By R.L. Bynum
ESTERO, Fla. — It might excite Tar Heels fans to know that iconic Iowa star Caitlyn Clark once wore a Carolina uniform and was a huge UNC fan.
That uniform, though, was a Harrison Barnes jersey.
Clark marveled at Barnes when he was an Ames High School star while she was in elementary school in West Des Moines.
“I was big Harrison Barnes fan growing up, but I was also big Mia Hamm fan, too,” Clark said after she scored 21 points Saturday night in the Hawkeyes’ 100–62 win in the Gulf Coast Showcase semifinals. “Harrison Barnes was like ‘it’ in the state of Iowa.”
Sadly for Carolina, that never translated to the desire to play in Chapel Hill.
The all-time leading scorer in Iowa program history wanted to play for her home-state Hawkeyes, and the prolific perimeter shooter and crafty passer has been a big part of the skyrocketing interest in women’s college basketball.
The senior has scored 40 points against teams ranked in the top 10 four times, more than any men’s or women’s player. Clark is averaging 29.3 points and 7.7 assists per game this season, making 37.8% of her 3-point attempts for the No. 5 Hawkeyes (6–1).
The 6–0 star, who won four national player-of-the-year awards last season, remembers going with her dad to see Barnes and Doug McDermott play for Ames High School at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines as a young girl.
When Barnes decided to play at Carolina, Clark’s UNC fandom accelerated because the former soccer player already idolized Hamm, a Carolina soccer legend.
How much did she love Carolina? She had her mom repaint her entire room Carolina blue and navy blue. She had Carolina stuff all over her room.
“I had the whole Harrison Barnes jersey, the Carolina shorts,” Clark said. “My whole room was North Carolina, baby blue. Like I just loved Carolina.”
Both Clark and Barnes played for the Ames-based All-Iowa Attack AAU team, but obviously many years apart.
Clark was in the same recruiting class as UNC seniors Deja Kelly, Alyssa Ustby, Anya Poole and Alexandra Zelaya, but never considered switching from a Barnes Carolina jersey to a Clark Carolina jersey.
“I didn’t really want to go there and play women’s basketball, but I loved their men’s basketball and their soccer because I grew up playing soccer,” Clark said. “So, yeah, I was a big North Carolina basketball fan growing up.”
She would have faced the Carolina blue for the first time Sunday in the Gulf Coast Showcase championship game, but the No. 18 Tar Heels lost to No. 16 Kansas State 63–56 in the other semifinal game on Saturday night.
Clark flatly said, though, that she never considered playing at Carolina.
Consider the possibilities if she had.
Photo via @IowaWBB
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