Eyes on 'em

 Late Sunday afternoon in the Blob's favorite hang, and what's on the two TVs at either end of the bar?

Women's basketball.

The WNBA, to be more specific.

The Indiana Fever vs. the Chicago Sky, to be even more specific.

The game's on both TVs and people are watching, really watching, and, listen, boys and girls, the Caitlin Clark Effect is real and it's a hell of a thing to experience in real time. That's because I'm trying to think of a time before now when a WNBA game was on the tube on a Sunday in June in a public place, and I can't because it either wasn't or it was just background noise.

Not anymore.

Now we're watching Clark splash threes and drop dimes and get dinged for turnovers that aren't really hers, because her teammates aren't used to getting passes from the angles Clark delivers them. Or the passes arrive and they blow the layup, and with it the assist.

On this day, Clark will finish with a franchise-record 13 assists. The Blob counts at least five more she would have had if the shots she set up not been missed.

On the other end, meanwhile, Angel Reese --  Magic Johnson to Clark's Larry Bird in the  Budding Rivalry narrative being pushed so hard by the media -- is absolutely abusing poor Nalyssa Smith in the paint. She'll finish with 25 points and 16 boards, and we'll be left wondering (OK, some of us will be left wondering) why Fever coach Christie Sides never switched someone else onto her.

We'll also wonder why she waited so long to call the timeout as the Sky whittled the Fever's double-digit lead to nothing, and what adjustments if any she made coming out of the timeout, and why she didn't scheme Clark open for a shot a single time in the last two minutes.

The conclusion (OK, for some of us) was that Christie Sides is not very good at her job.

A year ago, of course, we never would have come to that conclusion. Because very few of us would have noticed.

Now we are noticing, and people in public places are watching on Sunday afternoons in June, and the women are getting eyes on 'em. And even when that's a negative it's a positive. 

People are arguing about dirty fouls and lousy calls and dumb coaching, same as they argue about those things when it's the Celtics vs. the Mavs in the NBA Finals. Or they're complaining about all the Mean Girls in the league, same as everyone outside Detroit used to complain about the Bad Boys.

Anyway, on this Sunday afternoon, the Sky beat the Fever 88-87. 

Reese put up her eighth straight double-double, and Clark finished with those 13 assists, plus 17 points, six rebounds, five threes and four steals. And we can't wait for the next rematch.

And how great is that?