It would be an easy case to make that Iowa women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark is not just the biggest star in women’s college basketball, but arguably, in all of women’s sports at this point in time.

She’s starred in commercials for State Farm with Jimmy Butler and Reggie Miller, inked an NIL deal with Gatorade, and has turned every Hawkeyes basketball game into a must-watch event for hoops fans.

Just as she was last year, Clark will end up being a consensus All-American again this year before taking her talents to the WNBA.

Mike Krzyzewski knows a thing or two about coaching All-American talent.

During his long tenure as the head coach at Duke, Coach K coached 26 different players who made an All-American team, including bonafide college stars like J.J. Redick, Zion Williamson, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill and Jay Williams.

He’s also had the honor of coaching dozens of NBA players for the USA Men’s National Team, which has put him in the orbit of generational stars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade.

And yet, there’s an enthusiasm and sincerity in Coach K’s voice and a twinkle in his eye that you can see and hear when he spoke to Caitlin Clark.

Regardless of what you feel about the Duke basketball program, a compliment of this nature coming from someone as well-respected in the sport as Coach K is a sign of the territory Caitlin Clark has entered.

And as Mike Krzyzewski explained, it’s not just Caitlin Clark, the basketball player, that has one of the greatest college coaches ever raving. It’s Caitlin Clark, the human being who should be celebrated.

Her emergence as one of the biggest and most lucrative stars in all of college sports is a FANTASTIC development for women’s sports, and hopefully a sign of the direction we’re heading in, where someone like Clark can get the same attention and admiration from young girls and boys alike as her male counterparts.