Lisa Bluder highlighted that watching Caitlin Clark in commercials still catches her off guard, in an exclusive interview while sitting in the Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The interview came following Clark's jersey retirement ceremony on Sunday, less than a year after she had led Iowa to two straight NCAA championship games.
While Bluder expressed amazement with Clark's off-court stints, she said that the Indiana Fever guard is still the same person she was before becoming a national sensation.
"I get some oh-wow moments when I her on commercials that's kind of weird for me or to see her with Taylor Swift," Bluder said.
"The thing that impresses me the most is that she's still Caitlin. None of this has changed her, no records, no success, whatever it is it hasn't changed her and she's still good old goofy fun Caitlin."
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The jersey retirement ceremony will take place before the No. 4 USC Trojans and JuJu Watkins visit the Hawkeyes on Feb. 2, making for one of the biggest games in the program's 2024-25 schedule.
Caitlin Clark spent four years at Iowa, averaging 31.6 points, 8.9 assists, 7.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals on 45.5% shooting in her senior year. Her presence on the roster helped break several viewership and attendance records in Hawkeyes and NCAA history.
The program sold out its season tickets for the 2023-24 for the first time. The 2024 women's basketball NCAA championship game drew more than 18.9 million views, surpassing the men's finale first time in college ball history.
Caitlin Clark hopes to be emotional by watching her jersey in the rafters
While speaking about her upcoming trip to Iowa on the 247Sports podcast, Caitlin Clark said that she usually refrained from showing her emotions due to the competitive nature of the sport as a Hawkeye. However, she now expects to fully soak in the experience.
"It's been a very important number in our program's history but I think it's hard to really feel all the emotions until I'm going to be inside of Carver and really see it and experience that with my family," Clark said (at 7:10).
"Usually when we've had certain things inside of Carver, I've been competing or playing shortly before ... a senior night or something like that, it's hard to evoke emotion after you just competed for 40 minutes but now that I'm not actually going to be playing, I feel like I'll probably be a little more emotional even though I'm not a super emotional person."
Caitlin Clark will be the third Iowa player to have her jersey retired, joining Michelle Edwards (#30) and Megan Gustafson (#10).
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