Iowa’s Higgins Reacts to Clark’s Takeover of His Hometown

INDIANAPOLIS — The JW Marriott hotel in downtown Indianapolis is impossible to miss from the north side of Lucas Oil Stadium, just half a mile down S. West Street. Emblazoned on the side of the massive glass hotel is a giant Gatorade ad featuring Indy’s new favorite daughter, Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark.

Inside of the stadium, her fellow Iowa All-American , linebacker Jay Higgins, jokingly wonders what he has to do for his hometown to give him his own billboard. Or mural. Really any public piece of art would do.

“I’m 22, guys been here my whole life. I don’t think no one’s ever thought of putting a mirror of me anywhere, you know,” Higgins joked, drawing laughs from reporters at Big Ten media days. “I mean, at least artwork, a piece of canvas artwork would be fine, but she’s got a whole wall.”

All joking aside, Higgins is rooting for his fellow Hawkeyes standout through her first season with the Fever and understands the pandemonium around Clark given her incredible talent.

“What she’s doing is special. If I could shoot the ball from half court, I’d probably get a mural, too,” Higgins said. “But the buzz that’s going through the city, we value sports around here, and I feel like this was a great environment for her to come succeed in. It’s cool to say, you know, the Indiana Fever, my hometown. So I’m repping the Fever. I’m repping Caitlin and Iowa.

“If I’m out in public and I got, like, a tigerhawk on, there’s a high chance they’re asking me if I know Caitlin Clark. And I keep it at that. I don’t even tell them I’m an athlete. I just tell them I’m a normal student. You know, it’s the Caitlin Clark show.”

It took Clark a few weeks to adapt to the WNBA game, but she came on strong for the Fever going into her first All-Star weekend and the Olympic break. On the year, she’s averaging 17.1 points and 8.2 assists, hitting double-doubles in seven of her past nine regular-season games including a record-breaking 19-assist game against the Dallas Wings on July 17.

Higgins can fill the stat book, too. He recorded 171 total tackles for the Hawkeyes in ’23 and returns for a fifth season with his eye on a trip to the new 12-team College Football Playoff , a reasonable goal if Iowa’s offense can come close to reaching the productivity of its defense.

“Every win counts. And, you know, that’s our goal,” Higgins said, when asked about the Playoff. “If we get to the end of the year and we won the games that we deserve to win, I think we can definitely be a part of those twelve teams. And it’d be cool to be a part of history.”

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