MINNEAPOLIS -- Caitlin Clark and the #6 Iowa Hawkeyes came to town with all the pageantry, all the flash, and all the promised thrills and showmanship of Taylor Swift's mega-hit Eras Tour. Like the Eras Tour, The Caitlin Clark Show draws rapturous crowds of girls and young women. Like the Eras Tour, it can also cost a pretty penny, with ticket prices to Iowa games skyrocketing on the secondary market.
When The Caitlin Clark Show comes to town, it is an Event with a capital E.
Clark and Iowa have set (or will set) attendance records in 30 of 32 regular-season games. Iowa sold out its home slate of games in record-breaking fashion this summer and as a road draw helped every opponent on its schedule set new home attendance records.
Williams Arena in Minneapolis, known widely as The Barn, was no different.
Not only was the game a sellout, but fans began lining up outside the arena hours before the game -- despite wind chills in the single digits and flirting with the wrong side of zero. Iowa and Minnesota fans swarmed the entrances in Williams Arena when the doors were opened as well, resembling Black Friday shopping mobs as much as basketball game attendees.
The large crowd was treated to a dazzling offensive show by Clark and the Hawkeyes, which gave the fans clad in black and gold -- nearly half of the jam-packed arena -- plenty to cheer about. Clark swished a three-pointer less than 15 seconds into the game, added an and-1 layup on her next possession, and made two more three-pointers not even two minutes later. Less than three minutes into the game, the score was Caitlin Clark 12, Minnesota 2.
Clark ended up scoring Iowa's first 15 points of the game and finished with half of Iowa's 30 points in the opening quarter. She added four rebounds and three assists in the first quarter, firmly setting her on a triple double pace.
Television can only prepare fans so much for the experience of seeing Clark and the Iowa offense when it's in top gear, and Wednesday night it was positively humming.
Every Clark three-pointer was met by a deafening roar from the Iowa fans who ensured the Barn would be sold out. Every Clark rebound and aggressive transition push brought a murmur of excitement, as everyone in attendance had scant seconds to wonder what audacious shot or pass Clark might attempt next. Every pass Clark zipped across the court or bounced through the paint to a waiting teammate drew oohs and aahs .
Every crowd comes to Iowa games hoping to see a transcendent superstar put on a show and produce a night they'll remember for weeks, months, and years. Clark did just that on Wednesday night -- and made it look all but effortless, no less.
By halftime Clark had 21 points (on 7-of-11 shooting, including 6-of-9 from deep) to go with six rebounds and six assists. The triple double was looking more like a question of "when" rather than "if." But Iowa didn't double-up Minnesota in the first half solely because of Clark -- she was only one of several Iowa perimeter players who were setting The Barn ablaze.
Guard Gabbie Marshall hit a pair of three-pointers in the first half, en route to a 16-point effort that featured her going 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and showing signs of breaking out of her long shooting slump.
Meanwhile, reserve guard Kylie Feuerbach followed up a 9-point effort against Illinois (going 3-of-5 from 3-point range) with three treys tonight, finishing with 13 points for the game (and going 4-of-8 from deep).
This was a team-wide sharpshooting display, and the Hawkeyes used it to blow Minnesota off the court from the opening whistle to the final buzzer on what had been, nominally, the Gophers' Senior Night.
As a team, the Hawkeyes finished with 22 three-pointers, breaking their own program record of 20, set earlier this season against Florida Gulf Coast. It also broke the Big Ten single-game record of 21, set by Maryland against Towson in 2021.
That was far from the only record to fall in this game, of course. The other records were set by -- who else? -- Caitlin Clark, the ringmaster of Iowa's dazzling three-ring hoops circus. The big record Clark broke was Lynette Woodard's major college career scoring record -- the real career scoring record as Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder called it after the game.
Clark entered the game needing 33 points to break Woodard's record -- and she got it on the nose, eclipsing Woodard with her final points of the game in the fourth quarter. The record-breaking basket came on -- what else? -- a three-pointer.
READ MORE: Caitlin Clark Passes Lynette Woodard's Career Scoring Record -- The Real One
That wasn't the only record that Clark broke, either. Clark also broke the Big Ten's career three-point record, zipping by the record of 497 held by Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell not even three minutes into the first quarter. Clark finished with eight made threes, which gives her 503 and counting in her brilliant career.
Clark's eight three-pointers in the game also gave her 156 for the season, breaking the NCAA single-season record for 3-pointers, previously set by Taylor Pierce of Idaho, who had 154 made threes in 2019.
The game was played at such a blinding pace that the records weren't announced to the crowd in attendance at Williams Arena until the end of the game -- but few had left their seats, despite the lopsided scoreline, and the announcement of Clark's records produced the final roars of the night from the fans.
The seemingly inevitable triple-double also became a reality — and it didn't even take four quarters. Clark picked up her tenth rebound of the game with a minute to go in the third quarter, blazing down the court for a layup to push her point total to 30.
Clark's triple-double — her second-straight this week — with 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists came in under three quarters of work. She now has six triple doubles this season and 17 in her career.
The Caitlin Clark Show doesn't stop when the clock hits 0:00 either.
In Williams Arena, just as it is in Carver-Hawkeye Arena and every arena Clark has set foot in this season, the show is non-stop. Despite the fact that the game was a blowout almost from the opening tip, barely anyone left their seats before the game was over.
The swarms of Iowa fans in attendance stayed in their seats until the end, then serenaded Clark with a chant of "one more year" as she did post-game TV interviews. Those same Iowa fans then thronged the concourses and hallways in The Barn, hoping for a glimpse of Clark, a smile, maybe even an autograph.
Clark, as she always does, accommodated as many fans as she could before obligations pulled her elsewhere.
The Caitlin Clark Show rarely disappoints, but on Wednesday against Minnesota, Clark and Iowa hit a level that few players or teams can touch — and left memories for fans as indelible as the ink on the innumerable signs, shirts and memorabilia they signed on their way out.
