EMERGENCY HOOPLA: 3,528
3,528 words on Caitlin Clark, all-time greatness, and the discourse machine that's come with it
She did it.
On Thursday, Feb. 15, in career game No. 126, in front of a sold out Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Caitlin Clark hit a three closer to half court than the arc. It was her sixth, seventh and eighth points of the game, on a night where she would go on to break Iowa’s single-game record with 49 points.
But that wasn’t the record on everyone’s minds. These were Clark’s 3,526th, 3,527th and 3,528th career points, putting her atop the record books as the highest-scoring player in the history of women’s college basketball.
Of course it was on the deepest of deep threes. Of course it was heavily contested. Of course it was her third make on three attempts with the world watching to see how long it would take for history to be made. It took two minutes and 12 seconds.
For it to have gotten here, with everyone tuned in to an Iowa women’s college basketball player, feels both completely surreal and extremely expected.
The Rise
Clark has been this way from basically Day One. A top-five prospect nationally who chose to stay in-state, her first game for the Hawkeyes ended with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals in 26 minutes.
Her first year at Iowa set the tone for what was on the way. Clark was magnificent as a freshman: 26.6 PPG, 7.1 APG, 40.6 percent from deep with a nation-leading 116 makes. Like the entirety of Iowa that season, defense was a weak point for the first-year guard, but her ability to dominate a game from the jump was unprecedented.
Clark’s talent level was obvious immediately, but she was not the player in her class that received the most attention at the time. That honor went to UConn’s Paige Bueckers, the former No. 1 prospect who won National Player of the Year in her first collegiate season.
The freshman season laid the ground work for what was to come, but in retrospect, it was Clark’s sophomore year that may have been the most influential in getting her to the player we know now.
It was not an easy season for Clark, even as the Hawkeyes improved on the whole. She struggled mightily from three for a large stretch, going 14 straight games without shooting above 40 percent from deep. Eventually, she found her footing and Iowa even won the Big Ten Tournament, but lost on the largest stage in a Round of 32 upset to Creighton.
Losing in the first weekend seemed to put these Hawkeyes on a mission. I also think it was what led to Clark finding yet another gear to reach.
The Statement
Clark was named Big Ten Player of the Year as a sophomore and certainly received recognition for her play, but was beat out by Aliyah Boston for National Player of the Year honors and was not receiving the headlines she’s used to now. She knew there was more for her, and this team, to do.
So she did more.
Junior year Caitlin Clark scored more points, dished out more assists and hit threes more efficiently than the sophomore year version. Iowa had 26 wins entering the NCAA Tournament, and was playing better overall basketball than it ever had since Clark arrived.
A quick reminder of that loss to Creighton the year prior. There, Clark scored 15 points on 4-of-19 shooting. She was 0 for 8 in the second half. Looking up those numbers again, I remembered how strong some of the narratives were against Clark at the time, how she didn’t rise up in the largest moments.
Anyway, let’s check in on the 2023 NCAA Tournament!
Round of 64 vs. Southeastern Louisiana - 26 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists, win
Round of 32 vs. Georgia - 22 points, 3 rebounds, 12 assists, win
It wasn’t as easy as it maybe should have been for a 2-seed, but Iowa survived to get rid of the Creighton demons for good.
Sweet 16 vs. Colorado - 31 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, win
And now a win in the Sweet 16 for the first time! Clark played well against an often-stifling Colorado defense, but the Hawkeyes now get a Louisville team that has significant tournament experience, a battle-tested coach, a well-rounded—
Elite Eight vs. Louisville - 41 points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists, win
Oh! After such a disappointing run in last year’s tournament, Clark getting a 41-point triple-double to send your team to the Final Four was of some significance.
But, at this point in Iowa’s run, Clark had proven what she needed. She rose to the occasion to get her team to the final weekend, and no one would have blamed the Hawkeyes for faltering next.
