Break from the chase
Iowa’s Clark wants more focus on team after breaking scoring record
More scoring records are in sight for Caitlin Clark, but right now the Iowa superstar is looking forward to a break from the chase.
She passed Kelsey Plum as the NCAA women’s career scoring leader Thursday night, putting up a school-record 49 points in a 106-89 victory over Michigan and running her career total to 3,569.
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said it was a relief to have Clark’s pursuit of the NCAA record end.
“It’s been a little bit of a distraction, but a good distraction, right?” Bluder said. “You want these kinds of distractions for your team. But at the same time, it’s time now for us to really focus on making our team better and getting ready for Indiana next week, the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.”
With Clark having become the face of college basketball, the spotlight has been on the fourth-ranked Hawkeyes for a year.
They reached the national championship game for the first time, losing to LSU in a game that set a television viewership record of nearly 10 million and is remembered for the “you can’t see me” gesture Angel Reese made toward Clark.
The Hawkeyes drew national attention again in October when they played Depaul in an exhibition at Kinnick Stadium that drew 55,646, the largest crowd to ever watch a women’s basketball game.
And from the start of the regular season, Clark’s progress toward the NCAA scoring record turned into the narrative.
“Obviously, getting this record is tremendous and it has to be celebrated,” she said. “There are so many people who have come before me and laid such a great foundation for women’s basketball, and that has to be celebrated, too.