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The Indiana Fever are ready to turn around their season now that Caitlin Clark is back from injury. Indiana got a big win on Friday night, defeating Atlanta 99-82 in what felt like a must-win game. If Clark really wants to become an all-time great in the WNBA, then she'll need to follow the advice of her college coach.
Clark's former Iowa coach, Lisa Bluder, compared her to the legendary Michael Jordan in a recent article.
“The things that Michael Jordan had, that Phil had to help Michael with, were some of the same things that I feel like I had to help Caitlin with,” Bluder said.
Bluder shared that she learned a lot about coaching Clark from reading Phil Jackson's book “Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior.” In the book, Jackson details his experiences coaching Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
Two areas that caught Bluder's attention were on the pressure of coaching a superstar and handling criticism from the media.
Clark has dealt with a ton of demands on her time while off the court. Those demands include extra interview to constant media pressure. Bluder explained that it can become a grind after a while.
“It’s fun to do once in a while,” Bluder said, “but if you have to do it every single day and once or twice a day, it gets old and that’s hard.”
Bluder encouraged Clark to embrace the challenge, especially if she wants to become an all-time great.
“Caitlin,” she said, “you have to do the brunt of this. So did Michael. The great ones do.”
Bluder recommended that Clark talk up her teammates during her extra attention from the media.
She reminded Clark to “make sure that you’re not talking about yourself. Make sure you’re talking about a teammate. If you can’t bring a teammate along physically, you can bring a teammate along by the way you speak about them.”
The formula has worked for Clark so far. Hopefully Clark can get back into the groove and stay healthy for the rest of the season.
Next up for the Fever is a home game against the Wings on Sunday afternoon. It will be the first Caitlin Clark vs. Paige Bueckers duel of their WNBA careers.
