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On Sunday, the Iowa Hawkeyes star point guard Caitlin Clark, eclipsed LSU and NBA legend Pete Maravich’s record for the most points scored by a Division 1 basketball player, men’s or women’s.
At the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Clark entered the game against the Big Ten regular season champion Ohio State in the last regular season game of her college career, needing 18 points to pass Maravich. The game was close, ending in a 93-83 victory for the Hawkeyes, all thanks to Caitlin Clark. Clark came out hot as she usually does, inching closer to the record with 16 points right before the end of the first half. After Clark missed a three-pointer on her last shot attempt of the first half, a technical foul was called on Buckeyes’ Cotie McMahon, giving Clark two free throws.
Clark stepped to the line with 0.3 seconds left in the second quarter, needing both free throws to surpass Maravich’s seemingly untouchable record. Clark drained both, passing Maravich and giving Iowa a 48-39 lead at halftime. She finished the game with 35 points, nine assists and six rebounds, another ridiculous performance for the now-all-time points leader in Division 1 basketball.
Clark could extend her record even further if she wanted to, however, the Hawkeyes star announced that she would not use the COVID-19 waiver from 2020-2021 for a fifth season at Iowa and instead would opt in for the 2024 WNBA draft. As she’s currently averaging an astounding 32.2 points, 8.7 assists and 7.4 rebounds per game with Iowa, Clark seems more than ready to show her talents on a much broader stage and continue to develop her game at the highest level of women’s basketball.
This season, which is effectively her last with Iowa, has been the most profound in her college career as she has broken and set numerous records across not only the women’s side of Division 1 basketball but Division 1 basketball as a whole.
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As with every home game for Iowa as well as many road games this season, they were all sellouts, thanks to Clark. Iowa set the record at the beginning of the season for the highest attendance at any women’s college basketball event with 55,646 spectators for a game between DePaul and Iowa, in which Clark dropped a triple-double of 34 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. She has generated so much attention as traction for herself, to the point where the WNBA team Indiana Fever, has doubled their ticket prices in anticipation for the arrival of Clark.
On top of record-setting attendance and achieving the highest honour in all of college basketball, her achievements in her senior season and overall college career do not stop there. On February 11th, she hit the 1,000-assist mark, making her the first Division 1 women’s player to have both 3,000 points and 1,000 assists. On February 15th, Clark passed Washington’s Kelsey Plum to become the women’s Division 1 all-time scoring leader. She became Iowa’s all-time leading scorer, all-time leader in assists and all-time leader in three-pointers, all while setting the exact same record for the Big-10 conference. Clark seems to be cut from a different cloth.
Essentially, the only thing that Clark is yet to touch, is the highly coveted National Championship. Last year, Clark took Iowa all the way to the NCAA National Championship Final against Louisiana State University, which saw the Hawkeyes fall 102-85 to Angel Reese and the Tigers. Clark dropped 30 points and eight assists in that matchup, however, it was not enough to slay the Tigers.
Despite that tough loss, March Madness is approaching once again, which will give Clark one last shot at bringing Iowa their first National Championship in women’s basketball. Iowa will be heading into the tournament as the two seed, but it’s absolutely impossible to bet against Clark and what she will do to push Iowa back to the final once again. Although it’s already clear that Clark is probably the best college basketball player in history, winning the National Championship will inevitably make her invincible at the top.
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Even though the fall of Pete Maravich’s record comes under some scrutiny as he was able to rack up a ridiculous 3,667 points in just three seasons on top of there being no such thing as a three-point line at the time, Clark’s ability to eclipse that record on less than half of the shots that Maravich would take a game should speak for itself. The level of offensive and defensive competition in college basketball has also risen exponentially since the Pete Maravich days, once again making Clark’s record just that much more impressive.
Whether you are a fan of women’s sports or not, Clark is easily one of the best talents we have seen come through the college system in history. Not only has she made a name for herself, but she has also further legitimized women’s basketball and women’s sports in general through her raw, generational talent and winning mentality.
Now, as the all-time NCAA scoring leader in basketball, it’s not only impossible to deny her greatness, but it’s impossible to deny that women’s sports have the ability to not only compete but to even eclipse that of their male counterparts.
Edited By: Josh Reidelbach
