Caitlin Clark's South Carolina Game Appearance Makes Full-Circle Moment with Admirer
Indiana Fever superstar guard Caitlin Clark was commonly seen at Butler University men's basketball games after her rookie WNBA season in 2024. Not only is Clark a basketball fanatic and takes many opportunities to watch the game live, but she's partial to Butler because her boyfriend, Connor McCaffery, is an assistant coach on the men's team.
It seemed like every time Clark showed up at Butler games last year, she went viral. Whether she was seen wearing a Butler shirt while cheering on her boyfriend's team, chatting with nearby spectators while finding her seat, or simply clapping after a solid possession, fans couldn't get enough of No. 22 at these college contests.
Clark's appearances at Butler games have continued in 2025, as McCaffery is still on the squad's coaching staff. And the Fever star was even willing to head all the way to West Virginia to watch Butler take on the South Carolina Gamecocks men's basketball team as part of the Greenbrier Tip-Off tournament on November 21.
Several videos of Clark sitting in a small but crowded arena to spectate the game made waves on social media.
Caitlin Clark is in the building for Butler–South Carolina, repping Indiana proudly in Butler threads! pic.twitter.com/tVAXvieBSn
— Vince Wolfram (@vincewolfram15) November 21, 2025
Caitlin Clark Finally Watched Her Admirer Eli Ellis Playing Basketball
While this was probably just another Butler game in Clark's eyes, her appearance at Friday's contest surely meant much more to South Carolina freshman guard Eli Ellis.
Ellis (who finished his team's 79-72 loss to Butler with 13 points and 3 steals in 30 minutes played) is very popular on social media, having over 1.4 million TikTok followers and over 700,000 followers on Instagram.
Ellis has made several posts talking about his adoration for Clark in the past. One of these came in April 2024, when he was still in high school and went viral for making a video that was captioned, "POV: Caitlin Clark is coming to the game tomorrow in Indy😎".
The post's top comment is from Clark, who simply wrote, "No I am not".
She has also shut down several other connections to Ellis (all stemming from his mentioning or admiring her in some way), which fans have made note of on social media.
she hates this kid 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/qdwPZ8dQ5C
— uh oh (@snoozingsnoopy) April 29, 2024
However, Ellis ultimately had his hope of Clark watching him hoop granted on November 21. Although she was rooting against him, and was surely happy to see his Gamecocks squad fall short against the Butler Bulldogs.
update: she finally came to a game and rooted against him🙏🙏 https://t.co/nCAipXg9jj pic.twitter.com/XNTEJMSX0o
— sydney (@cc22goddess) November 21, 2025
It will be interesting to see whether Ellis makes any videos about Clark spectating him on Friday night. Perhaps he should keep quiet, given that his team lost.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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