WNBA excitement is palpable as fans eagerly witness Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese make their professional debut in the league’s brief preseason. Clark, known for shattering the NCAA Division I scoring record, and Reese, who achieved another NCAA milestone en route to a 2023 championship, were both college standouts.
The action kicked off with two games at 8 p.m., streamed for free on the WNBA app. Clark’s Indiana Fever faced the Dallas Wings, while Reese’s Chicago Sky took on the Minnesota Lynx. Tickets for the game in Arlington were sold out, as announced by the Wings on social media last week. Clark, the top pick in this year’s WNBA draft, will be joining Aaliyah Boston, last year’s top draft pick and unanimous rookie of the year, in the Fever lineup.
The Fever, absent from the playoffs since 2016, currently rank ninth in CBS Sports’ power rankings. On the other hand, the Sky, who selected Reese with the seventh pick, are at the bottom of the 12 WNBA teams. Reese’s LSU, the reigning women’s basketball champion, was defeated by Clark in this year’s college tournament.
Chicago is pinning its hopes on more than just Reese to revitalize the team. The Sky also drafted 6-foot-7 Kamilla Cardoso with the third pick, the player who led the University of South Carolina to a championship victory over Clark’s Hawkeyes in April.
Dawn Staley, Cardoso’s coach, attributed the recent growth in women’s basketball viewership to Clark in an interview with 670 The Score last month. According to ESPN, the championship game attracted 18.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched college basketball game in the network’s history.
“She’s the greatest of her time. I want women’s basketball to grow, and I’m not too shy about saying why it grows. She’s made it grow over the past two years,” Staley said in the interview.
The WNBA preseason will continue until next Friday, with the regular season commencing on May 14.
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