The sports world is still abuzz after Caitlin Clark broke Pete Maravich‘s NCAA scoring record. So we decided to look back at some of her greatest college basketball moments.
There’s so much more to Clark’s career than the records she is breaking and we plan to explore her greatest moments as a college player. Since she has declared for the WNBA following this season, she only has a few games left in an Iowa Hawkeyes uniform.
Let’s take a look at Caitlin Clark’s finest moments as a player, at least so far.
Freshman Year
Let’s start with her debut against Northern Iowa where she scored eight rebounds and four assists in a 96–81 victory. In her second game of the season against Drake, she posted her first double of her career with 30 points and 13 assists.
In the third game of her freshman year, she scored her first triple-double against Western Illinois with 13 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. That hadn’t been done since Samatha Logic in 2015.
Clark’s performance throughout her freshman year garnered her Big Ten Freshman of the Year, but that was only the beginning. People knew then that she was going to be special.
Sophomore Year
It was Clark’s second year that she came into her own as a scorer. At least on four occasions that season, Clark scored 40 points or more in a game including 41 in the Big Ten Tournament which the Hawkeyes would eventually win. But her most impressive feat might have been in a loss to Michigan that year when she scored 46 points, 25 coming in the second half of the game. Clark would eventually win the Big Ten Conference Player of the Year honors.
She was a unanimous first-team All-American: she earned first-team All-American honors from the AP and the USBWA, and was a WBCA Coaches’ All-America Team selection.
Junior Year
All her previous seasons led up to this. Clark’s junior season is when the nation started to pay attention to who she was. While the nation was focused on the South Carolina Gamecocks, Clark was on her way to leading her team to the Final Four.
As the Hawkeyes march towards the Final Four, Clark continues to do her thing on the national scene including breaking several records along the way.
In her 75th game of her college career, she tied Elena Delle Donne of Delaware as the fastest Division I women’s player to reach 2,000 career points since the 1999–2000 season, scoring 20 points in a 92–54 win over Dartmouth.
Going into the Big Ten Tournament, Clark once again was named Big Ten Player of the Year and led the Hawkeyes to their second consecutive Big Ten Tournament title.
Clark moved to second place in Division I women’s history behind Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon with her 10th career triple-double. In their Elite Eight game against Louisville, Clark became the first player in men’s or women’s tournament history to record a 30 or 40-point triple-double when she scored 41 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds in a 97–83 victory.
But it was the Hawkeyes’ victory over the top-seeded South Carolina Gamecocks that Clark officially became the face of women’s basketball. In their victory over the Gamecocks, she posted 41 points, eight assists, and six rebounds in a 77–73 upset, ending their 42-game winning streak.
She also broke the single-game scoring record for the women’s tournament semifinals and became the first player in tournament history with consecutive 40-point games
Despite leading her team to the Final Four and scoring a record eight 3-pointers in their championship loss to the LSU Tigers, it was tough for Clark to make it this far and not win a ring. Despite that, she still won another National Player of the Year award and was a unanimous All-American.
Clark averaged 27.8 points, 8.6 assists, and 7.1 rebounds per game. She also led Division I in assists and ranked second in scoring. She also set Big Ten single-season records in points, assists, three-pointers, and free throws, and tied her conference record with five triple-doubles.
Senior Year
Clark’s biggest moment so far in her senior season was breaking the all-time points record held by Pete Maravich. But before that, Clark broke Clark passed Lynette Woodard, who played for Kansas in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, to become the all-time leader in points among major women’s college players. During the game, she posted her second straight triple-double, with 33 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds, leading the Hawkeyes to a 108–60 win over Minnesota. She also set the Big Ten career record for three-pointers, surpassing Kelsey Mitchell, and the NCAA single-season record in the same category,
But Clark’s biggest moment is when she broke Maravich’s record on March 3rd in an upset victory over No. 2 Ohio State. Clark broke the record in unlike Clark finish by hitting a free throw to pass the LSU great.
The interesting thing is, that Clark had no idea at the time she had broken the record.
“When they announced it and everybody screamed — that’s when I knew,” she said.
“It’s really crazy to think about,” she continued. “Honestly, if you would’ve told me that when my college career started, I would’ve laughed in your face, like ‘No you’re insane.'”
It is kind of a crazy journey for Clark because she broke the record without leading the nation in scoring all four years she’s been in college like Maravich did.
Maravich led the nation in scoring all three years he was allowed to play in college averaging over 40 points a game. At the time when he played, freshmen weren’t allowed to play.
But unlike Maravich Clark has taken her team not only to the NCAA Tournament, but to the Final Four and the NCAA Championship game. Clark’s remarkable journey from unknown basketball star to the face of college basketball in general, says a lot about how far the women’s game has come and how much respect has been garnered over the years for the game.
Clark now owns a record that many thought may never be broken. But Clark has proven to the world through basketball, a woman can accomplish anything.
