this little history tour has given you a better sense of the rich legacy of NCAA basketball and why we love it so much.

Almost Fans (30:19.659)
Okay, now it's time for our final segment of today and that's the She's Got Game segment. Teryn, you stole some of my thunder already. I told you I Because the person who's got game today is Miss Caitlin Clark. Of course. I have gone down so many rabbit holes and read so many articles and documentary, four part documentary on ESPN+. Wow, she is...

So impressive. start things off, I've got some quizzes for you. A couple of things you kind of already named, but first, where is Caitlin Clark from? Is she from Iowa? Yeah, I thought so. Des Moines, Iowa. Yep. You said this. Team she played for in college. Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa Hawkeyes, yep. She became the first player in the NCAA tournament history, men's or women's, to achieve what...

impressive feat in a single tournament game? A triple double? Yes, and specifically a 40 point triple double. So triple double is points, assists and rebounds. So it could be any set of that's really. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And it means you got double digits and at least three different. So she got 40 point triple double. Yeah.

Amazing. She holds, mean, just too many records to count. My favorite one is I was going through. So she won the Naismith Award. You mentioned, you know, the inventor of basketball. She is the highest scoring NCAA basketball player of all time of any gender. That's the cool part. And it took anybody, male, female in between took them 54 years to break that record. So that's awesome. It was held by

Pistol Pete Marovitch. Pete, did you ever watch that movie? Nope. Okay, yeah. Well, you didn't grow up with a family like, yeah, he is, it's super interesting. He, not to derail our talk of amazing women, but yeah, his story is really cool. And he was the all time scoring record holder before the three point line was invented. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. That's amazing. Okay, next question.

Almost Fans (32:41.601)
What year did Caitlin Clark's team win the NCAA tournament? Never. Yep. Trick question. Good job. I know. actually watched. It's funny because the last two... 24? Yeah. The last two years, I watched the women's... I mean, this sounds bad, I'm like the majority of humans. I watch more men's sports than I do women's. And the last two years, I watched the women's national championship and not the men's because I didn't care less.

Well, the last two years, Caitlin Clark was in the national, you know, and she's bringing all sorts of eyeballs. she currently plays for the Indiana fever. You already mentioned that. And she not only crushed it in college, but is also breaking records and doing amazing things in the WNBA, in her first season. in 2024,

She completed the most three pointers by a rookie in one season. That was my favorite record of the long, long list of things that she's doing in the WNBA. And in 2024, she has helped the WNBA rank as the fastest growing brand of the year. Let me say that again. In 2024, WNBA is the fastest growing brand of the year. That is amazing.

My last quiz question for you. What NBA superstar is Caitlin most compared to? often. Curry. Yep. Yeah. Crushed it. Okay. She's 23. She's six feet tall from Iowa and in 2024 is named Times athlete of the year. So let's break down exactly. I watched her in a couple of games when everybody was talking about her.

but until yesterday, I really didn't know that much about her. So I was really curious what makes her so good. And yes, she hits these three pointers from not just behind the three point line, from very far behind the three point line. And she does it at very dramatic moments when all eyes are on her and the game is on the line. So she's known for that. And also she's known for being a really excellent

Almost Fans (34:53.185)
She's got great grit. She's just naturally gifted in terms of speed, strength, coordination. She grew up rolling around wrestling and playing sports with brothers and boy cousins. Also, there's a lot of talk out there and admiration for her mental strength and grit. She has this incredible work ethic. All of her coaches talk about it and obsession with getting every detail right.

I mean, basketball, like everything in life, if you want to be good at it, it's a game of inches. It's about making little improvements here and there. And she's obsessed with details and wants to do everything amazingly. Also super high basketball IQ. Coaches talk about how she can see a play happening before the players involved in it know, before anybody else knows. And that enables her to be one step ahead, to make great passes, et cetera.

So there's also some stuff out there about why Caitlin Clark is controversial. Things like she regularly commits some infractions, fouls, flapping, very dramatic, falling to the ground. Sometimes she pushes off other players. So some players call her a little bit bully, you know, because of that. She bickers with referees and she trash talks. I love all of this, by the way. I know. What about this is negative? I know, because let's be real. If this were

a man doing this in men's college basketball, nobody would say a single thing. Let me tell you about a couple of her trash talks. In an Elite Eight showdown against Louisville, was caught on camera telling a player from that team, you're down 15 points. Shut up. Fantastic.

You're right, Caitlin. And then this season in WNBA, she's up against a veteran player on the Phoenix Mercura team. And the player on this team said some trash talk, I don't know what, to Caitlin. And her response was, I don't give a F. Showcasing her, she's like, you're a veteran player, you trash talk to me and I will return that stuff right back to you. Like with love from Sender. mean, But she isn't...

