"Caitlin Clark was one of the hardest workers": Lisa Bluder shares former Iowa guard's role in building team chemistry

Being the face of college basketball comes with a lot of pressure and Caitlin Clark dealt with all the attention with grace and maturity. However, it was not just Clark who was in the eye of the storm.

Her Iowa Hawkeyes teammates faced just as much as she did. Despite it all, the team stayed close and maintained exceptional chemistry on and off the court. In a recent interview with Washington Post Live, former coach Lisa Bluder credited Caitlin Clark for this.

"One part of it was Caitlin Clark herself," Bluder said. "She was a great teammate. She included everybody. She was one of the hardest workers. Obviously, someone that good is going to be a hard worker. But it was the way that she led, the way that she really incorporated her teammates.

"For example, you know, she brings three of them with her to the draft, she gets them all Nike shoes, she gets them all Bose headphones. I mean, she really incorporated her teammates. She was someone who really built them up."

With Clark and Kate Martin now playing in the WNBA and Lisa Bluder retiring, the Hawkeyes have a new set of challenges in the upcoming season with newly promoted head coach, Jan Jensen.

Kate Martin once came to Caitlin Clark's defense amidst the mounting pressure

In her four years of college career, Caitlin Clark led the Iowa Hawkeyes to three Big Ten Tournament championships. They also had four NCAA Tournament appearances, two ending in the title games with a loss. Through all this, the world scrutinized every move that Clark made.

While victories were celebrated, even a single loss was followed by people berating Caitlin Clark for failing to perform well. Frustrations from losses had a spillover effect on the team, as the guard sometimes refused to trust her teammates with the ball, especially in her freshman year.

During a team meeting, when this issue was brought up, Kate Martin came to Clark's defense.

"Everybody thinks they want to be Caitlin," she said. "I don't know if you want to be Caitlin. The crown she wears is heavy." (via ESPN)

From then on, the Hawkeyes worked in harmony around Clark, feeding her the ball as she made those logo 3s. Although she failed to lead the team to a title, the impact Caitlin Clark had on the team brought more eyes to their games.