As big-name college women’s basketball players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Nika Muhl have transitioned into the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) the question on many minds is whether the momentum will follow them. Will the huge women’s college basketball fan following start to die down now that these players have left or will the attention remain on college basketball? The attention garnered from last year’s basketball season allowed many female athletes to make their mark and begin a journey to fame that was previously unseen for women players.
In this article, members of the Drake University women’s basketball team will share their theories on how fans will impact their season this year.
Peyton McCabe, a freshman player at Drake University is excited to start her first season with Drake and see the support from the Des Moines area.
When asked how she thinks college basketball will be impacted by some of their star players leaving, McCabe described “[she] feel[s] as though women’s basketball has caught people’s attention and [she] think[s] people will stay with that.” Furthermore, she stated that “there are some other players that they already know and are returning this year could influence that.”
McCabe’s hopes for her freshmen season and fan support will likely come true as Drake’s women’s team is currently projected to win the Missouri Valley Conference in a preseason poll and likely their fan following will want to stay with them through those possible wins.
Overall McCabe believes, “…[people] will stay loyal and try to keep growing in women’s basketball, keep growing the fans and growing merchandise and it’s just a very cool thing to be happening right now.”
Drake women’s basketball’s head coach, Allison Pohlman is also incredibly optimistic about the upcoming season and has described how the roster for the year looks phenomenal and will hopefully fulfill the predictions of an amazing season.
Pohlman explained, “[she] think[s] it’s a really special time for women’s basketball in general whether you talk about the WNBA or talk about it collegiately. [She] can also see a sort of influx of high schoolers getting behind and going and watching their teams play especially when [they] have some good players and the potential of making it to state and things like that.”
As high school teams, collegiate teams and the WNBA continue to draw media attention specific players finally get to have their stories as female athletes told.
“I think that there’s so many other special players and special stories. I think that Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and there’s a hundred other players we could definitely name. There’s so many amazing stories in there and now that we have found that storytelling and how we present those things I think everyone’s just waiting for the next big deal to unfold,” Pohlman commented.
Drake’s team hopefully will have their share of the spotlight this year as they retained some amazing players such as Katie Dinnebier and Anna Miller who will be sure to gain more accolades for their team this year.
“Going back to what we have at Drake I think we have some phenomenal players who are very very worthy of those amazing stories,” Pohlman remarked.