Almost Fans (37:19.806)
people think that she's like this overly aggressive and irate player. She actually has a really good head on our shoulders. Sometimes the other player is the one that's just mad. Like they're just mad that she's getting so much attention or whatever. And she plays a really cool, you know, like if you actually watch shockingly cool. Shockingly cool. Listen to this. Speaking of that, that was a perfect lead in. So

There was an interesting moment. I don't remember what game this was, but she was missing some baskets that she normally hits. And after missing one particular basket, she goes over to the, the basketball hoop post and she slams, know, they usually have padding right there and she slams it and she's, you know, like yelling at herself sort of thing. And she, she gets a foul, I think a technical foul and the referee tells her that her action was disrespectful to the game of basketball.

How many times, how many times have we seen male players do that? I mean, just the, it's so fascinating. And of course, what did Caitlin Clark say about this after the game was over? She said that it only motivated her to play harder. I mean, her mental grit is so impressive. Yeah, she will be the one that's in the press conference afterwards and people will be like, trying to stir up drama. And she's like, we're just playing basketball. Yeah.

Of course, they're mad. We're playing basketball. We love to play and we're competitive. She's never the one to call out another woman for being spicy or whatever out on the court. She's like, that's how we play. Yeah. She's totally all in for competitiveness in general and just emotion in women's sports, being able to let that out. Yeah, amazing. So she's also in the news for a couple of other things. Her name is connected to racism.

the, here's like the phrase, it's a straight white woman excelling in a sport historically dominated by black women. So black women came before her, did really amazing things, but because a white woman is doing amazing things, all of sudden now all of the eyes are paying attention. So, and her response to those sort of comments has been,

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basketball is my job. I'm just, you know, head down. I'm just doing my thing that, you know, I show respect to everybody. And it's true, but some people sort of push back and say, yes, and you have this platform. Can you do more with it to shed light on some of these issues? is ironic because she's doing more than literally anybody, you know? I not necessarily on racism issues, but like she's getting people to watch so much more women's basketball, which

Even my dad said this, he's like, I watched these games and then I realized like there are other women that are amazing, right? That maybe I wasn't paying attention to before. So it is shining a light on everybody because more eyes are just generally watching. Yeah. And in this article, now that she is times athlete of the year, she actually does for the first time that I could see in reports and reporting and interviews, she does address it and sort of claims responsibility and says, you know, yes,

I acknowledge this. want to do more. I will do more to help all women excel and shine a spotlight. She draws all sorts of attention. She's got a boyfriend, Connor McCaffrey. He also was an Iowa Hawkeye basketball player. They just started dating in April, 2023, and then he graduated one year later and now he helps coach the men's basketball team at Butler University. There was a time where a reporter asked her,

you know, since she's been in the WNBA, the reporter asked if Caitlin's bae was going to be at her game. Then Caitlin casually responded in this press conference, he'll be working. And the whole crowd, the reporters, you know, laughed and chuckled because he was working at the March Madness tournament. Butler was currently, yeah. So it was just a funny, you know, she didn't say anything like, well, you know, his team, she just said he's working. He won't be there.

I love them. They're super cute on social media. She's also super dry, which makes her even funnier. Her sense of humor is fantastic. But the Caitlin Clark effect, you hear about this, again, it's what we've been saying. It's more eyes on women's basketball, college, and professional. Fans have traveled all over the state when she played at Iowa, traveled all over the state to come see her. Can you guess how much money Caitlin Clark brought

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into the state of Iowa's economy as a result of people traveling in. Oh, like three million. 82.5 million. Wow. She's like Taylor Swift. I know. I know. I mean, the average, right when she was breaking records and stuff, the average ticket price was over $300. Amazing. The WNBA draft where she was chosen as the number one pick.

had the most ever, most watched ever draft with 2.45 million viewers. Some professional WNBA teams are having to move their games to different arenas to accommodate the number of people who wanna come and see her. And it just, here's another fun fact. The WNBA has finally started a charter program so that its teams can stop flying commercial. The teams were these six foot something women

were crunched into like commercial plate seats. Yeah, frontier and spirit situations. So, but in conclusion, Caitlin's impact on women's basketball and women's sports in general just cannot be overstated. And she's just getting started. She's only 23. And that is why she is the She's Got Game spotlight today. Go, Caitlin Clark.

Thanks for hanging out with us on Almost Fans. We hope you learned a little something, shared a laugh, and maybe even found a new reason to love sports as much as we do. Join us next week for more fun, a few questionable sports takes, and definitely some unexpected moments. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to like and subscribe. Catch you next time, Almost Fans.