For the uninitiated, college basketball may seem like a complicated sport. Nearly every second is packed with plays, screens, cuts, and defenses that can be hard to follow. Commentators spray you with names and phrases that you’re supposed to already know. (Izzo? Geno? The 1-3-1? Pac-12?) And let’s not even get started on advanced metrics, unless you can explain usage rate.

But if you’ve ever wanted to see basketball beautifully simplified — as clean as putting a ball through the hoop — all you need to do is watch Caitlin Clark, the 22-year-old superstar making headlines with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

In both the men’s and women’s college game, there has never been a more prolific scorer than Clark, no shooter as flashy. She’s the record-breaking scoring leader among all Division I college basketball players in NCAA history, smashing “Pistol Pete” Maravich’s more than 50-year-old record this season. Clark’s gaudy numbers and the manner in which she scores — pulling up from anywhere in the gym, no matter how distant from the basket — have brought mainstream attention to women’s college basketball, a sport historically eclipsed by its men’s counterpart.

Her impact is being called the Caitlin Clark Effect. The Hawkeyes sold out their season tickets for their entire home schedule for the first time in school history, and Iowa’s road games have set attendance bests for opposing schools. Tickets for Iowa’s first two March Madness games, which begin on Saturday, sold out in 30 minutes. Earlier this month, her game against Ohio State — in which she broke Maravich’s aforementioned record — was watched by nearly 4 million TV viewers, the highest for a regular-season women’s basketball game (i.e., no championships involved) since 1999.

Clark is the exception among her exceptional peers, and it isn’t just because of her incredible long-range shot. It’s that she knows what makes basketball exciting. She sees the spotlight and the pressure, the wins and the heartbreaks as a privilege, and she has embraced being both a hero and a villain. That’s what allows her to be the most thrilling player in college basketball.

How Caitlin Clark changed women’s basketball

Over the past four years, Caitlin Clark has scored 3,771 points — the most for a player of any gender in Division I college basketball. That list includes male Hall of Famers like Maravich and........

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