Caitlin Clark gifts unexpected spotlight to rising star nobody saw coming

Caitlin Clark had a rare dud on Thursday night as the Indiana Fever fell to the Golden State Valkyries on the road in San Francisco. With the loss, the Fever unintentionally shined a spotlight on Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase that may follow her to reward season.

But hey, at least the Indiana Pacers won Game 6 of the NBA Finals. That feels like a good trade-off for Indiana basketball fans.

It's also a marquee win for the Valkyries, who are now 6-6 on the season with a win over the face of the league on the biggest stage. We all know that Fever games get the most viewership because of Clark. Many WNBA fans tuned in on Thursday night, some of whom have now propelled Nakase into Coach of the Year talks.

Natalie Nakase propelled into Coach of the Year talks after win over Caitlin Clark and Fever

Beating Clark and the Fever on a weeknight is not a reason alone to win Coach of the Year. However, pulling away with a big win against a legitimate WNBA Championship contender is enough for general fans to finally start realizing a coach's importance.

The conversation has officially started on social media about Nakase being a legitimate Coach of the Year candidate this season. She certainly has the resume for it thus far as Golden State flies above expectations.

The Valkyries are 6-6 on the season and are 4-1 in the last five after beating the Fever on Thursday. While Golden State has good wins against the Las Vegas Aces and Seattle Storm, Thursday's win is definitely the marquee win of the season thus far.

This is impressive for an expansion team in its first year in the league. For comparison, the last expansion team in the WNBA, the Atlanta Dream, finished with a 4-30 record in their first season in the WNBA.

While it's a small sample size, success is very hard to come by for an expansion team in any league in any sport. The Valkyries are punching above their weight class and the great coaching display by Nakase is a big reason why.

This wasn't a case of variance where a clearly outmatched team got the best of the Fever. The Valkyries clearly proved they can hang with true contending teams. It was an impressive performance in front of an even more impressive home crowd.

Of course, Golden State has to continue this success for Nakase to win the award. But if this continues, voters will have a hard time deciding between a coach on an overachieving expansion team and a coach on one of the best teams in the league.