Caitlin Clark just keeps accumulating scoring records, TV ratings, pop culture ubiquity and victories. Many of her achievements make me smile — momentarily. Then I grimace.

I’ve been trying for a while to untangle what college sports rivalry — the Cy-Hawk rivalry between Iowa State and Iowa, here — means when it comes to assessing Clark. Does a rising tide lift all boats? Or is it closer to a zero-sum game, with Clark’s ascendance permanently ending any debate about the best women’s basketball program in the state?

If it’s the latter, I want to despise Clark. Because she’s hurt Iowa State, which I’ve supported all my life, through her ability and celebrity. After all, that’s what sports rivals do, right? Villainize their opponents, especially the most successful ones? Invest emotionally in their failure so that it’s all the more satisfying when (if) they finally fall short in some way?

A question going back years

The “best program” question was on my mind many years before Clark moved to Iowa City, as women’s basketball is, narrowly, the Cyclones sport I’ve been most invested in since attending Iowa State from 2001 to 2005. Only once in 10 years working nights and weekends did I lose my professional composure, and it was during a women’s basketball game: late on March 28, 2009, with Iowa State uncorking an unlikely last-minute rally in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. Michigan State, leading by two points and trying to advance against Iowa State’s press, overthrew a cross-court pass that appeared on our tiny Register-copy-desk television to sail over the fingertips of players from both teams. Leaping to my feet, I shouted, “It should be our ball!” (It was. “We” won.)

Superstar’s arrival upsets a long-running balance

Bill Fennelly has been Iowa State’s head coach since 1995, Lisa Bluder Iowa’s since 2000. Until the past few years they coached their schools to remarkably even resumes. Iowa State had marginally more success in the NCAA tournament, reaching the Elite Eight a couple of times. Each school won some conference tournaments. When they faced each other, the home team won 10 times in a row. They competed for recruits, including one Caitlin Clark of West Des Moines Dowling Catholic, whose three finalists were Notre Dame, Iowa State and Iowa. You could construct decent arguments that either was slightly more impressive, but the truth was that both were strong but not dominant programs that were fun to watch and cheer.

Clark has altered the balance decidedly, even while Iowa State has had some excellent teams. The trouble started quickly, in Clark’s fifth game as a Hawkeye. Iowa State led 73-56 as the fourth quarter began. Final: Iowa 82, Iowa State 80, behind Clark’s 34 points and game-winning 3-pointer.

But a big shot or a big game is normal. Clark has far surpassed that as a transcendent figure — in Hawkeye history, in college women’s basketball history, in college basketball history, in sports history. She is, by a large margin, the preeminent character in March Madness this year, her fame consigning to margins exhilarating NCAA tournament feats like Audi Crooks’ 40-point effort in a comeback Cyclone win or the men’s basketball team’s run to the Sweet 16.

I’m wringing my hands over what comes next

Despite the Cyclones’ encouraging success with a young team this year, I’ve still been fretting over the in-state situation. I was 15 years old before I could say I’d been alive for a Cyclone win over Iowa in football, so I have some sense of how dissatisfying a long run of Hawkeye dominance can be.

Iowa is pulling in top recruit after top recruit to keep its program humming after Clark leaves for the pros this spring. The Cyclones haven’t won in Carver-Hawkeye Arena in 18 years. Casual fans tout the staggering attendance totals for Clark’s games this season with little interest for the 9,000-plus fans per game Iowa State has averaged over 23 seasons.

The villain of this story is Caitlin Clark.

I want to despise her. But I can’t muster the feeling. Her otherworldliness is just too overwhelming. I’ve been sucked in by the buzzer-beaters against Indiana and Michigan State, the impossible-seeming assists, the dethroning of South Carolina, the exhilaration of viewership numbers that show that, while interest in Clark is soaring, interest in the sport as a whole is jumping, too. I can’t take seriously the lame claims that there’s something objectionable about her on-court demeanor. Clark is great and I love watching her play.

There won’t be any Hawkeye gear, including Clark’s, entering our house anytime soon. My grimaces haven’t gone away. But she’s a rival I can’t help but applaud.