Caitlin Clark made an Iowa homecoming Sunday when she was captured arriving at Carver-Hawkeye Arena ahead of the Indiana Fever’s preseason game.
The Fever are set to take on the Brazilian national team in a warm up for the new WNBA season at 4pm ET on Sunday in Iowa City – Clark’s old stomping ground from her time as an Iowa Hawkeye.
The WNBA superstar rocked up to the arena in an all-grey matching Nike set but there was still doubt over whether she would be switching into her Fever jersey.
The 23-year-old sat out Saturday’s preseason opener against the Washington Mystics with an injury scare.
Despite taking part in the warmups, Indiana officials decided it was not worth risking Clark’s fitness against Washington, with the WNBA season set to begin in two weeks’ time.
Clark is suffering from an issue with her left leg, which forced the team to list her as questionable heading into the game.
Caitlin Clark arrived at Carver-Hawkeye Arena ahead of the Indiana Fever’s preseason game
The WNBA star enjoyed an Iowa homecoming, returning to her old college stomping grounds
‘Just a little tightness,’ she said at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. ‘I’ll go through all our warmups and everything — and then they’ll decide if I’m good to go or not.’
However, she was listed as available for Sunday’s clash, which sold out in under 45 minutes when tickets went on sale in February with fans eager to see her play under her retired jersey.
Despite not taking to court Saturday, Clark remained very active in the game, jumping up and down with the team and jawing the referees over certain calls.
‘I thought she was, she was really engaged. And I felt like at one point she wanted to go back and put her uniform on and come out and play,’ Fever head coach Stephanie White said postgame Saturday.
‘… She had a lot of progress in the last 24 hours, and that was our goal. Our goal is to see how she progresses every day, so we’ll see what happens and see how she feels after the workouts that she went through today, and then hopefully she’ll be ready tomorrow.’
Indiana’s final preseason fixture comes against the Atlanta Dream next Saturday, before their WNBA opener against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky takes place the following week.
It emerged earlier this week that Clark has employed an interesting tactic to continue improving her game ahead of her sophomore WNBA season.
The Fever star won Rookie of the Year in her debut season and averaged 19.2 points and 8.4 assists per game, as she led Indiana to the postseason and helped the W smash viewership records.
The 23-year-old sat out the Indiana Fever’s preseason game on Saturday with an injury
Now entering her second year as a pro, Clark has been working with newly-hired Fever coach White – and she made an interesting ask of the former Connecticut Sun coach.
As relayed by ESPN’s Alexa Philippou on SportsCenter, Clark recently sat down with White and her coaching staff to go over some of her film from last season.
And Clark even asked White if she could see the scouting report the Sun used against her last year, when White was still coaching them.
Connecticut managed to hold Clark well below her season averages in four meetings, as she scored 16.5 points and dished out just 3.8 assists per contest.
She also shot just 39.2 percent from the field and committed 25 total turnovers.