Why? Because South Carolina was next. The Gamecocks were the undefeated reigning national champion. They were a defensive stalwart that beat opponents, on average, by 30 per game. They had all the size in the world, a endless roster of five-star talent and—
Final Four vs. South Carolina - 41 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, win
You don’t simply go into a game against the Dawn Staley South Carolina Gamecocks, score 40 points, and take the win home with you. And I don’t say that as hyperbole: Clark is the only player to do that against South Carolina since at least the 2009-10 season, which is as far as the Her Hoop Stats database goes.
One more time: Clark is the only player to score 40+ in a win over South Carolina in the past 14 seasons, and she did it in the damn Final Four. It is, as of writing this, the only loss the Gamecocks have suffered in the past two seasons.
National Championship vs. LSU - 30 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists, loss
The tournament run, of course, did not end with the trophy.
LSU met Iowa in the final, the Tigers got red hot from three for the first time all tournament, and LSU completely shut out Clark’s interior game, forcing her to find most of her points behind the arc. A 30-point, eight-assist effort while dealing with foul trouble isn’t something to overlook, but it also wasn’t enough to get the victory.
Caitlin Clark ended her junior year with 2,717 points. More importantly, she ended it in the national championship game and with dazzling performances on the largest stage. That Iowa-South Carolina game was, without a doubt, the most exciting moment I’ve had in the history of this newsletter, and I can’t speak enough on how impressive the win was on its own.
But then I think about everything that came because of that game. The genuine excitement I witnessed online, both from avid women’s sports fans and people I had never seen talking about women’s basketball prior. It was a massive moment for the sport that delivered in every way possible, and it led to a historically watched championship game.
And it all set the scene for what’s come since.
The Show
Clark was 811 behind Kelsey Plum’s NCAA record, and needed to score about 23 PPG over a 35-game season to surpass it in year four.
With no Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock, two key cogs from last year’s title run, it seemed likely that Iowa’s offense would run through Clark more than ever. I was fearful that all the potential extra attention from defenses could cause Clark to lose the efficiency she got back as a junior.
It appeared the Hawkeyes weren’t worried. Even with two big departures, Iowa avoided bringing in any transfers, signaling to me that the team’s belief in Clark was so high that it was, perhaps, actively trying to avoid muddying the lineups by bringing in other scoring options.
Think about this for a moment. Iowa went to the championship last year against LSU. The Tigers, who won it, dominated the transfer portal by bringing in Hailey Van Lith and Aneesah Morrow, even with Angel Reese back and five-star Mikaylah Williams entering as a freshman. The Hawkeyes lost two starters, the No. 2 and 3 options in the offense, and decided to run it back with what was left. It’s an extremely bold move, and it forced Clark’s role to grow even larger.
Could she do it? And not “it” as in breaking the record, but could she lead Iowa back to the levels it reached last year, with even less experience around her to help. I knew of Clark’s greatness plenty through three seasons, believe me, but doing that was asking so much of her.
Can you hear me laughing?
After last night’s win over Michigan, Iowa is 23-3. The Hawkeyes have a higher win percentage, offensive rating and defensive rating than last year’s national runner-up team.
And Clark? You may know her as the one that broke the scoring record last night. She’s simply upped her scoring by more than four PPG while maintaining similar efficiencies from everywhere on the floor, including from three, where she’s shooting better than last year despite attempting nearly four more threes per game than she ever has. She is also doing all of this on slightly fewer minutes per game than she played last season, because why the hell not.
This isn’t normal. This isn’t a typical star leading their team to some success. This is not something any player — let alone a college player — should be able to do on a consistent basis. Currently only one NBA player, Luka Doncic, is averaging 32 PPG, 7 RPG, 8 APG this season, and he’s doing it in a 48-minute NBA game while playing over 37 minutes a night. Clark has those averages (basically, as she dropped to 6.9 RPG last night), and is doing it on 34 minutes a game in a 40-minute setting.
Let’s bring it back to the college basketball sphere. Since at least 2009-10, there are four instances of a player, men’s or women’s, scoring at least 25 PPG, 5 RPG and 6 APG over a full season. Those instances are:
Caitlin Clark, freshman year
Caitlin Clark, sophomore year
Caitlin Clark, junior year
Caitlin Clark, senior year (through 26 games)
One single men’s player — Long Island’s Charles Jones in 1997-98 — has achieved those averages since at least 1992-93. Clark is alone in the college basketball world over the past 14 seasons, and likely longer. And she has done it every single season she’s been here. She’s also blown away those requirements most years, with her lowest all-time numbers in each category being 26.6 PPG, 5.9 RPG and 7.1 APG.
