Caitlin Clark Shows Up at Illinois Men's Game: Freshman Coleman Learns Afterward and Says He Has to Tell His Sister
State Farm Center in Champaign, Champaign County, Illinois, hosted a men's college basketball game on the night of November 5, with Illinois routing Penn 112-70. WNBA Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark watched from behind the Penn bench, but two Illinois freshmen did not learn she had been in the building until a reporter asked them about it at the postgame press conference — and guard Quentin Coleman's stunned reaction, caught on camera, went viral on social media on November 6.
According to USA TODAY, a reporter asked Coleman and forward Zavier Zens at the press conference: "Were you two aware that Caitlin Clark was in the building prior to tip-off, and if so, did that contribute to your level of play this evening?" Zens whipped his head toward Coleman in amazement, while Coleman's jaw dropped and his eyes went wide; he put a hand to his mouth, then smacked his hand on his forehead and said: "Wait, wait, Caitlin Clark was in the building? Wait, why was she here?... Yo.... I gotta tell my sister, bro." Asked about any impact, he added that Zens had been shooting lights out: "She shoots lights out, so I guess he felt that so... Dang, she just brought the aura in the room." Zens said only: "I didn't know she was here."
Both freshmen had big nights: Coleman scored 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting in 20 minutes off the bench, 15 of them in the second half, while Zens added 18 points and went 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. Six Illinois players scored in double figures as the team improved to 2-0 after opening the season with a 120-45 win over Fairleigh Dickinson; Illinois is currently ranked No. 3 in the nation.
Clark was not there specifically for Illinois. According to Sports Illustrated and Yardbarker, she attended with her boyfriend Connor McCaffery, whose father, Fran McCaffery, is Penn's head coach. Both Clark and McCaffery played at the University of Iowa; in Clark's last game against the Illinois women's team as a senior, she recorded a 24-point triple-double in a 16-point win. Clark is the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer with 3,951 points in college, and is in her offseason after the Fever's first-round playoff exit.
The press-conference clip was shared on X by reporter Cooper O'Kelly and spread quickly after the FOX College Hoops account reposted it on November 6. One user wrote that Coleman's facepalm at the 23-second mark "says everything about how unprepared they were"; another posted a separate broadcast clip and noted that Coleman was so locked in that "he walked right by her"; another quipped, "Aura was too strong they couldn't sense it." Illinois head coach Brad Underwood was also asked about the star power in the building — former NBA sharpshooter Peja Stojakovic, father of Illinois player Andrej Stojakovic, was also at the arena — and joked: "We should have had a 3-point contest to see who the best shooter in the gym was, cause it wasn't anybody who played tonight. No offense to any of those guys."
Source: FOX College Hoops' X post
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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