MARCH 4, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- Caitlin Clark stood alone at the free-throw line on Sunday (March 3, 2024) and made the foul shots that put her atop the all-time NCAA Division I scoring chart.
The flash and pizzazz of her game have made her the biggest name in all of college basketball. Yet it was two free throws after a technical foul that pushed Clark past the late Pete Maravich’s 54-year-old record in No. 6 Iowa’s 93-83 win over No. 2 Ohio State.
Clark entered the game in Iowa City needing 18 points to pass Maravich’s total of 3,667, amassed in just 83 games over three seasons at LSU (1967-70). She finished with 35 to run her total to 3,685 in 130 games.
Maravich’s mark fell four days after Clark broke Lynette Woodard’s major college women’s record when she scored 33 points against Minnesota on Wednesday.
“Just to be in the same realm of all these players who have been so successful, whether it’s Pete or Kelsey Plum or Lynette Woodard — all these people have just given so much to the game,” Clark said. “Hopefully somebody comes after me and breaks my records and I can be there supporting them.”
Best known for her long 3-pointers, Clark was called on to go to the foul line after Cotie McMahon was assessed a technical for giving her a little push during a dead ball with less than a second to go in the first half.
Clark had no immediate reaction after the second shot went through, as if it hadn’t sunk in yet. She said she knew the record had fallen only after it was announced.
It didn’t matter to her that she made history with two free throws rather than a half-court logo 3-pointer.
“That’s like the hardest thing to do in basketball is to make free throws with nobody (around you) at the free-throw line,” she said.
She had gotten off to a slow start Sunday. Her first shot was a 3-pointer that bounced off the rim. She missed a layup and from deep on the right wing before making a 3 from the left side for her first basket.
After starting 2 for 7, she made 3 of her next 4 shots — including three straight 3s, each deeper than the previous.
Woodard was among those at Carver-Hawkeye Arena to help Clark celebrate senior day. Also on hand were basketball great Maya Moore, who was Clark’s favorite player, and Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.
“It’s a great time for women’s basketball,” Woodard said in a television interview. “Caitlin is leading the way. As she was chipping away, I said records are made to be broken. Also, they’re made to be honored. Because of her, my records are being honored. She’s gone beyond that now, she’s gone beyond Pete … I passed her the baton to go ahead and burst through that ceiling, and I’m so happy for her.”
On Thursday, Clark announced she would enter the 2024 WNBA draft and skip the fifth year of eligibility available to athletes who competed during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is projected to be the No. 1 overall pick by the Indiana Fever, and the WNBA already is seeing a rise in ticket sales.
Logitix, which researches prices on ticket resale platforms, reported an average sale price of $598 for a ticket to Sunday’s game purchased since Feb. 1.
Kiran Nanjappa, who was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and now lives in Denver, said he paid more than $200 for his ticket.
“She’s a truly once-in-a-lifetime player,” he said. “I’ve been watching Iowa basketball for 40 years, and I’ve never seen a player like her, men’s or women’s. I’ll just say this — I paid more to see her today than I paid to see Michael Jordan three times at the end of his career. And I never thought I’d say that.”
Clark is all but assured of one or two more appearances at the arena in Iowa City. Iowa is projected to be a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament, meaning it would be at home for the first two rounds.
Pearl Moore of Francis Marion owns the overall women’s record with 4,061 points from 1975-79 at the small-college level in the AIAW. Moore had 177 points at Anderson Junior College before enrolling at Francis Marion.
Clark is 376 points behind Moore, and she has two to nine more games left in an Iowa uniform, depending on how far the Hawkeyes advance in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.
The fall of Maravich’s record is subject to scrutiny.
Maravich’s all-time scoring mark is one of the more remarkable in sports history. There was no shot clock or 3-point line in his era. The 3-point line was adopted in 1986.
Maravich averaged 44.2 points per game. He scored more than 60 in a game four times, topping out at 69 against Alabama on Feb. 7, 1970.
LSU coach Kim Mulkey, who grew up in Louisiana and played at Louisiana Tech, said after her team’s win over Kentucky on Sunday that comparing Maravich and Clark would be like comparing apples and oranges.
“What Clark has done is unbelievable and her name will be right up there at the top,” Mulkey said. “But he played over here with no 3-point line, three years, and I don’t think we need to make too much of, ‘Well, she passed him because he’s a man.’ She’s who she is, and that’s awesome. Lord knows when I (coached) against her: ‘Are you kidding me? What a generational talent.’”
Clark averages 28.3 points for her career. Her biggest output was 49 points against Michigan on Feb. 15, when she passed Kelsey Plum as the NCAA women’s Division I career scoring leader.
Clark has 55 games with at least 30 points, the most of any player in men’s or women’s college basketball over the last 25 years. She has six triple-doubles this season and 17 in her career.
“What Caitlin’s done has been amazing. She’s fantastic player, great for the women’s game and basketball in general,” Maravich’s eldest son, Jaeson, told The Associated Press last week.
