There are two stories at play when Penn State women’s basketball goes on the road this Thursday to face No. 2 Iowa at 9 p.m.
The first is an obvious one. The Nittany Lions will be taking the court against Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark, a transcendent scorer, passer, player and an icon in the world of sports. Clark is more than just women’s basketball; she is the athlete of the moment, the figurehead of a surging movement, all the while the heartbeat of an Iowa team eyeing a national title.
If you can actually stop Clark is a legitimate question. The answer is usually no, the real quest is trying to slow her down. Among the dozens of teams that have tried over the course of her career, few have.
And this brings us to the second story in play. Penn State women’s basketball is 16-6, playing well, doing good things on the court and reminding people that the Lady Lions were once a force to be reckoned with in their own right. In many ways, the quiet resurgence of Penn State women’s basketball over the course of the 2023-24 season is a bigger note for Penn State than whatever happens Thursday (although check back if they actually win). Teams don’t travel into Iowa City looking for a good time, but this Penn State team has a punchers’ chance — a win in its own way when you consider where the program was just a few years ago, finishing with a losing record each of the last four seasons.
“It goes back to the last four years of building,” Penn State coach Carolyn Kieger said on Tuesday. “That doesn’t just happen overnight. Obviously we’ve been trying to build this culture and this foundation and work on habits and chemistry. And some of personnel that we got from the transfer portal was really great synergy for our returners, and I think our maturity and our depth and our experience has really helped.
“This is the pace of play and the type of mentality that I’ve been trying to get this program to get to. And obviously the last four years we’ve been trying to teach them how to win. And I think for them now is just to believe that they can go play against anybody and beat anybody. They’ve weathered the storm and all the failures and all the lessons that we’ve learned the last four years have added up for this moment to be ready.”
Penn State’s roster is a product of the times, nine different players have seen time at different programs prior to landing in State College. If the transfer portal has done anything for programs like Penn State, it has given them a chance to build and do so quickly. That doesn’t mean it’ll happen overnight, or that it’ll even work, but the tools are there for turning things around and keeping them that way.
But of course in an area of Name, Image and Likeness and in a time when student-athletes have never had more rights, and more flexibility, nothing keeps a program afloat like good old fashion investments. Enter Penn State AD Pat Kraft, constantly preaching the value of investing in student-athletes. Music to Kieger’s ears.
“Him and I are having just a lot of conversations about where we think this program can go, where we can get it back to and — I say it all the time, I came here to win at the highest level and to be able to have an administration that supports that is is unreal. It’s awesome to be around other head coaches that have done it at Penn State and not just won at the highest level, but won here and are helping me figure out how to recruit to State College. In this ever changing world of the transfer, portal and Name,Image and Likeness, figuring out what resources we need to put into keeping Penn State on an even playing field with everybody else in the Big Ten and everybody else in the country.”
Getting the word out helps too, which is why in many ways Thursday’s game is as much an opportunity for Penn State’s brand as it is an opportunity for its immediate resume. Penn State will be on the Big Ten Network, something of a rarity for this particular team on a busy slate of games and sports. For those who haven’t spent much time watching the Lady Lions, the allure of seeing Clark play on national TV will also come with a side effect: watching Penn State, too.
“Anytime you can get the word out nationally about a program that’s on the rise and share our story as well as (Clark’s) story is good for Penn State, is good for the Big Ten (and) it’s good for women’s basketball in general,” Kieger said. “I love that our student athletes have that platform to be able to show what they’ve been working on and compete against the best.”
Speaking of stories, there’s Penn State’s own version of Clark — Makenna Marisa — who just joined the 2,000 point club and is in her fifth season in State College. Through the ups and down (mostly the downs) Marisa has been steadfast in her ability to get to the rim, to finish in the midrange and to find her stroke from beyond the arc. Nobody might be the same as Clark, and Marisa would never claim that herself, but Penn State’s relentless scorer will get a chance to showcase her abilities on Thursday.
And she’ll be able to do it with help. As Clark knows all too well, having good teammates makes everything easier.
“Honestly, I’m just so excited for her,” Kieger said of Marisa. “… She’s been so loyal (and) to put herself in a position where she can maybe play fewer minutes (over the course of the season) so she can be more fresh in March and to be able to learn the game from off the ball a little bit more and get the ball out of her hands. It has just been a really good year for her to develop and grow which is just a reward for everything that she’s given us already. I’m just excited for her to have these moments where she feels a little bit of the pressure and can just play and can have fun and can enjoy her teammates and can enjoy the moment and can enjoy putting this program back on the map.”
In the big picture, winning Thursday’s game would be a moment up there with anything the program has ever done; there’s no question about that. But with seven games left in the regular season, Kieger is itching to finally get to 20 wins. It’s an unofficial benchmark (and would be the first time hitting it for Penn State since 2016-17) and perhaps a bit more obtainable than upsetting one of the best women’s basketball teams of all time. Winning 20 games means you did something with your season, you’re probably going to the NCAA Tournament, you’re playing basketball and you’re making a name for yourself.
It means, maybe, just maybe, that you’re back.
