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WNBA fashionistas expected to showcase their styles at draft
Caitlin Clark and other players at Monday night’s WNBA Draft are facing a challenge essentially every woman can identify with: wearing just the right outfit for a special occasion.
Caitlin Clark and other players at Monday night’s WNBA Draft are facing a challenge essentially every woman can identify with: wearing just the right outfit for a special occasion.
Having taken women’s college basketball to new heights, Caitlin Clark is about to step boldly into her future as the presumed No. 1 draft pick of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever. Here are some questions and answers about Clark’s immediate future in the WNBA.
The Indiana Fever, who are expected to take Clark with their No. 1 pick in the draft, have a draft party scheduled for Monday night.
Caitlin Clark, who is expected to be the No. 1 pick by the Indiana Fever in Monday’s WNBA draft, deftly skewered “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che in a “Saturday Night Live” appearance, and used the platform to offer a reminder of the many women’s basketball stars who came before her.
Clark, who is the career leading scorer in Division I men’s and women’s basketball, is expected to go first to the Indiana Fever. It’s the second consecutive year that the Fever have the top pick.
Call it the Caitlin Clark effect. The WNBA will show all but four of the Fever’s games on its national broadcast and streaming partners, starting with the season opener at Connecticut on May 14.
The entire season was a watershed for the women’s game just two years after the NCAA tournament drew headlines for the disparities in the facilities between the men’s tournament and the women’s.
Clark—who is expected to be the No. 1 pick in this month’s WNBA draft, where the Indiana Fever have the No. 1 pick—finished her four-year college career with 3,951 points, an NCAA record for both men and women.
The University of Iowa’s victory over Louisiana State University was the most-watched men’s or women’s college basketball game ever on ESPN, more than doubling the prior largest audience.
In the week since the Iowa Hawkeyes guard announced her plans to go pro, interest in tickets for Indiana Fever games—both at home and on the road—have spiked.
Gainbridge—which holds the naming rights for Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home to the Indiana Fever and the Indiana Pacers—said Clark will serve as brand ambassador for the company.
Getting University of Iowa star Clark with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft as expected would be a boost to Indiana Fever, which was second-to-last in WNBA home-game attendance last season.
Clark, the all-time top scorer in NCAA women’s basketball, regularly draws sellout crowds to University of Iowa games, including away contests, sending ticket prices to all-time highs.
Indiana, which hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016, had a 44% chance of getting the No. 1 pick, but became only the third franchise to win the draft lottery in consecutive seasons.
Coming off a heralded career where she was one of the faces of college basketball, the 2022 Wooden Award winner has been tabbed as the missing centerpiece to resuscitate the moribund Fever.
The Indiana Fever also used the seventh pick in the first round on Indiana University’s Grace Berger, who helped the Hoosiers win 118 games during her college career.
Dunn, 75, who coached the Fever to the 2012 WNBA title, took over as interim general manager and senior adviser for the team’s basketball operations in February after the resignation of Tamika Catchings.
White, who led Purdue University to a national championship, has a combined 15 seasons of experience as a player and coach in the WNBA, most recently as the head of the Indiana Fever in 2015-2016.
The former Fever assistant returns to Indiana after a one-year stint as an assistant with the Atlanta Dream.
Allison Barber shares her take on the 18-game losing streak, the franchise’s new rebuild strategy, her top priorities in the off-season and the challenges of leading an organization mired in a rough transition.