Caitlin Clark might be soaring in the skies, but she hasn’t forgotten the soil that made her. Clark is busy with her injury recovery and her bid for a spot in Team USA at the World Cup later this year. However, the Indiana Fever star was dealt a sad announcement from her Iowa teammate and one of her best friends, Gabbie Marshall.

“I played all four years at Iowa with her, and she (Gabbie Marshall) has been one of my best friends throughout the course of the last four years,” Clark has said. So when Marshall announced the painful news of her dog passing away, Clark was one of the first ones to console Marshall.

“Yesterday, Shiloh passed away in a tragic accident. We all are fine, and nobody is hurt. The love Shy brought into myself and @gabbie.marshall ‘s lives can’t be comprehended from an outsider, but if you know either of us, you know we lit up like a light at even the mention of Shy’s name,” Marshall wrote along with multiple pictures of her dog. 

“Love you, guys 💓💓💓💓,” Clark commented. Caitlin Clark herself suffered a similar loss earlier this year when her dog Bella passed away. “We are gonna miss you puppy 💛gave us so many good memories 💛” Clark wrote at the time. Clark is a huge dog person and even had a custom player edition sneaker named after her dog.

Bella was lucky for her. The point guard scored a season high 32 points on 55% shooting, including recording 9 points in 38 seconds on a trio of 3-pointers against then-league leaders, the New York Liberty, while wearing the Bellas.

However, Clark wasn’t the only one consoling Marshall as Kate Martin followed by writing, “I love my shy shy baby girl so much.” The entire Iowa squad teamed up in the comments section as Jada Gyamfi added, “My first niece, love you forever, shy shy booty butts🩷🩷.” 

“Love shy❤️❤️and love you guys. Sending prayers,” reacted Sydney Affolter. “Love and praying for you,🩷” Kylie Feuerbach commented. “Sending so much love. Love you guys and shy 🤍🤍” wrote McKenna Warnock.  The team’s glue-like bond seems to have sustained itself to this day, despite each of them pursuing different avenues. 

Following her Iowa career, Marshall went on to attend the University of North Carolina, earning her Master’s in Occupational Therapy. Martin and Clark have taken a step up in the WNBA while Feuerbach and Gyamfi are in their senior year at Iowa. This team had a Cinderella run to the 2023-24 title game, ultimately falling to South Carolina. Clark led the way, averaging 31.6 points and 8.9 assists. However, her improvement in the pros was not that easy. 

Caitlin Clark’s Real Improvement Journey Beyond Iowa Started After 2025

Caitlin Clark arguably had the best rookie season any player has had. She averaged 19.2 points, 8.4 assists, and 5.7 rebounds while breaking the all-time assists record, winning the Rookie of the Year, being an All-Star, and being on the All-WNBA first team. She led the Indiana Fever to their first playoff appearance since 2016.  Despite that, it was the same Clark who dazzled in Iowa. 

“I remember that after my rookie year, obviously, you don’t have much time when you graduate college.” Clark said, “You come to the WNBA to really improve and like work on your game because you have a turnaround of a month before you start playing, and I think like after my rookie year, that was probably the most exciting thing for me is I still feel like I have a lot of room to improve and get better.”

Caitlin Clark spent her first offseason taking a break and improving on her game. However, that progress was halted by injuries in 2025. Four soft tissue injuries and a bone bruise meant she played only 13 games. That sent her skill development back a couple of steps as she spent the majority of her time working back to full fitness. At the Team USA camp, we finally saw her working in full flow. Now that she is back to a 100%, Clark can start adding other skills to her game for a strong comeback in 2026. 

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