Basketball superstar Caitlin Clark announced Thursday she will be leaving the University of Iowa Hawkeyes after this season to enter the 2024 WNBA Draft.
"While this season is far from over and we have a lot more goals to achieve, it will be my last one at Iowa," Clark wrote in a post on X, in which she also thanked her teammates, coaches, family and the fans who supported her in her home arena and across the country.
— Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) February 29, 2024
Clark has cemented herself as a one-to-watch player during her years at Iowa.
Now a senior — with one more year of eligibility due to NCAA COVID-19 modifications — the guard leads the nation in offense, averaging 32.2 points and 8.7 assists per game.
She's also garnered a slew of records, recently becoming the all-time leading scorer in major women's college basketball history. She clinched the title by scoring her 3,650th point in her collegiate career, pushing her past the mark set by Kansas legend Lynette Woodard before the NCAA sanctioned the sport. Weeks before, Clark broke the NCAA scoring record set by Washington's Kelsey Plum.
Clark also holds the scoring record for Iowa's program, and the record for women's basketball in the Big Ten. She's also made more 3-pointers in a single season than any other NCAA player in history, having made 156 in the 2023-34 season.
The next milestone on her horizon is beating the overall NCAA scoring record set by Pete Maravich. She's just 17 points away, which means she'll likely take the record at Iowa's final home game of the season — and Clark's last home game ever — on Sunday. Ticket prices for the game have already become astronomical, so the news will likely make those numbers set a record themselves.
As far as her future in the sport, Clark is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall WNBA draft pick come April 15. The Indiana Fever have the first selection for the second year in a row, so Clark might find herself staying in the Midwest.
You can tune into watch the upcoming WNBA season, starting May 14, on the WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on ION. ION is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company.
