Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are completely fantastic with expectations.
“Me personally, I would not need it every other approach,” Clark stated Thursday. “That is simply one thing you embrace. You simply rise to the event.”
Clark’s debut WNBA season was a curler coaster. She was drafted two weeks after main Iowa to the Ultimate 4 and commenced skilled life with the Fever whereas residing out of a resort and making an attempt to get her bearings in a brand new metropolis and novel atmosphere.
“It is all simply actually new, making an attempt to get your ft below you,” Clark stated. “Going into Yr 2, that is the largest factor for me … having that have that I understand how issues function provides me a number of confidence.”
Clark stated she struggled to know when to make use of her voice as a rookie and realized find out how to deal with conditions that had been in any other case international. Being extra snug in her management function because the crew’s level guard put Clark in place to deal with the large image.
“Successful,” Clark stated of her 2025 targets.
Clark shot 41.7 % from the sphere as a rookie when defenses had been fastened on making her life tough — and sometimes succeeded. Clark had 223 turnovers in 40 video games — a whopping 5.6 per sport. She averaged 19.2 factors, 5.7 rebounds, 8.4 assists and 1.3 steals per sport.
She stated there isn’t any comparability between her rookie season and the upcoming season, primarily with a selfless locker room locked in on reaching a common objective.
“All of us have the identical targets right here. Put ourselves in place to compete for a championship and win a championship,” first-year coach Stephanie White stated. “It is new for everyone. We’ll naturally be taught work type, work habits, by way of follow and on the ground. The precedence early has been communication and constructing relationship.”
White, a highschool star within the state who performed at Purdue and for the Fever (2000-04), is in her second stint because the franchise’s head coach. She was head coach of the Fever in 2015-16 after 4 years as an assistant.
Not all the pieces in Indiana might be a repeat of 2024.
The Fever completed final season with a flourish to make the playoffs however misplaced to White and the Connecticut Solar within the first spherical.
On the heels of a busy Fever offseason targeted on discovering seasoned gamers to construct round Clark, White stated the intentional work ethic and work type of Clark is “spectacular” and an enormous a part of what made the job engaging.
“There was loads thrown at Caitlin from Day One. For us as opponents, making all the pieces as tough as doable. Attempting to put on right here down,” White stated. “Attempting to make life as tough as doable. With nice gamers, you are not going to cease them, utterly shut them down. As Caitlin obtained higher, clearly we needed to change our technique. She’s an extremely onerous employee. She needs to get higher. She’s a perfectionist.”
White stated she already sees infinite development in Clark because the season-ending loss a 12 months in the past, however is reminding gamers they have not “accomplished something but.”
“We won’t win a championship in Might,” White stated.
–Discipline Degree Media