Women’s basketball has always been a sport that has been overshadowed by its male counterpart. However, over the past couple of seasons of NCAA women’s college basketball, there have been players that have changed the game for the better. Some of the huge names in the current game are UConn’s Paige Bueckers, LSU’s Angel Reese, Stanford’s Cameron Brink, USC’s Juju Watkins, LSU’s Hailey Van Lith and of course, Iowa’s Cailtin Clark.
It is nothing new that Clark is changing the trajectory of women’s sports and the entire sport of basketball, but with every game that she plays for Iowa w this season, she is breaking the news. Her skills have been the driving force of Iowa for the last four years. Especially the last two years, she has had the spotlight as she led Iowa to the 2023 NCAA National Championship game against LSU. Now, Clark has caught the attention of the world.
Home or away, it does not matter: Clark is selling out every stadium that she enters to play. Clark currently leads the country in average points scored with 32.3 per game, while also leading the NCAA in assists with 8.7 per game. Her talents speak volumes on the court, and she is dominating almost every single statistic in the college basketball game. On Feb. 15, Clark scored a career-high and program-record 49 points against Michigan to break Kelsey Plum’s record for most career points in women’s NCAA history. Plum set the record in 2017 with 3,527 points and Clark surpassed it with 3,569 points. Iowa ended up beating Michigan 106-89 on the historic night for Clark.
Clark is not just breaking records in the women’s game; she’s breaking barriers and is setting new records in NCAA college basketball as a whole. After breaking the record for most career points in women’s NCAA history, Clark was not far behind breaking Pete Maravich’s record for most career points in all of NCAA college basketball with 3,667. Clark went into Iowa’s game on March 3 against Ohio State needing 18 points to break “Pistol Pete”’s record, which stood for more than 50 years. With a second-quarter free throw, Clark became the top-scoring player, man or woman, in NCAA college basketball history. By the end of the game, in which the Hawkeyes defeated the Buckeyes 93-83, Clark had scored 35 points.
“Just to be in the same realm of all these players who have been so successful, whether it’s Pete or Kelsey Plum or Lynette Woodard — all these people have just given so much to the game,” said Clark. “Hopefully somebody comes after me and breaks my records and I can be there supporting them.”
In some of the most recent breaking news, Clark announced on Instagram that she will be taking her talents to the WNBA Draft at the conclusion of the season for Iowa. Clark has beat some of the biggest records in the books and even though she does have one year left of eligibility due to NCAA’s Covid-19 waiver for the 2020-2021 year after this season, she seems to be ready for the next chapter of her basketball career at the professional level. T“I think there’s pros and cons to both sides, and that’s what made the decision so difficult,” said Clark. “It was almost a win-win, but at the same time, a lose-lose, because I was giving up something.”
The Iowa phenomenon is projected to be the No. 1 overall pick by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA Draft. After Clark’s announcement to enter the draft, the WNBA is already seeing a huge increase in ticket sales for next season. She isn’t even officially in the league yet, but it shows that the impact of Clark is immeasurable. Something else that Clark is at the top at is NIL. Her valuation of $3.1 million ranks fourth among NCAA athletes.
Clark is a catalyst for womens sports and equality in the world of athletics. She is promoting women’s basketball, putting it on the rise like it has never been before, and she is changing the entire aura of women’s sports. All women’s sports are being brought to the table with the light of Clark. One example is the University of Nebraska’s volleyball team increased in popularity this year, and a huge part of that goes to the media attention that women’s college athletics is now receiving. The increased viewership does immense amounts for these women’s programs and it is so important in bringing female athletes to the conversation. Clark’s impact on Iowa and the entirety of college basketball will be marked forever. Clark’s future in basketball is very bright in the professional leagues, and her capabilities to change the game are endless.