Caitlin Clark’s college career is over but her impact on the game is not
(AP) — Most points. Highest scoring average. Most 3-pointers in a season. Most 3-pointers in a career. Most national scoring titles. And so on, and so on, and so on.
Caitlin Clark’s college career is over. And the stats she leaves behind are going to be in the record books — the Iowa ones, the Big Ten ones, the NCAA ones — for a long, long time.
“She has raised the excitement of our sport,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “There’s no doubt. She does things in a different way than anybody else can do.”
The numbers back that up. A look at just some of Clark’s national Division I women’s records:
CAREER POINTS
Clark’s record: 3,951 points.
Previous record: Kelsey Plum, Washington, 3,527.
Percentage difference: 12%
Plum was rooting for Clark to break the record, telling The Associated Press in November that “when she breaks it, I’ll be very, very happy.”
“To me, the record was never that big of a deal,” Plum said.
It is, however, to some people.
To be clear: The numbers by Clark, Plum and everyone else who has played Division I women’s basketball for the last 40-some years are the only ones recognized by the NCAA. There was a different governing body for women’s sports before that, the AIAW — where Pearl Moore once topped 4,000 points.
Lynette Woodard made headlines at the Final Four by saying that she believes she’s still the rightful recordholder with 3,649 points — in an era where women still played with a men’s basketball and without a 3-point line. (It should be noted that a post appeared on Woodard’s social media account Sunday saying she believes Clark has the record. )
There will forever be naysayers. But in the NCAA’s eyes, the record belongs to Clark. No player, male or female, has reached 3,951 at the NCAA level.
POINTS IN A SEASON
Clark’s record: 1,234.
Previous record: Plum, 1,109.
Percentage difference: 11.3%
There have been seven 1,000-point seasons in Division I women’s history. Clark has two of them.
If there’s one player currently in the women’s game who might give this (or the all-time scoring mark) a serious challenge, it’s USC’s JuJu Watkins. She had 920 points as a freshman this season. Clark’s freshman total was 799.
CAREER POINTS PER GAME
Clark’s record: 28.42.
Previous record: Patricia Hoskins, Mississippi Valley State, 28.38.
Percentage difference: 0.1%
Clark passed Hoskins in the game where Iowa topped LSU to reach this season’s Final Four. But after Clark scored 21 points in the national semifinals against UConn, she needed at least 25 points on Sunday in the title game against South Carolina to keep her average ahead of Hoskins.
3-POINTERS IN A SEASON
Clark’s record: 201.
Previous record: Taylor Pierce, Idaho, 154.
Percentage difference: 30.5%
Look at that gap between No. 1 and No. 2 on this list. The game is getting more and more reliant on the 3-pointer and it’s been moving that way for several years, but no NCAA Division I player — not even Stephen Curry, the NBA’s 3-point king — has come close to 200 in a season.CAREER 3-POINTERS
Clark’s record: 548.
Previous record: Taylor Robertson, Oklahoma, 537.
Percentage difference: 2%
This was a mark Clark didn’t reach until the second-to-last game of her Iowa career. Here’s the most overlooked part of Clark’s 3-point and scoring prowess — she wasn’t a shameless shooter. She led the nation in assists in each of the last three seasons, joining Northwestern State’s La’Terrica Dobin as the only player to do that in back-to-back-to-back years.
3-POINTERS PER GAME IN A SEASON
Clark’s record: 5.15.
Previous record: Pierce, 4.53.
Percentage difference: 13.7%
To help put this stat in perspective: She made more 3-pointers this season than 60% of the teams in Division I women’s basketball did this season.
NCAA TOURNAMENT
Clark set the standard in a slew of NCAA Tournament categories.
She owns the record for women’s Division I tourney all-time play on all these lists: points (491), assists (152) and 3-pointers (78).
OTHER MILESTONES
— Clark leaves as the active NCAA women’s basketball leader in career points, scoring average, 3-point field goals, 3-pointers per game, career assists, assists per game, field goals made, 3-point attempts, free throws made and free throws attempted. And that’s for all divisions, not just Division I.
— Clark finished her college career with 17 triple-doubles. That’s as many as the next three players on the NCAA active list — Destiny Battle, Mia Castillo and Zaay Green — have combined. Battle plays at Division III’s Saint Elizabeth, Castillo at Division III’s Baruch and Green at Division I’s Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
— Clark is the third player in Division I women’s history to finish a career with more than 2,000 points and 1,000 assists. And her numbers in both categories were better than the other two players in that elite club. Sabrina Ionescu had 2,562 points and 1,091 assists at Oregon. Courtney Vandersloot had 2,073 points and 1,118 assists at Gonzaga. Clark finished with 3,951 points and 1,144 assists.