A long line of 14,998 fans outside of the Carver-Hawkeye Arena four hours before the tip-off on Sunday afternoon marked the return of their generational talent Caitlin Clark back to Iowa. And as she mesmerized the sold-out crowd, primarily wearing the No. 22 red jersey, with her 36-foot dagger logo-3, Clark had brought the electricity back into the building she left a year ago. She buried 16 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and dished 5 assists in just 19 minutes during the pre-season exhibition game against the Brazilian national team. But not everything was perfect on the day.

As if the ghosts from last year returned, officiating was again a topic of discussion in Iowa. While no injustice was visible on the day, another Clark from Caitlin’s family unapologetically brought it back to settle the record straight. Yep, it was her father, Brent Clark, who spelled out what exactly he wanted to see in the point guard’s second season as a WNBA superstar. ESPN’s Holly Rowe reached him mid-game for a short interview and asked what he saw in her rookie season that he would want to help her with. Brent’s response? Brutal. Blunt.

“I think there’s a room for a lot of improvement there, I think particularly in the officiating. I’ve kinda noticed a little bit of a difference. It looks like they’re really officiating the game like it should be officiated because I think if you make the game more fluid, people are gonna like the product even more than they do right now.”

Interestingly, calling out the officials on their calls, or the lack thereof, was one of the biggest issues Clark faced throughout her rookie season. Let’s not forget she was flagrant fouled the most in the entire league with over 80% of those fouls coming from her archrival Angel Reese’s teammates in the Chicago Sky. The physicality became the biggest question– did it help the league, or did it make it worse? While those questions were never resolved, yet again, Rachel DeMita has returned to echo the same words as Brent’s.

DeMita agrees with what Brent shared and added her two cents on the issue. Sharing her experience during Fever’s preseason opener against Washington Mystics, Rachel pointed out on the latest episode of YouTube podcast, “I talked to you guys about the physicality of the game and how the refs were missing a lot of calls. In my personal opinion, they let the game get a bit too physical. And there are some fouls that you just have to be so strict on and you have to set the precedence moving forward.

“With the women’s game, they don’t play above the rim. There’s really only like one level that they are playing at. So, there will be more plays where players are on the floor than in the men’s game. But at the same time, you have to protect your players. Especially with the WNBA growing as fast as it is, you have to protect your players. That should be priority number one. And priority number two should be the entertainment value of the game. The physicality of the game is not a selling point in the WNBA. I know a lot of veteran players have said ‘It’s a physical league, it’s a physical league’ but I don’t think that adds to the value of the product at all. I truly don’t.”

“I think the fast-paced game making sure that these offenses are able to flow, be strict on some of the defensive rules like they did in the NBA. It actually creates a better product, a better experience for fans. Fans wanna see the 3-pointers. Fans don’t wanna see, every time they are four players on the ground because of some extra physcial play that is happening. So I think WNBA as a while needs to tighten yup there. They truly do. And I think they will. They’d take any sorts of nates from Adam Silver and what the NBA did to protect their payers and add to the entertainment value of the product on the court. But they need to tighten that up very very quickly.”

In the last few years, the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has changed the rules during the game time to protect its players. However, when it comes to the WNBA, the calls are not made owing to the physical playing style of some teams. However, as DeMita too stated, more often than not, the spectators want to see a fluid game without many stoppages. They also prefer long range shooting like the deep threes. The Caitlin Clark Effect could explain it perfectly with the reigning WNBA ROTY bringing in more eyes to the sport and growing it.

However, nothing can really take away from what Caitlin Clark has become for the league. And even HC Stephanie White couldn’t help but bring in the No. 22’s NBA counterpart in the discussion.

Stephanie White knows Caitlin Clark is the Stephen Curry of the WNBA

As someone looking to grab more wins and a strong overall poise on court, White was proud of Clark’s performance on Sunday. As the former overall number one pick turned heads, grabbed eyeballs, and made just enough points to propel the Fever to a victorious run, White compared her performance with that of her NBA counterpart.

Often called the ‘Stephen Curry of Women’s Basketball’, White referred to Clark’s Golden State Warriors counterpart and said, “That’s just who she is. I mean, nobody tells Steph Curry not to take good shots, right?” Certainly, the HC’s undying faith in her star player only solidifies with Sunday’s performance.

With players like Luka Doncic and veteran LeBron James recognizing Clark as one of the star players in the league, Steph of W or not, Caitlin is undoubtedly the one of the biggest rising stars of American basketball.