Caitlin Clark Drowning Her Sorrows Away At A Random Bar After Losing To LSU Makes Her That Much Cooler
Caitlin Clark has been the story in basketball, at both the college and professional level, for all of the 2023-24 season with her run at becoming the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball history. Her ability to put the basketball through the cylinder is world-class, but it's the style in which she does it that makes her appointment viewing for fans who enjoy scoring.
When your only true comparison stylistically is Steph Curry, you're doing something right in both the basketball and entertainment departments.
The fact of the matter is that Clark has been putting up numbers at a freak rate since arriving at Iowa. As a freshman, she averaged 26.6 points per game, that average moved to 27.0 points as a sophomore, and then to 27.8 points during her third season before the historic season this year in which she's averaging 31.9 points per contest.
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Fans of women's college basketball quickly found out that Clark was special four years ago, but the entire nation was introduced to her during Iowa's run to the national championship game against LSU a year ago.
Clark put together back-to-back 41-point performances in the two previous games before getting her shot at Angel Reese and LSU in the title game. Her 30-point game was a side story to the drama and back-and-forth that took place in what turned out to be a 102-85 blowout win for the Tigers. There was also the fact that the media wanted nothing more than to turn the Clark-Reese drama into a race thing, which created out-of-touch narratives for both players.
(Credit: USA Today Sports Network)
Caitlin Clark And The Hawkeyes Hit The Bar
Nevertheless, that game put Clark on the radar of thousands if not millions of sports fans, and while it may have happened nearly a full year ago, new information about what happened shortly after the game adds to the legendary status of one Caitlin Clark.
Wright Thompson of ESPN, one of the all-time great sports storytellers, published a profile centered around Clark and her Iowa teammates ahead of their upcoming journey in another NCAA Tournament. In said piece, there is a quick, but great story about Clark and her teammates hitting up a random bar in Dallas to drown their sorrows away after falling to LSU.
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Thompson explains that after grabbing a quick shower and letting the adrenaline wear off, Clark led her teammates to a bar called Happiest Hour three blocks away from the hotel.
"I don't think you should write about any of this," Caitlin said with a smile, "but I'm gonna tell you anyway," he wrote.
An Iowa fan then approached Clark and asked if he could buy the team a drink.
"Twenty-two shots!" she said, according to Thompson.
"They stayed out all night, sad, yes, but sad together, which was its own kind of joy. They told stories, about being stuck in traffic at Maryland or the shot Caitlin hit against Indiana. They all dragged themselves out of bed in time to catch an afternoon flight back to Iowa, and the team leaders kept doing head counts and asking if everyone was present and accounted for and if everyone was OK," Thompson wrote.
"They wore hoodies and sunglasses. Kate Martin cradled a Jimmy John's submarine sandwich in the lobby. No. 5, the Vito -- salami, capocollo and provolone. Caitlin gloated because she'd had the foresight to pack before the game. The players shared pictures and retold the stories. They limped to the plane and flew back home."
Imagn/USAToday
Caitlin Clark Is An All-Timer
Just when you thought Clark couldn't be cooler, we get delivered a story about her and her teammates getting drunk together at a gimmicky-named bar after losing the biggest game of their lives.
The story makes Clark cooler because it's so relatable.
You never read about college athletes hitting up a bar to help ease the pain after a loss. It certainly happens, a lot, but it's hardly ever made public, and it's certainly not written about when the subject is arguably the best athlete in his or her respective sport.
Going to a bar after a bad loss is the same move adult softball teams pull after losing their championship game that realistically meant absolutely nothing. Having one - or three - too many after a devastating loss or an unfortunate life event and then clinging to a Jimmy John's sandwich is a move we all know far too well.
Some of the greatness of the story is a testament to Thompson's ability to put words together on a page, but the simple fact that Clark ordered 22 shots and then told Thompson to write about it solidifies her standing as an all-timer.