Stephanie White must feel 22 about coaching Caitlin Clark

Perhaps the most important domino to fall in the WNBA’s offseason coaching carousel happened Friday, when the Fever announced the hiring of former Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White.

Indiana is making White their head coach for several reasons. Not only does she have a history of playing for and coaching the Fever in the past, but her adoration for Indiana’s franchise player Caitlin Clark – who clearly approves of the hire – has been made abundantly clear.

White even went so far as to compare Clark to global music icon Taylor Swift during an April 2024 episode of the ‘Fieldhouse Files’ podcast with Scott Agness.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to call some of her games over the course of my career, but nothing has been better this season,” White said of Clark on the podcast. “In fact, I called their game in Maryland. I’ll never forget it because I was in the same hotel as them.

‘I come down the escalator three hours before the match. The hotel is just full. Hundreds of people. It’s cordoned off like it would be for an NBA team or an NFL team. There are guards everywhere.

“These people were in the hotel lobby to get a glimpse of Caitlin Clark and this Iowa Hawkeye team. In fact, yesterday I was talking to someone who said she is the Taylor Swift of women’s basketball. That’s what she’s called, by a non-basketball player. It’s the madness of this team and Caitlin Clark’s ability to captivate a national audience right now,” she added.

It’s clear that White feels ’22’; both because it relates to Taylor Swift’s iconic song and that Clark wears number 22 for the Fever.

And 22 is also the number White wore for the Fever during her playing days.

Spirits are high in Indiana right now.