In the fast-paced world of women’s basketball, one name has stolen the attention of the nation – Caitlin Clark. This senior guard for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes has been making headlines and breaking records nonstop this basketball season. For those who have missed Clark’s season of unparalleled success, here’s a short recap.
Clark entered her fourth season at Iowa with irrefutable talent, having scored 1,055 points over the Hawkeyes’ 2023 Final Four run. In a game against Iowa State on December 6, 2023, Clark became the 15th NCAA Division I women’s player to surpass the 3,000-point mark. Just under three months later, on February 15 in a game against Michigan, she surpassed the NCAA’s women’s career scoring record. She secured the achievement with a pull-up 3-pointer from the midcourt logo, surpassing Washington’s Kelsey Plum, who’d held it since 2017. Clark rewrote the record book during only her 126th game. About a week later she surpassed former Kansas star Lynette Woodard’s 3,649 career point record in a 33-point game against Minnesota. Woodard’s record is not formally recognized by the NCAA as it was made before the sport was sanctioned into the organization but Woodard’s legacy is still valued as a historical accomplishment in women’s basketball. Clark did not stop there. On Sunday she became the NCAA’s all-time leader in career points across the men’s and women’s divisions as she ended her final regular season home game with 3,685 career points. With a set of free throws to round out the first half of the game, she effortlessly surpassed the previous record holder Pete Maravich. In a half-time interview following this historic moment, Clark admitted to not even registering her accomplishment at the moment. “When they announced it and everybody screamed — that’s when I knew,” she told a Fox reporter.
This phenomenal run has earned Clark an unprecedented amount of media attention and a growing following, allowing her to continue her record-breaking streak off the court. Iowa has set attendance records at every regular season game this year, except for two away games. As Iowa enters the postseason, ticket prices to the Carver-Hawkeye Arena will continue to soar. Throughout the last month, tickets to Iowa’s games have sold for an average of almost $600 a seat and prices will likely only climb. This major leap in ticket prices and attendance is fondly referred to as ‘Clarkonomics’. Clark has increased engagement in women’s basketball as a whole as fans of all ages and backgrounds have gone to great lengths to witness her make history. At the February 22 Indiana-Iowa game at Assembly Hall, ten-year-old Noe Snyder held a sign that read, “I flew 2,078 miles to see Caitlin Clark.” In an interview with Front Office Sports, her family reported that their trip to see Clark play cost them upwards of $2,000 in total.
On February 29, Clark officially announced she would be entering the 2024 WNBA draft, opting to not utilize her COVID-19 waiver that would allow her a fifth year with the Hawkeyes. Clark’s reign on women’s basketball has just begun.
