IOWA CITY, Iowa — It’s impossible to pinpoint the exact moment Iowa realized that every shot that left Kaitlin Clark’s hands wasn’t just a reasonable shot, but a good shot. Because there are green lights, and then there are green lights. And Clarke has operated in the latter for much of her career.
But there is a strong argument that it was February 6, 2022.
It was Clark’s sophomore season, and while she was putting up big numbers, she wasn’t yet considered the one-woman wrecking crew she is now. To reach this level of knowledge, a player does not just have to throw the rocks, but kill Goliath. And at that point, although he was a huge goalscorer, he was on a team that had yet to take down the best opposition. The Hawkeyes are 1-9 against top-25 teams in her career and were on the road against No. 6 Michigan.
He started the game with a step back from the free throw line and followed with a 3-pointer. He threw down some drives and more mid-range, but the real treat came when he started hitting the 3 logo during the fourth quarter as the Hawkeyes (read: Clark) tried to pull off the upset. In a 92-second span he hit three transition 3s, the final while swarmed by Michigan defenders that Clark put on skates. He finished with 46 points. Although Iowa still lost, something changed that night.
Oh my God. @CaitlinClark22 #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/GWkkay66hc
— Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB) February 7, 2022
As broadcasters shouted into their microphones after yet another triple logo, “What did he do? What did he just do?’ Iowa coach Lisa Bluder walked calmly to the sideline, not even surprised or excited enough to uncross her arms. Without context, she just looks like a coach saying the same old, same old things back on her bench.
“At first, when you coach her, it’s fun in practice when she gets some of those shots and makes some of those shots. But then in games as a coach, you think, ‘Oops, that’s not recommended,'” Bluder said. “But there’s the point where you realize, ‘She’s different from everyone else and she can actually do it at a pretty alarming rate.’
“There was a change in my mind,” he added. “At that point it was like, ‘OK, we’ll go with it.’
“It” as in: For Clark, anything goes.
And as of February 6, 2022, this 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 slayed South Carolina — the Goliath of women’s basketball — in last season’s Final Four, are now recognized nationally as strong and consistently in the national ranked No. 2 this season behind the Gamecocks.
Clark is a household name outside of women’s basketball, a player shadowed by security officers before and after games and at public events. He has NIL partnerships with Nike, State Farm and Gatorade. She’s the potential No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft if she declares, and the biggest headache for opposing women’s college coaches if she chooses to return for a fifth year.
Ask any coach who’s faced her (or who fears she might go down) and they’ll all tell you the same thing: You don’t stop her. You can slow her down, you can make her more ineffective, but there’s no stopping Clark. When Clark dropped those 46 points at Michigan in 2022, Wolverines coach Kim Barnes Arico said after the game, “I didn’t even know what the hell was going on.”
That may be the most impressive part of her run to the scoring record – Clark’s unwavering consistency. He has never lost a game. In 124 outings at Iowa, she failed to score in double figures just once. As she has expanded her range over the past four seasons, her field goal percentages have steadily increased. “Her consistency is off the charts,” Bluder said Thursday night after Clark scored 27 points in a win against Penn State. “For her to do this day after day, night after night, sold out arenas, chasing records, it’s unbelievable to be so consistent. Everyone has a bad night. We all have bad nights. Caitlin doesn’t have bad nights.”
As teams threw new and different defensive looks at her, she continued to outplay what opponents could create. Double it and it finds the corner. Crowd her and she gets up to hit the shot. Throw the kitchen sink at her only to find out she can hit logo 3 and wash dishes at the same time.
Caitlin Clark’s shot charts/heat maps over the last four seasons. Just wild. pic.twitter.com/60BBbWVOXy
— Chantel Jennings (@ChantelJennings) February 8, 2024
Of the 10 leading scorers in Division I history, only two averaged more than 25 points during their college careers (current record holder Kelsey Plum: 25.4; Elena Delle Donne: 26.7).
Clark averages 28.1.
This season, fans from across the Big Ten have spent hundreds of dollars to get their butts into conference arenas in hopes that their home team can be met with 46 points from the 6-foot-6 guard. Also, he can to have The Caitlin Clark Experience.
Under the microscope, Clark didn’t waver. Her 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.
Said Clark after the game: “I think it shows that you have to come in every day and be ready to play basketball because no matter who it is, you can beat anybody, you can lose. [to] anyone. This is great for women’s basketball. That’s what makes it so fun. I’m just disappointed that we didn’t really put on a great show for our fans who came out and supported us really well.”
GO DEEPER
When will Caitlin Clark break the all-time record in women’s basketball?
Because when you watch Clark, it’s not just basketball, it’s a true show that she puts on for fans who show up with not just a hope but an expectation to be wowed and amazed. They don’t want 3, they want logo 3. They don’t want no-look passes, they want to see something they’ve never seen before. They want the show that Clark’s coaches and teammates have put on in practice over the past four seasons. Not only do they want Bluder’s green light for Clark, they want her on the Autobahn for 40 minutes.
Despite all this attention, Clarke didn’t just deliver, she was consistently great, leaving viewers constantly asking, “What did she do? What did he just do?’
Now, she’s maybe a few quarters away from cementing herself atop the NCAA scoring record, a feat that for Clark — with this green light — looks like she could be just a good quarter or two away from becoming the scorer music teacher.
(Photo by Caitlin Clark: G Fiume/Getty Images)
