INDIANAPOLIS — John Meinen has been an avid Iowa basketball fan for decades.
The 61-year-old former hoops player never lost touch with the sport, his home state or his beloved Hawkeyes’ men’s or women’s teams, even after moving to Indianapolis.
So with the Indiana Fever expected to draft Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 overall pick Monday night, Meinen can’t hide his excitement over seeing the potential of a game-changing player suddenly making the Fever relevant again after a seven-year playoff drought.
”She’s Bob Cousy meets Steph Curry. I mean there just hasn’t been anyone, certainly in the women’s game, who plays the way she does,” Meinen said. ”I don’t know her, I’ve never met her, but she seems like a very nice person. The other piece of it is she’s got a little Taylor Swift in her because girls just look up to her.”
He’s not alone.
Fever guard Erica Wheeler told social media fans Clark was the real deal after attending one Iowa game in February 2023. Another Fever guard, Grace Berger already knows Clark’s scouting report after chasing her around Big Ten courts for three seasons.
Neither had any idea back then, though, that the Fever would win a second straight draft lottery that would allow them to team up with the 2023 unanimous rookie of the year Aliyah Boston and the greatest scorer in Division I history.
