Hawkeyes star senior Caitlin Clark repeats as winner of the Naismith Trophy
CLEVELAND — After Caitlin Clark swept the women’s basketball player of the year awards last season, doing the same in her senior year would require an even stronger performance. That’s just how repeat bids work, full of extra criticism and dissection at every turn. Clark never gave any of it a chance to matter. Back at the Final Four for the second consecutive year after guiding Iowa through an unprecedented women’s basketball season, the Hawkeyes star kicked off the week in Cleveland by repeating as the Naismith Trophy winner.
The honor officially came Wednesday during a ceremony at the KeyBank Club inside
Cleveland Browns Stadium, although it was obvious much sooner that Clark would be making the player-of-the-year rounds again.
That’s impressive enough in any year, but especially given who the other finalists were alongside Clark this season. She beat out Stanford’s Cameron Brink, USC’s JuJu Watkins and UConn’s Paige Bueckers — the latter getting a crack at Clark and Iowa Friday evening in the Final Four. All three could’ve been easy player of the year choices in many other seasons, but Clark’s dominance atop the sport grows each time she takes the floor.
Just when it seemed there was no more space for greatness after Iowa’s homegrown star delivered on her dream and led the Hawkeyes to their first Final Four in 30 years, Clark found a way to cram more heroics inside an already overflowing profile.
Nearly every stat increased from Clark’s junior year to senior. Points per game (27.8 to 32), assists per game (8.6 to 9) and rebounds per game (7.1 to 7.3) somehow all improved from what was already elite. Before taking the floor at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse Friday night, Clark already has 128 more points than last year in one fewer game (1,055 to 1,183). Pouncing on every chance to get even a little better is why Clark is in her own category on so many levels.
She’s managed to turn monumental milestones into casual footnotes, requiring something as significant as scoring more points than any other Division I basketball player, man or woman, to pause and reflect. This year, Clark also set top marks for most single-season points and 3-pointers in Division I women’s history, while also becoming the first
Division I women’s player to have back-toback 1,000-point campaigns. This list goes on and on, with Clark often passing up some of the sport’s proudest names.
Wednesday’s announcement makes Clark the Naismith’s first repeat winner since UConn’s Breanna Stewart won three straight from 2014-16. Only six others — Brittney Griner (2012-13), Seimone Augustus (2005-06), Diana Taurasi (2003-04), Chamique Holdsclaw (1998-99), Dawn Staley (1991-92) and Cheryl Miller (1984-86) — have ever won back-toback Naismith’s since it was first awarded in 1983.