Caitlin Clark's NCAA scoring record inspires next generation - ESPN

Sports milestones tend to be marked as moments in time, progressive steps forward celebrating the beauty, power and evolution that allows for generational talents to emerge and records to be broken.

Caitlin Clark is the latest generational talent. But her ascendance as the No. 1 scorer in NCAA women's basketball history comes at a time we've been waiting on, decades in the making. We have had our various eras before — from Billie Jean King to Cheryl Miller, Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain, Jennie Finch and Candace Parker, Serena Williams and Simone Biles.

These women, through their own moments in time, slowly convinced the general public to see them as outstanding performers, got fans to tune in and watch and show up and root and cheer. They got little girls like Caitlin Clark to dream big. To expect more.

«She's spearheading a movement right now,» North Carolina field hockey coach Erin Matson said. «I speak for a lot of us when I say we're behind her, and want to see her succeed because it helps all of us. It helps her. It helps females in sport.»

Matson would know. A generational talent herself, Matson dominated her sport the way Clark is dominating basketball. Matson won three national player of the year awards and four national championships before taking over as UNC head coach this past season. In her first game as coach, a record overflow crowd showed up. For her.

It's the way overflow crowds are showing up for Clark. Because people know when history is unfolding in front of them.

The general public now expects more.

Matson is right that this goes beyond basketball. In August, 92,003 fans showed up to watch Nebraska and Omaha in the Cornhuskers' football stadium, shattering the all-time Division I women's college