Caitlin Clark, Iowa forever: How crickets, persistence brought college basketball’s brightest star back home [Video]

IOWA CITY, Iowa — There would be crickets on the menu; that much was assured. Iowa assistant Jan Jensen had already decide to fly to Thailand with her head coach, Lisa Bluder, the duo planning a 48-hour round trip to seal the deal in their recruitment of Caitlin Clark.

This was 2019, and Clark was playing overseas on the United States U19 team. Why not go all out to land the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2020? The coaching staff splurging on business class from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Southeast Asia — all to see a blue-chip player like Clark — made total sense.

“If you know Lisa, you don’t go somewhere [without doing it all],” Jansen recounted. “When we were at Drake, we were [on a road trip] and took the team to a factory where they made pottery. There were stalactite caves in …