Clark's impact on game is not over
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 40some 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.