So, on stats alone, Clark is historically great. But we are not here talking like this because of stats alone.
Look at how wide I had to make this last screenshot to get her in frame, it’s hilarious. All of these shots went in, by the way.
Clark plays the game of basketball like she’s in a world of her own. She makes 30-plus-foot shots look routine. She’s able to find the tiniest pocket of space and turn it into a chasm while sinking it from anywhere, truly anywhere. She drives to the rim with elite acceleration and ball handling that makes her extremely difficult to stop without fouling.
If that wasn’t enough — and I know we are here because of the points record — she is also an outrageous playmaker, constantly finding open players both on the perimeter and in the paint for quick buckets.
This has all been said before, both by me and anyone who watches her play, but it’s worth repeating all at once to drive home that Clark is honestly and truly this good. And, she’s that good while playing a style of basketball that any casual viewer can immediately appreciate. It’s that blend of excitement, talent and wow factor that has gotten Caitlin Clark atop the list of all-time scorers, but it’s also made her the most popular basketball player at the college level today.
With that popularity comes extremes. Extremes in any and all directions.
The Circus
Caitlin Clark has struck a lightning bolt through the heart of women’s college basketball through her constant excellence and electrifying style of play. She has become, for the time being, the women’s basketball player that found her way into significant national media attention.
That has led to a little bit of discourse.
Some of this discourse is good. There are a lot of fun debates about Clark’s greatness, and it’s been fun seeing replies under posts from large sports conglomerates talking about how incredible of a player she is. I’ll even take the jokes that the Detroit Pistons were tanking for her, that’s all good.
There are fun media moments, too. I specifically enjoyed finding that Iowa’s student newspaper — The Daily Iowan — has a subhead on its website specifically for Clark and her chase for the record. That is profoundly cool to see.
But Clark, through absolutely no fault of her own, has also been the focal point of many online debates over various topics, often things that are only tangentially related to the Iowa star. One of these has most recently devolved into chaos.
For those who aren’t aware, Sheryl Swoopes was asked about Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese on a podcast. The first clip that went viral from it was about if Reese and Clark would transition well to the professional game. Swoopes said this on Clark:
“Will Catilin Clark be a good pro? Absolutely. Will Catilin Clark come into the WNBA and do what she’s doing right now? Immediately? Absolutely not.”
That quote caused some angry fans to do some digging. Another clip of Swoopes from the podcast then surfaced. Here, she says Clark’s record shouldn’t count the same as Plum’s since Clark used an extra COVID-eligibility year to break it. The problem with this is that Clark’s a fourth-year player, a true senior who would not be using that extra year of eligibility unless she returns next season.
Swoopes also, perhaps not necessarily referring to Clark but within the same segment, talked about 25-year-old players playing against 20-year-olds due to the aforementioned extra eligibility.
Regardless of Swoopes’ intent, it ultimately didn’t matter. All hell had already broke loose.
Iowa’s official account tweeted out a petty response highlighting Clark’s age, games played and year of eligibility. Iowa, and Clark-specific, fans posted en masse against Swoopes. Many WNBA players, analysts and Twitter personalities start speaking in favor of Swoopes.
Then, of course, the kicker: Iowa fans showing up to a game in “Don’t Be A Sheryl” shirts.
sigh
All of this is stupid. But if you want my take, here you go.
For starters, Swoopes is one of the greatest basketball players of all-time. She is a three-time WNBA MVP, a four-time WNBA Champion and once scored 47 points over Ohio State in a national championship game. She has earned the right to speak her opinion on the women’s game.
I have not a single problem with her quotes on Clark and Reese translating to the WNBA. It was said in a way where it felt respectful while making a point that it’s not an easy move from college to the pros. But she then got a critical piece of information incorrect on Clark’s collegiate eligibility, and has never seemed to apologize for doing so. The info is corrected later in the podcast and there’s a general understanding there that Clark’s record would be genuine, but Swoopes herself doesn’t make any sort of official retraction.
