Stratton’s Stand: Breanna Stewart is the greatest women’s college basketball player of all time 

With Caitlin Clark recently topping “Pistol” Pete Maravich to become the all-time scoring leader in college basketball, there’s a lot of talk arguing that she’s the women’s college basketball GOAT (greatest of all time). What Clark has achieved is unquestionably incredible, but does that make her the GOAT? Probably not. I could focus this article on why Clark should not hold that title, but instead, I’m going to posit why someone else should. 

That someone else is UConn’s own Breanna Stewart. Stewart came into Storrs, Connecticut ranked as the top recruit in her class, hoping to take the Huskies back to the top of the sport after two Final Four campaigns. For her standards, she started off her career on the slower side. The Syracuse-native managed just 13.8 points and 6.8 rebounds a night her freshman year, but finished out the season strong. She had a great NCAA tournament and was the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player (MOP) behind her 23 points and nine boards in the national championship game. So far, we’re at one championship, one MOP and no National Player of the Year (NPOY) awards.  

In her sophomore year, Stewart picked up from right where she left off. As the Huskies went 40-0, Stewart was at the heart of the effort. Her 19.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game were the driving force behind UConn’s second-straight national championship, as the forward collected her second MOP award. Along with it, she earned NPOY honors for the first time in her career.  

Halfway through her career, let’s pause for a moment to see how she compares to Clark. So far, Stewart has won two championships, two MOPs and one NPOY. Clark currently has zero championships, zero MOPs and one NPOY. She has the opportunity to get one more of each. Stewart after two years of college is looking favorable against Clark after 3.5.  

Stewart’s junior year was more of the same. Even as the Huskies were dealt a devastating overtime loss in the second game of the season to prevent consecutive undefeated seasons, the team soldiered on. They won all their remaining matchups thanks to Stewart’s 17.6 points per game on a fantastic 54% efficiency. For the second straight year, she swept the NPOY awards.  

In her senior season, “Stewie” put together an even more efficient campaign. She shot 58% from the field and 43% from downtown en route to 19.7 points and 8.7 rebounds on a nightly basis. The forward finished her career with another undefeated season and another sweep of the awards. Looking at our final tally, we’re at four championships, four MOPs and three NPOY. 

The biggest question here is how one can argue against such success. Not only was she part of the greatest four year run in the history of the sport, she was the best player in each of the national championships. Even if someone else has scored more points or collected more assists, nobody else has experienced more team success, yet alone being the best player on the team for the better part of those four years. 

In all fairness, Iowa was not in a position for Clark to have Stewart’s success when she came in. The Hawkeyes had been to just four Elite Eights in program history when Clark arrived, while UConn had already accumulated seven national championships when Stewart did. If Clark started her career in a Connecticut uniform in Fall 2012, who knows what her legacy would have been. 

Rebecca Lobo was the first truly great UConn women’s basketball player and *only* managed one national championship. She was a key cog in taking Connecticut basketball to the next level so that someone as great as Stewart could win four titles in as many years.  

Because Clark came into Iowa when she did, she didn’t have the luxury of becoming the best player of all time. Given her volume of points, I can definitively say that she is the best scorer of all time. But without other factors like team success, she can’t be the GOAT.  

Taking a look at some other options in comparison to Stewart, the best four are Cheryl Miller, Chamique Holdsclaw, Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi.  

Miller was incredible on the statsheet with 23.6 points per game along with 12 rebounds. These stats are better than Stewart, but her two championships, two MOPs and three NPOYs fall just short.  

Holdsclaw had a similarly spectacular career, with three championships, two MOPs and two NPOYs. Still inferior to Stewart though.  

Parker had 2 championships, two MOPs and two NPOYs. Once again, this is excellent, but fails to reach the level of the GOAT. 

Finally, we have UConn’s Taurasi, who is a bit less spectacular in the points per game category at 15. She still churned out three championships, two MOPs and two NPOYs though. This establishes her as one of the all-time greats, but still not as great as Stewie.  

After looking at all of the competitive options, Stewart still rises above. She was truly sensational in her four years in Storrs and there’s a good chance that nobody comes close to her legacy. Starting right after she departed, women’s basketball has changed, becoming much more competitive across the board. Winning one championship is considerably harder than it once was, much less four. Until someone does what Stewart did in her four years, then there can be a conversation, but her overall body of work is unmatched. 

Featured image from https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp0QWk_jHr7/?hl=en.