IOWA CITY, Iowa — Let’s take a trip to a renovated Carver-Hawkeye Arena in the year 2044.
There’s a 20-year reunion planned for the current Iowa women’s basketball team. The stands are packed with women and men in their mid-30s who watched the Hawkeyes as teenagers. Can you picture it? The most beloved team and the greatest player in Iowa sports history walking out at halftime of a Big Ten women’s basketball game, and the videoboard flashes images to 2024. It’s not a specific victory that comes to the surface for those in attendance. Instead, it’s the memories that will flood their eyelids.
A chapter closed Monday night with the Hawkeyes’ 64-54 win against West Virginia in an NCAA Tournament second-round game. Iowa plays again Saturday against Colorado in the Sweet 16. There’s at least one game — and perhaps four — left for this group. But it never will compete together again in Iowa City. And neither will Caitlin Clark, the greatest Hawkeye of them all.
There’s a love affair between this team and its fan base like we’ve never experienced. Every home game was sold out by August. Then every road game filled up, as did the Big Ten tournament and two home NCAA Tournament games. The connection runs deeper than team success, although that plays a role….
