After covering her consistently in college and the WNBA, Ryan Ruocco believes there are two main causes behind the Caitlin Clark effect.
Ruocco joined his former ESPN New York radio partner, Robin Lundberg on his YouTube channel this week to discuss Clark and the WNBA. And during their conversation about Clark, Ruocco pointed to her dependability as a performer and ability to shoot logo threes as the main reasons behind her popularity exploding the way it did.
The first time Ruocco remembers hearing about Clark was from Sue Bird when they were hosting women’s college basketball studio coverage from Bristol. And Bird informed Ruocco about this freshman in Iowa who shoots like Steph Curry.
Ryan Ruocco really nailed why Caitlin Clark blew up.
The logo bombs and viral Iowa clips -at a school most people weren’t even paying attention to- brought fans in from all over the world.
But CC *consistently* living up to the hype (i.e. MVP after 8mo off) is why people stay. pic.twitter.com/HI0QyWpSEy
— allison (@_girltalk) March 18, 2026
“I start watching, and sure enough she pulls up from 30,” Ruocco recalled. “And those viral clips were what people first got drawn too. Then I think the second most important thing beyond the logo bombs to her ascent, was her having these extended runs through the tournament. People heard about her and what she was doing at Iowa, and then she kept delivering upon their curiosity.”
At almost any point during Clark’s college career, if you tuned into an Iowa game for the first time after hearing about the hype, her performance likely didn’t disappoint. Clark didn’t have many bad shooting nights during her college career. So once you finally gave Clark and women’s college basketball a chance as a casual fan, she likely convinced you to come back for another game. And as she continued to deliver, casual fans continued to become more invested.
“Beyond anything else, the two key ingredients to Caitlin’s rise are the logo bombs and then how incredible she was on two extended March Madness journeys,” Ruocco said. “Where she allowed people to go on a ride with her and be entranced by what she was able to do and get to watch it again and again and again and deliver upon the expectations.”
It’s often more salacious to blame Clark’s rise to fame on race or culture wars that her name has often been dragged into by no fault of her own. But Clark’s popularity stemmed from her being a generational offensive talent. And it will continue to grow for as long as she’s able to stay health and keep delivering upon the expectations.