MARCH 1, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- Iowa star Caitlin Clark says she will leave the Hawkeyes after this season and enter the WNBA draft. Clark made the announcement Thursday (Feb. 29, 2024) on social media. She is 18 points away from passing LSU’s Pete Maravich for the all-time NCAA Division I record for men or women with 3,650 career points. She broke Lynette Woodard’s major college scoring record on Wednesday. Clark is expected to be the top pick in the draft on April 15. The Indiana Fever, who have the first pick, indicated on social media shortly after Clark’s announcement that they intend to select her.
FEBRUARY 29, 2024:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Caitlin Clark has another career record on her astounding resume: the most points by any major college women’s player to ever take the court.
For Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder and her peers, this one matters the most.
Iowa’s superstar guard scored 33 points to lead the sixth-ranked Hawkeyes to a 108-60 romp of Minnesota, pushing her past Lynette Woodard on the all-time list with 3,650 points.
“Tonight (Feb. 28, 2024) is the night of the real record,” said Bluder, who played for Northern Iowa from 1979-83. “For some reason the NCAA does not want to recognize the basketball that was played prior to 1982, and that’s wrong. We played basketball back then. They just don’t want to recognize it, and that hurts the rest of us who were playing at that time. There’s no reason why that should not be the true record.”
Earlier this month, Clark passed Kelsey Plum (3,527) as the all-time NCAA women’s scoring leader. Woodard totaled 3,649 points from 1977-81 for Kansas when the sport was under the purveyance of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, before the NCAA began sanctioning women’s basketball with the 1981-82 season.
“Maybe the NCAA will realize that now. Maybe it will be brought to their attention, and they will start recognizing those women who played in the ’70s,” Bluder said. “Remember, they played with a larger basketball and no 3-point line either.”
Clark left little doubt she’d get the record by dribbling left off a screen and swishing a 3-pointer from the top of the key just 13 seconds into the game. She swished her first four 3-pointers, three of them from extra deep, and had 15 points in the first 3:18 of the game.
The heat check came midway through the first quarter, a flick from the top that bounced off the back rim and prompted a half-hearted “Overrated!” chant from a few wise guys in the Minnesota student section.
Clark had 21 points at halftime. She spent most of the second half flashing her passing skills to find open teammates, but finally with 4:17 left she buried her eighth 3-pointer of the game to pass Woodard. She also set the NCAA single-season record for 3-pointers in the process and finished with the 17th triple-double of her career.
Quite a night, even for her.
And Woodard was on her mind.
“I’m just really thankful and grateful to have those players who have come before me. Yeah, it’s super special. Obviously she’s one of the best all-time,” Clark said. “It just still shows the room that we have to improve, and where women’s sports is going is a really great place.”
Pete Maravich (3,667) is the all-time major college leader for either gender, just 17 points ahead of Clark. Pistol Pete played for LSU from 1967-70 and, like Woodard, in the era preceding the 3-point shot.
Pearl Moore of Francis Marion has the overall women’s record with 4,061 points from 1975-79 at the small-college level in the AIAW. Moore had 177 points in junior college before enrolling at Francis Marion.
There are three other small-college players from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, including current University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy guard Grace Beyer, ahead of Clark.
In front of a sellout crowd of more than 14,000 fans at Williams Arena, the 11th sellout in 11 true road games this season for Clark and her crew, the Hawkeyes cruised past the Gophers to make the record more palatable for the fourth-year player.
Clark has graciously handled the spotlight on her individual feats while trying to stress the importance of team performance, with two losses in the previous four games costing Iowa an opportunity for the Big Ten regular season championship. Ohio State clinched the title on Wednesday and visits Iowa on Sunday in a clash of conference and national powerhouses.
What about Woodard?
She was a two-time Olympian and captain of the 1984 U.S. team that won the gold medal at the Summer Games in Los Angeles, a versatile player and a magnetic personality who played professionally in Italy and Japan and in 1985 became the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters traveling hoops troupe. She played in the WNBA in 1997-98, the league’s first two seasons, and was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004. Woodard was also the head coach at Winthrop for three-plus seasons from 2017-20.
In an interview with ESPN on Monday, Woodard said the NCAA is doing the pre-1981 players a disservice.
“They should respect the history. Include us and our accomplishments,” she said. “This is the era of diversity, equity and inclusion. They should include us. We deserve it.”
Up next for Clark is Maravich, the sharpshooting marvel she first learned about in high school when fans and friends would recommend she find grainy videos of his smooth stroke on YouTube for inspiration. She’s even been called “Ponytailed Pete” at times.
“It’s super special just to be in the same realm of a lot of really talented players who’ve done a lot of really good things,” Clark said.
FEBRUARY 16, 2024:
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Caitlin Clark wasted no time becoming the NCAA women’s career scoring leader Thursday night (Feb. 15, 2024), taking less than three minutes to score the eight points she needed to break Kelsey Plum’s record.
The Iowa star who has brought unprecedented attention to women’s basketball surpassed the record with her signature shot — a 35-foot 3-pointer that hit nothing but the bottom of the net.
And Clark didn’t let up from there. She finished with a school-record 49 points, tied her career best with nine 3-pointers and had 13 assists in No. 4 Iowa’s 106-89 victory over Michigan.
Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder took Clark out of the game with 1:46 left, shortly after she made her final 3, and she went to the bench to an ovation from the sellout crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“I don’t know if you could script it any better,” Clark said. “Just to do it in this fashion, I’m very grateful and thankful to be surrounded by so many people who have been my foundation in everything I’ve done since I was a young little girl. You all knew I was going to shoot the logo 3 for the record.”
Clark’s huge night put her at 3,569 points and within 80 of her next milestone, Lynette Woodard’s major women’s college scoring record of 3,649.
The record-breaker was a 3 off the dribble on the left wing near the Mediacom Court logo with 7:45 left in the first quarter.
“Warming up, my shot just felt good, so I knew it was going to be kind of one of those nights,” she said. “I played with a little more pep in my step.”
Clark set the record in 126 games, 13 fewer than Plum, who finished with 3,527 points in four seasons at Washington from 2013-17. Woodard starred at Kansas from 1977-81, an era when women’s sports were governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. Pearl Moore of Francis Marion holds the overall women’s record with 4,061 points from 1975-79. Woodard and Moore played before the 3-point line was introduced.
Iowa has four regular-season games left, plus the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. Barring injury, Clark, a senior who averages 32.8 points per game, is all but certain to pass Woodard. And she has the option to return for a fifth season of college basketball because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fans started chanting “One more year! One more year!” while Clark, who is projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft, was doing a postgame television interview.
“I paid them,” Bluder said, drawing laughs. “I thought it was a pretty good chant.”
Among those offering congratulations on social media were former president Barack Obama and LSU star Angel Reese, who shared the spotlight with Clark in last season’s national championship game won by the Tigers. The Big Ten Network put out a congratulatory compilation video that included Tom Brady and Peyton and Eli Manning.
Iowa won the tip and Clark, guarded by Laila Phelia, drove to the basket and banked in a shot from the right side. Clark hit a 3 from the left wing on Iowa’s next possession. The Hawkeyes turned the ball over twice before Clark took a pass from Gabbie Marshall in transition, stopped and and shot from deep.
When the ball went through, the fans — many of them standing and holding up phones to capture the moment — let loose a huge roar.
“It was absolutely perfect,” Bluder said, “for her to go over and reach this record with a logo 3.”
Bluder called a timeout shortly thereafter, and Clark hugged teammates and coaches during a brief celebration.
“That was never really my goal, to get it done really fast,” Clark said. “I hit my first couple shots, and I was able to get another one up pretty fast. It was nice to get it done there fairly quick so we could move on and focus on winning the basketball game.”
Clark, who scored 40 points or more for the 12th time, had 23 in the first quarter and went on to play one of her best games. She scored or assisted on 79 points, the most by a Division I women’s player in at least 25 years, according to OptaSTATS.
Clark and her dynamic play have captivated the nation for two seasons. Last year, she led the Hawkeyes to the NCAA title game and was named AP player of the year. More than just her pursuit of the record, her long 3-pointers and flashy passes have raised interest in the women’s game. Arenas have been sold out for her games, home and away, and television ratings have never been higher.
It’s all been more than Clark imagined when the 6-foot guard from West Des Moines stayed in state and picked Iowa over Notre Dame in November 2019.
Though her basketball obligations and endorsement deals (State Farm ads, etc.) have put demands on her time, she said she is the same person who showed up on campus four years ago. She still cleans her apartment, does laundry, plays video games, hangs out with friends and does schoolwork.
Her run to the record could have come earlier, but it arrived back at Carver-Hawkeye, where ticket resale prices for the game ranged from hundreds of dollars into the thousands. As usual, fans showed up early outside the arena, many wearing black-and-gold No. 22 jerseys and holding signs paying homage.
Mya Anderson and her friend, Ellie Steffensen, both 12, and their moms made the six-hour drive from Canton, South Dakota, to see Clark break the record.
“I think she’s inspired a lot of people,” Mya said.
“Yeah, a lot of little girls,” Ellie added.
Mya and Ellie both play basketball, and both said they try to do some of the things Clark does on the court, like shoot long 3s.
“But I’m not as good as her,” Ellie said.
Kelly Jared of Manchester, Iowa, said she likes everything about Clark and expects her impact on the women’s game to endure.
“She’s taken it to a new level,” Jared said. “The aspirations and goals that the current players and future players have, she has set that bar way up in the sky. And it’s perfect, because they will work to attain them. As as far as the fans, there’s excitement for the people who never watched women’s basketball. My son isn’t a basketball fan, but he watched Caitlin last year and he was sold. He absolutely loves her.”
FEBRUARY 15, 2024:
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — It shouldn’t take long for Caitlin Clark to become the NCAA women’s career scoring leader Thursday night when No. 4 Iowa hosts Michigan. Clark goes into the game needing eight points to pass Kelsey Plum’s total of 3,527 points. Clark has scored at least eight in the first quarter in 17 of 25 games this season, and she’s hasn’t gone into a halftime with fewer than that. Clark and her dynamic game have captivated the nation. More than just her pursuit of the record, her long 3-point shots and flashy passes have raised interest in the women’s game to unprecedented levels.
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