Iowa ready to withdraw Caitlin Clark number after an important confrontation with No. 4 USC on Sunday

Iowa City, Iowa (AP) – Kylie Feuerbach of Iowa will always consider Caitlin Clark a teammate, if the best general selection in the WNBA draft goes to concerts or Go out with Taylor Swift In a NFL game.

And that is why Feuerbach always laughs well where Clark appears in the media.

“We talk about this all the time, but it’s crazy, because you really don’t realize until you start seeing all Instagram publications or news (headlines), whatever, because we obviously know her as a friend and a partner of team “Feuerbach, a senior guard of the Hawkeyes, said Friday. “So seeing it at that level is a bit out of this world, but it is madness. It is incredible to see all the advertising you receive. Obviously, he deserves it, and has worked very hard for where he is now. “

C cleare to the national player of the year twice. Sunday, Clark will have Your number 22 sweater In a ceremony at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena after Iowa’s game against No. 4 of the USC.

For Hawkeyes, the first season without Clark has been “unique,” said coach Jan Jensen. Hawkeyes are 14-7 in general and 4-6 at Big Ten in Jensen’s first season as chief coach. Iowa opened the 12-2 season and were in the Top 25 of Associated Press before a five-game losing streak took them out of the classification and put their hopes in the NCAA tournament in danger.

It has sometimes been a fight for Jensen, an assistant coach since 2000 who took over the team in May when Lisa Bluder retired.

“All this year has been unique,” said Jensen, pointing out the loss of key players such as Clark, Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall, Sharon Goodman and Molly Davis of the last season team that lost to South Carolina in the game of the national title , as well as the outputs of Bluder and the former assistant coach Jenni Fitzgerald. “There have been many first and many different situations that we have been sailing.”

Sunday’s game is a sales sale: Iowa sold its public season tickets for the second consecutive year, even without Clark returning. But, the most attention in the game is something that many of the Hawkeyes are accustomed, after having gone through the last seasons with all the media in Clark.

“We play in front of an exhausted crowd almost all games at home, and it is not different,” said Guard Sydney Affolter. “We simply say: ‘Recent in the game.’ There will be a lot of exterior noise and many things that happen, which is really great and great, but obviously we want The USC, and that is going to be our main approach. “

Hawkeyes have won consecutive games. They close the regular season with a schedule that includes games at home against USC and UCLA best classified, and a road game against No. 8 Ohio State.

“We have had the same mentality every day, which I think is what strengthened us,” said Feuerbach. “Actually, we really stayed together, we trust our work, and we knew that, as coach J would say, the shore was close.”

Clark attended another game this season, on November 17 at Des Moines, when the Hawkeyes defeated Drake 86-73. She maintained a low profile of that game.

“I didn’t even know she was there until later,” Feuerbach said, laughing.

But if Clark is on the court on Sunday, his former teammates hope to know about her, as in her game days.

“Wherever Caitlin is, she brings energy,” Feuerbach said. “She illuminates a room with her energy, vocal communication, whatever it is.”

Clark’s rise of a highly touched high school recruit to be an “a-lister”, as Jensen called it, has been fun to see.

“I am always blessed forever it has to be part of his trip,” said Jensen. “She will always be part of us. As I said before, Michael Jordan will always be Carolina Blue, Caitlin will always be Hawkeye Black and Gold. “

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