When Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese faced off against one another last April in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game, only one of them was able to emerge victorious.
In that contest, Clark’s Iowa team fell 102-85 to Reese’s LSU squad, punctuated by Reese famously waving her hand in front of her face and pointing at her ring finger while staring at Clark in the matchup’s waning seconds. Eight months later, however, they were brought back together and this time, they both got to be winners.
On Tuesday, Clark and Reese were named 2023 athletes of the year by The Sporting News for “their impact on their sport in particular” and “on the world of sports in general.”
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With their matchup in the title game, and with their respective performances in the weeks leading up to it, the two stars became the public faces of a 2023 tournament that drew in record ratings and brought increased exposure to women’s college basketball.
The championship between the Hawkeyes and Tigers averaged 9.9 million viewers and peaked at 12.6 million viewers, according to figures released by ESPN. It was the most-viewed women’s basketball game on record.
LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey was not only complimentary of Clark (as well as Reese), but also their ability to draw viewership to NCAA women’s basketball.
“Back when I was playing, there was only one game per season that was televised. Now you can watch pretty much every game in one way or another,” Mulkey told The Sporting News. “I think what we are seeing now in women’s college basketball is that all these players have brands beyond the sport that can attract new audiences to the sport. You have players like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark that are spectacular to watch play basketball, and that captivates fans to want to watch.”
Since re-launching the honor in 2021 after an eight-year absence, The Sporting News awarded its athlete of the year to soccer superstar Lionel Messi in 2022 and then-Los Angeles Angels slugger and pitcher Shohei Ohtani in 2021. Clark earned the distinction in 2023 after a mesmerizing 2022-23 season that marked the latest chapter in a legendary college career.
As a junior last season, the West Des Moines native averaged 27.8 points, 8.6 assists and 7.1 rebounds per game for Iowa. She was named the Associated Press Player of the Year and won the John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith College Player of the Year, among other honors.
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Earlier this season, she became the all-time leading scorer in Iowa history and is the only player in men’s or women’s Division I history with at least 3,000 career points, 750 career rebounds and 750 career assists. She also has a chance this year at becoming the leading scorer in Division I women’s history.
“She’s a different kind of player than we’ve seen in women’s basketball,” Steph White, the head coach of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, told TSN. “I think if you mix Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi together, that’s what Caitlin Clark is.”
Reese has her share of accomplishments, as well, earning first-team All-America honors last season and being named the 2023 Final Four Most Outstanding Player after averaging 19.5 points and 11 rebounds per game after guiding her LSU team to wins in the national semifinal and championship games.
