Wild Caitlin Clark ‘caitvoodoo’ Carson Beck connection resurfaces
Given the many iconic performances that Caitlin Clark has produced in her basketball career, it's nearly impossible to pin one down as her all-time best. But one clear candidate for this distinction came in the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, when Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes faced Angel Reese's LSU Tigers in a rematch of the 2023 NCAA National Championship.
Clark got vengeance on LSU by scoring 41 points (including 9 made three-pointers) along with 12 assists and 7 rebounds in the 94-87 win, which earned Iowa a trip to their second straight national championship game (where they lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks).
Hailey Van Lith was the primary defender on Clark during that LSU game. And Clark's insane stat line showed that Van Lith had little to offer No. 22 in terms of opposition. And at one point in the game, Van Lith threw her palms up and shrugged after another Clark three-pointer, as if to say there's simply nothing she could do. And this shrug went insanely vital, encapsulating Clark's peak dominance.
On January 10, 2025, X user @MrBill11 posted a screenshot of this Van Lith shrug and wrote, "Let's all thank Caitlin Clark for absolutely torching Hayley Van Lith in March, which led to her transferring from LSU to TCU, which was going to cut in HAYLEY Cavinder's playing time, which led the twins BACK to Miami... which led to... Carson Beck following his girlfriend..."
Let's all thank Caitlin Clark for absolutely torching Hayley Van Lith in March, which led to her transferring from LSU to TCU, which was going to cut in HAYLEY Cavinder's playing time, which led the twins BACK to Miami... which led to... Carson Beck following his girlfriend... pic.twitter.com/Vc9eytJ4sP
— #DoomSayer (@MrBill11) January 11, 2025
Bear with me here: The post suggests that Van Lith transferred to TCU from LSU on April 26, 2024, because Clark cooked her so badly in that game. From there, former women's college basketball guard and social media influencer Haley Cavinder, who had at TCU, transferred to Miami less than two weeks after Van Lith came to TCU, because Van Lith likely would have impacted her playing time.
Cavinder was dating former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Carson Beck at the time, who announced his transfer to the University of Miami on January 10, 2025, a move many believed was so he could be at the same school as Cavinder.
Therefore, this absurd domino effect suggestion would mean that Clark going off against Van Lith somehow led to Carson Beck being Miami's quarterback.
Fans revive wild Caitlin Clark 'caitvoodoo' theory after Carson Beck championship run
Fast forward nearly a year and Carson Beck has led Miami to the 2026 National Championship Game against Indiana. In the wake of this, the aforementioned domino effect theory has resurfaced.
The @RedditCFB X account reposted the initial X post conveying this theory with a photo that showed a small domino captioned "Caitlin Clark goes nuclear," ultimately leading to the large domino captioned, "The U is back in the championship".
https://t.co/xPZWWCkEiP pic.twitter.com/0skY2t1BeT
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 9, 2026
@nosyone4 also added on January 8, "caitvoodoo is something crazy miami is now in the national championship game".
caitvoodoo is something crazy miami is now in the national championship game https://t.co/aDLQDuKDm6
— correlation (@nosyone4) January 9, 2026
As ridiculous as all of this is, it's a fun way to dramatize and exaggerate the impact that Caitlin Clark has undoubtedly had on the sports world.
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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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