I think Swoopes should have been more directly apologetic about getting the eligibility wrong, but the firestorm came so fast and significantly that I can also understand why she didn’t want to do that.
The shirts were dumb, not much else to say on it. Swoopes didn’t say anything so outrageously out of line to make shirts basically saying “Don’t be one of the greatest athletes of all-time” feel warranted.
Again, Clark is not to blame for any of this debacle. She has said the right things whenever asked and has let her basketball do the talking all season. She’s not responsible for the fans, or the critics, who have gone too far, and I also think she was put in an impossible position where she’d either have to speak out against a certain pocket of Iowa fans, or an all-time great. Neither of those sound fun.
I respect the hell out of how much Iowa fans have rallied around Clark, and I mean that. The sellouts everywhere the Hawkeyes play has made watching them so much fun, and it’s what this sport should be about. So please listen to me when I say this with love: I think there are serious benefits to some of you chilling out on some certain topics.
“Chill out” does not mean, by any stretch, that I’m asking you to stop being a rampant Iowa women’s basketball fan. Continue to be rampant, I beg of you. What it does mean is that not every single comment on Clark has to be taken as an act of war. She is one of the greatest players the collegiate level has ever seen, I agree, but there are also arguments to be had that there have been better all-time players with stronger overall résumés. And that is OK.
The media coverage has not helped this. Watching Iowa games, as delightful as the product itself is, goes along with an often-permanent Clark stat line baked into the chyron, or pregame talks that focus strictly on No. 22 on Iowa, avoiding discussion about the opponent or her teammates.
It’s a monkey’s paw situation that I hate complaining about. This much coverage of women’s college basketball is significant, and I think its long-term effects are mostly very positive. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be better, and Clark’s gameplay can do plenty of the talking on its own without overdoing it on the analysis.
Clark deserves a whole lot of coverage, but she can also be used as the kickstarter to talking about the excitement of women’s college basketball on the whole.
The Star
It needs to be emphasized how impressive Clark has been throughout all of this, and I’m not talking strictly on the court.
This spotlight she’s been under has been massive, bright and relentless since last year’s Final Four, and here we are talking about her scoring record before we’ve even hit March.
Iowa racked up sellout after sellout with Clark as the star people have to come and see, and she’s not only playing good basketball, but the best basketball of her career while leading her team to a top-five ranking. It’s extraordinary that she’s managed to hold all this weight, with all this surrounding debate and drama, while still putting up National Player of the Year numbers.
This was displayed beautifully Thursday night. Everyone knew Clark was breaking the record yesterday, but we didn’t know exactly how it would look. So, with all the eyes on her once again, she goes made layup, made three, made three from the parking lot. Three for three, with a turnover being the only flaw. Then she scored 41 more points to break the single-game record too. And added 13 assists. Because she’s Caitlin Clark and she can just do those things.
There’s a reason Clark has become the face of college basketball, and I don’t want to take that for granted. The positives here so drastically outweigh any annoyances that have come from this.
The crowds. The increased attention on the women’s game. The signs held up by little kids every game saying they drove hours to see Clark play, that they want to be like her when they grow up. The ripple effect Clark may have on women’s youth sports is so exciting to think about.
And, of course, the player herself.
Clark plays basketball at a level you rarely get to see, and with an amount of reckless confidence that makes you hold your breath anytime she has the ball past half court. She makes so many deep, contested threes that you start to forget how outrageous any single one of them really was.
Women’s college basketball is loaded with so much talent right now, and it deserves better universal attention. The game should be covered nationally in a way that is more respectful to focusing on the whole horizon rather than on the one at the top.
But the one at the top is still worthy of the celebration. Clark is one of a kind, she’s changed the game forever, and it’s been an honor to get to write about her these past three years.
She did it.
On Thursday, Feb. 15, in career game No. 126, in front of a sold out Carver-Hawkeye Arena, she really did it.
Caitlin Clark, NCAA Division I women’s basketball’s all-time leading scorer.
Photo Credits: Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB), Twitter/X
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