There's a girl who is taking college basketball to a dimension reached only in distant eras, when national TV used to broadcast LeBron James games live from the small gym at St. Vincent St. Mary's. Caitlin Clark is the name that is changing the history of basketball made in the USA: 22 years old, the girl born in Des Moines, Iowa, is proving to be a talent capable of overshadowing even the shining stars of the world of men's basketball. 

Caitlin also has Italian DNA in her blood. For her mother's name is Anne but her last name is Nizzi, originally from Sicily, from where her ancestors left to seek glory in the belly of the United States. Anne was born in Iowa, was a basketball coach and married Brent Clark, a former baseball player, with whom she gave birth to two children, a boy (Blake, a former football player) and precisely a girl, the one destined to rewrite the rules of the game.

Because Caitlin, now in her fourth and final year in the NCAA, has completely upended records and customs, so much so that two days ago in the Iowa Hawkeyes' success against the Michigan Wolverines she touched 3,569 points, becoming the player in college basketball history to have scored the most points in her career.

Ahead of her remains only the likes of legend Pete "Pistol" Maravich, the all-time record holder with 3,667, a number destined to be blown away before long. Because Caitlin's stated goal is to continue to impress, sending Iowa back to the NCAA throne after the final lost last year. Following in the footsteps, in short, of the great LeBron.

What is most surprising about The Caitlin Clark Effect (as it has been renamed in the U.S.) is the extraordinary ability to attract audiences in every corner of America. The game against Michigan, broadcast on national TV, had three times as many viewers as all the night's NBA contests combined.