Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
BY BAYA JAISWAL ’27
STAFF WRITER
Caitlin Clark, a senior basketball player for the University of Iowa’s Basketball team, is taking collegiate basketball to a new level. Clark, a native of West Des Moines, Iowa, has successfully scored over 3,400 points in her college career so far, making her the second-highest-scoring player in women’s basketball history. As Clark concludes her final season for the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference, she is projected to become the all-time leading scorer and break even more records. Clark set a record for total points in a single National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament in both men’s and women’s categories after scoring 191 total points in the 2023 season. She successfully surpassed the previous record in the men’s tournament held by Glen Rice, who had scored 184 points in 1989.
After scoring 35 points in a match against the Iowa State Cyclones, Clark became the 15th woman in all-time basketball history to attain 3,000 points. From becoming the Big Ten leading scorer in women’s basketball to the division’s highest assist leader, Clark has demonstrated her versatile offensive skills on the court.
Clark is predicted to shatter Kelsey Plum’s Division I women’s scoring record of 3,527 points and will be competing next on March 6 at the upcoming Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis. Within the all-time women’s collegiate basketball statistics, Clark is currently ranked fourth for career assists with over 1000. She is ranked second for women’s triple-doubles and 10th for women's career free throws, scoring 15 and over 732 in the respective categories. Clark has also made 1,155 career field goals, the fourth-highest number of such goals in women’s college basketball. Amongst the top men’s and women’s scorers, Clark is ranked fourth. Still, given her successful track record, experts claim she may surpass fellow basketball legend Pete Maravich of Louisiana State University for the highest NCAA scoring record.
Off the court, Clark is still breaking records. She has amassed great popularity among basketball fans and has drawn greater attention to women’s basketball and other sports. The game between Iowa and Louisville women’s basketball in the 2023 season on March 27 saw 2.49 million viewers tuning in to view Clark’s stellar performance. By scoring 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebound triple-doubles, Clark helped advance her team to the women's Division I basketball semifinals and garnered unparalleled viewership for women’s basketball. The tickets for the semi-finals were three times more expensive than the men’s. Not much later, the fierce final of that season between the rival Louisiana State University Tigers and University of Iowa Hawkeyes amassed approximately 10 million online viewers, the largest audience in history to view a women’s basketball game. Caitlin Clark’s determination and effort have helped uplift women’s basketball in American society, and her achievements will remain etched in basketball history.
Correction: a previous version of this article incorrectly referred to the University of Iowa as Iowa University both in its headline and in the body of the article.