Covering Clark a constant evolution

It’s hard to describe the smell — think of 5,000 sweaty socks piled in the corner of a room, and you get the idea.
It was in the room in Carver-Hawkeye Arena set up for the press conferences at the first and second rounds of the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball tournament, and as we gathered for the press conferences between the two rounds, the smell hit all of us as we walked into the room.
Almost everybody commented on it, but there was a consensus on who, among the players, would notice it when they entered.
Caitlin.
And sure enough, five minutes later Caitlin Clark walked in and immediately crinkled her nose in disgust.
We started laughing, and no one laughed harder than her.
I think of that scene a lot these days, given all that Clark faces in the media coverage now that she is in her third season in the WNBA.
I was lucky enough to be around for every home game for Clark in her four years at Iowa, back when covering her was fun and she was fun to interact with in season and out of season.
What I remember was someone who, even as a freshman, gave insightful answers while showing the goofy sense of humor that could always draw a laugh. She could break down a game, or ponder why Carver-Hawkeye Arena didn’t have air conditioning, and it made for good copy.
Her development as a player was fascinating to watch, from an aggressive throw-it-around-the-yard and shoot-it-anywhere guard as a freshman to a still-daring-but-more-under-control player as a junior and a senior.
But as she grew, the attention grew. She became a little more guarded in her answers. She was still accessible — if she missed a post-game press conference, it was to allow others to get the attention — but the quotes were a little different. Some of that had to do with getting the same questions over and over, and the answers started to sound the same.
The ring around her tightened her senior year, and while it was frustrating from a media standpoint, it was understandable. Getting a one-on-one interview was limited — at Iowa’s media day before her senior season, she did a press conference for everyone, then during the on-court session was escorted by two managers as she went from photo station to photo station — there would be no individual Q&As.

My lone memory of her senior year was how that season was never allowed to breathe. Clark was facing questions about record-breaking before the first game was even played. The Hawkeyes, coming off the national-championship loss to LSU the year before, were near the top of the national polls at the beginning of the year, and questions about them ascending to No. 1 in the rankings were being asked less than 30 minutes after their season-opening win.
By the time the Big Ten schedule arrived, the national media began showing up. As a long-time political editor said to me, it was like during the campaigns before the Iowa presidential caucuses — the closer to Caucus Day, the more the national media comes in and sucks the life out of the coverage.
There was a documentary about Clark’s senior season being shot during that time, and one segment should have been devoted to the various faces I made every post-game when someone who had parachuted in for the first time asked the same question that had been asked a few hundred times before.
What’s it like to be the face of college basketball?
Clark, of course, would answer it the same way, and those of us that had heard it a million times would eventually fast-forward through the recording at that point when we were transcribing answers from the press conference.
I think of all of this now as I witness from afar what is said and written about Clark these days as she goes through her third WNBA season. Little of what is written or spoken surprises me, considering I caught the acts of a lot of these media people during that final season.
There was the writer who showed up for a game and spent her time during the game complaining how she never got a one-on-one with Caitlin, then proceeded to monopolize the post-game, even going so far as to shout at Clark as she was leaving the press conference, “CAITLIN, WHAT’S ON YOUR PLAYLIST BEFORE GAMES???”
There was a demand that Clark become some sort of oracle — a couple of pieces written about her during her senior season pondered why she wasn’t more vocal about social and political issues the way Paige Bueckers was.
Those pleas have grown into a cacophony these days — Clark is now a knot in the tug-of-war rope of a culture battle that plays out in the media. She has, on several occasions, denounced those who make racial or misogynistic comments to others in defense of her, but it is not enough to some. The demands of those who want her to say what they want feel like extortion — “Say this, and we’ll stop, and if not…”
I remember after her sophomore year, I came out of the elevator on the main floor of Carver-Hawkeye Arena and Clark was talking to her father. I had met him after a game earlier in the season, and he said hello to me. She turned around, smiled, and said, “Hey, thanks for covering us.”
I choose to remember those years fondly, when covering Clark, and being Clark, was a lot more fun than today.
Even with the smell of sweaty socks.
John Bohnenkamp is an award-winning reporter and Fort Madison High School alum. He's a regular contributor to Pen City Current.