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IOWA CITY, Iowa – It’s impossible to pinpoint the exact moment when it was determined in Iowa that any shot that missed Kaitlin Clark’s hands was not only a fair shot, but a good shot. Because there are green lights, and then there are Green lights. And Clark has operated factually for most of his career.
But there is a strong argument to be made that it was February 6, 2022.
This was Clark’s sophomore season, and while she was putting up big numbers, she was still not considered the one-woman wrecking ball that she has now become. To reach that level of lore, a player needs to not only throw stones, but also kill Goliath. And at the time, although she was a big scorer, she was on a team that had yet to beat the best opponents. The Hawkeyes were 1-9 in their career against top-25 teams and were facing No. 6 Michigan.
He started the game by taking a step back from the free throw line and then hit a pull-up triple. He tossed in a few drives and more mid-range, but the real joy came when he started hitting logo 3s during the fourth quarter when the Hawkeyes (read: Clark) attempted to pull off an upset. He hit three transition 3s in a span of 92 seconds, the final one, while being surrounded by Michigan defenders, which Clark put on skates. She finished with 46 points. Although Iowa still lost, something changed that night.
Oh God. @caitlinclarke22 #Hawk Eyes pic.twitter.com/GWkkay66hc
-Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB) 7 February 2022
As broadcasters shouted through their mics after another logo triple, “What did he do? What did he just do?” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder walked calmly to the sideline, not surprised or happy enough to open her arms. Without context, she just looks like a coach saying the same old, same old as he turns to his bench.
“First of all, when you’re training her, it’s kind of amusing in practice when she takes some of those and makes some of those shots. But then in sports as a coach, you’re thinking, ‘Oops, that’s not advised,'” Balder said. “But that’s the point where you realize, ‘She’s different from everyone else and she can actually make these at quite an alarming rate.’
He added, “There was a change in my mind.” “At that point it was like, ‘Okay, we’re going with this.'”
“It” goes like this: To Clark, anything can happen.
And as of February 6, 2022, it has worked very well for both Clark and Iowa. The senior is now 39 points shy of the NCAA women’s basketball scoring record, and the Hawkeyes, who defeated South Carolina – the Goliath of women’s basketball – in last season’s Final Four, are now recognized nationally as a powerhouse and firmly in the Ranked at number 2 nationally. Behind the Gamecocks this season.
Clark is a well-known name outside the women’s basketball world, a player who is monitored by security officials before and after games and at public events. He has zero partnerships with Nike, State Farm, and Gatorade. She is the projected No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft if she declares, and the biggest headache for opposing women’s college coaches if she opts to return for her fifth year.
Ask the trainers who have faced him (or who fear they might), and they’ll all explain the same thing: You don’t stop him. You can slow him down, you can make him more incapacitated, but no one can stop Clark. When Clark dropped those 46 points on Michigan in 2022, Wolverine coach Kim Barnes Arico said after the game, “I didn’t even know what was happening.”
This may be the most impressive part of his run toward the scoring record – Clarke’s unwavering consistency. He never missed a game. In 124 games at Iowa, she has failed to score in double figures only once. As he has expanded his range over the past four seasons, his field goal percentage has steadily increased. “His consistency is off the charts,” Bluder said Thursday night after Clark scored 27 points in a win against Penn State. “For him to do that day after day, to do that night after night, to sell out in arenas, to chase records, for him to do that consistently is incredible. Everyone has a bad night. We all have bad nights. “Caitlin doesn’t have bad nights.”
As teams have tried new and different defensive approaches on him, he has continued to outperform opponents in every capacity. Double that, and she finds the angle. Circle her and she gets up to take a shot. Throw the kitchen sink at her, only to find out that she can hit logo 3s and clean dishes at the same time.
Shot chart/heat map of Caitlin Clark over the last four seasons. pretty wild. pic.twitter.com/60BBbWVOXy
– Chantel Jennings (@ChantelJennings) 8 February 2024
Of the top 10 scorers in Division I history, only two averaged more than 25 points during their entire college careers (current record holder Kelsey Plum: 25.4; Elena Delle Donne: 26.7).
Clarke’s average has been 28.1.
This season, Big Ten fans have spent hundreds of dollars to make their way to conference arenas in hopes of watching their “home” team suffer a 46-point loss to the 6-foot guard , so they can get the Caitlin Clark experience, too.
Under the microscope, Clark hasn’t wavered either. His worst game this season – a 24-point, six-rebound, three-assist night against Kansas State – would still be a career night for 99 percent of college basketball players.
Clark said after the game: “I think it shows you have to come every day and be ready to play basketball because no matter who it is, you can beat anybody, beat anybody. [to] Any. That’s the great thing about women’s basketball. That’s what makes it so much fun. I’m just disappointed that we weren’t able to really perform well for our fans, who came out and supported us so well.”
go deeper
When will Caitlin Clark break the women’s college basketball all-time scoring record?
Because when you’re watching Clark, it’s not just basketball, it’s a true performance that she is putting on for fans who come with not only an expectation but with an expectation to be surprised and amazed. Let’s come. They want logo 3s, not 3s. They don’t want a no-look pass, they want to see something they’ve never seen before. They want the show that Clark’s coaches and teammates have gotten in practice over the past four seasons. They don’t just want the green light for Bluder for Clark, they want him on the Autobahn for 40 minutes.
To garner so much attention, Clarke hasn’t just performed, she’s been consistently great, leaving audiences constantly asking, “What did she do?” What did he just do?”
Now, she’s probably a few quarters away from cementing herself at the top of the NCAA women’s scoring record, a feat for Clark that — with that green light — feels like it’s just a pretty good quarter or two away from becoming a scoring one. Maybe Ustad.
(Photo by Caitlin Clark: G Fume/Getty Images)
