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The WNBA’s number one overall pick this year, Caitlin Clark, is already impressing her new teammates and head coach and they only began practicing on Sunday.
Indiana Fever guard Erica Wheeler, who will lose playing time to Clark, has had nothing but great things to say about her.
And teammates like guard Kelsey Mitchell have already witnessed firsthand what kind of incredible range Clark has on a basketball court.
Caitlin Clark is just a different kind of player.
2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston, who will be teaming up with Clark this season, cannot wait to play with her this season after just a few hours together on the court.
“I think Caitlin has a different eye for the game,” WFIN News reports Boston said after the Fever’s first practice. “You’re able to see how well she passes the ball and how well she shoots it. You see her communicating, you see the way she can find you, I mean her passes are tremendous. I’m like ‘Okay, I’ll get a touch, just let me get down there’ just because of how well she passes it.”
Clark’s new coach Christie Sides is also already learning what it was like for Iowa Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder over the past four years.
“Her ability to space the floor for us is just incredible,” Sides said after the practice in which Clark was working with the starters. “We’re going to have five players on the court that can shoot it, but her passing ability – you saw some of the passes she made. I’m more mad at the how many missed layups we had. I think we’re just not used to having those, someone who can make those passes.”
Caitlin Clark, for her part, knows that with all of the fame and notoriety comes the pressure to succeed.
“I think no matter what happens, there’s going to be expectations and pressure on my shoulders and pressure on this team to be really good. That’s how you want it,” Clark said. “We wouldn’t want anything else. We want people showing up to our games, people expecting us to win a lot of basketball games this year, and I’m expecting myself to play really well. I don’t think it’s anything that’s ever been different for me.”
The Indiana Fever play their first pre-season game on Friday, May 3, when they take on the Dallas Wings. So if you have access to Bally Sports Southwest Extra, you might want to start getting your popcorn ready.