This summer, Caitlin Clark will shoot from a new logo.
The logo will represent something the 22-year-old has been dreaming of since she was a young child — playing in the WNBA.
The star point guard declared for the WNBA Draft on Feb. 29 and is projected as the No. 1 overall pick. The top pick is owned by the Indiana Fever for the second straight year. Clark said on March 1 that she had not spoken with anyone from the Fever since she made her announcement.
“Clark is a superstar; an elite shot-maker who is nearly impossible to guard. She’s the clear No.1 prospect in the 2024 WNBA Draft class,” wrote the NBA Draft Room.
For Caitlin Clark, her decision to announce she’s declaring for the WNBA Draft was about clarity.
On March 3, the Hawkeyes celebrated senior day against No. 2 Ohio State, ending the regular season with a 93-83 victory over the Buckeyes. Clark, along with Gabbie Marshall, Molly Davis, Kate Martin, and Sharon Goodman, were recognized.
“Getting the weight of the world off my shoulders and being able to enjoy this last month with my teammates is the biggest thing,” Clark said on March 1. “I didn’t want senior day to be all about me or if I’m coming back. Gabbie, Kate, Molly, and Sharon have given so much to the program. They deserve to be celebrated as much as me.”
Clark, Marshall, and Martin have 383 combined starts for the Hawkeyes and 12,068 combined minutes on the court since 2020-21.
“I’m not me without all of them,” Clark said. “They’ll be my best friends for the rest of my life.”
Clark said early in the season, she was going back and forth on using her final year of eligibility that was granted due to COVID-19. The star point guard said the decision became clearer in the last few weeks.
Hawkeye associate head coach Jan Jensen attended the Iowa high school girls’ state basketball tournament in Des Moines on Feb. 29 and spoke about Clark’s decision. Jensen said she thought Clark played with more “loose freedom” against Minnesota on Feb. 27 as if that pressure had been lifted off her. Clark recorded 33 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists to earn her second straight triple-double and 17th in her career.
“Everyone was worried about the record, like, ‘Oh, she’s stressed out about the record,’” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said, referring to Clark’s pursuit of Kelsey Plum’s NCAA women’s basketball all-time scoring mark. “She was never stressed out about the record. She was stressed out about making this decision.”
Typically, collegiate players don’t declare for the draft until after the season is over. LSU’s Angel Reese, Stanford’s Cameron Brink, and South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso still haven’t announced their plans.
Brink, dubbed “the most dominant post-player in the NCAA” by Beyond Women’s Sports, is expected to go to the Los Angeles Sparks with the No. 2 overall pick. Reese and Cardoso are projected as top-10 picks by multiple outlets.
Clark said earlier this year she would wait until the season was over to announce her plans. Players have 48 hours after their last game to declare for the draft. Jensen said this quick turnaround may have gone into Clark’s decision to announce before the final regular season game on March 3.
“We talked about the pros and the cons, and obviously everyone wants her to come back, that’s an Iowa fan, but we also understand the pressure she’s been carrying,” Jensen said, according to Owen Siebring of Iowa’s News Now. “I think Caitlin is wired for challenges. She’s wired for everything that’s on that next horizon … She knew without a shadow of a doubt that whether she was going to stay or go, we’re going to be some of her biggest fans.”
Clark doesn’t have much, if anything, left to prove in college. She not only broke Plum’s record but also surpassed Lynette Woodard for the most points scored in major women’s college basketball history on Feb. 28. Woodard was recognized during the game against Ohio State on March 3, sparking a standing ovation from the Hawkeye faithful.
“At a school like Iowa that has been so rich in AIAW history, I just want to make sure we acknowledge Lynette’s accomplishments in the game of basketball,” Bluder said on Feb. 28.
With 0.3 seconds left in the first half against the Buckeyes, Clark sunk a free throw to pass Pete Maravich for the NCAA all-time scoring record. The point guard didn’t take any time to celebrate the accomplishment as she ran into the locker room for halftime.
Clark ended the contest with 35 points, nine assists, and six rebounds, bringing her to 3,685 career points. After the game, Clark said it’s hard for her to wrap her head around “everything that’s going on,” and her main focus is “helping this team win.”
“We’ve said this before, but when Caitlin’s light shines, it shines on all of us,” Martin said. “What Caitlin is doing individually impacts our entire team, our entire program, our entire state, the entire country. And that’s really cool. We want the best for Caitlin, we’ve always had that in mind. We want her to win all of the awards. We truly, genuinely, are very happy for her.”
The draft is on April 15 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The WNBA Draft is three rounds with 12 picks in each round. If Clark gets taken by the Fever, her first home game would be on May 16 against the New York Liberty. New York features Sabrina Ionescu, who played for Oregon and is the all-time NCAA leader in career triple-doubles, and Breanna Stewart, who led UConn to four straight national championships.
“How many athletes, men or women at any level, can you say have delivered?” Jensen said. “She has more than delivered, and we’re beyond grateful she chose to be a Hawk. We’ve had so many great, fun memories, and we’re planning to have a lot more.”
The WNBA has already felt Clark’s impact.
In the first 24 hours after Clark’s announcement, Fever tickets doubled in price, according to ESPN’s College GameDay. The demand for Clark expands outside of the Midwest, too.
After Clark declared, nearly 800 tickets were sold for the Connecticut Sun’s season opener against the Fever on May 14. That equaled the number of individual tickets sold for the game up to that point, excluding the team’s 2,500 season-ticket holders, according to The Guardian.
Connecticut Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti told the Associated Press this may be “the first time a non-UConn player has drawn this type of interest from our fan base.”
“It’s Clarkonomics,” basketball analyst Deb Antonelli told The Guardian. “Her ability to move the meter and the excitement around her is incredible. The socially acceptable thing to do is to watch Caitlin Clark play basketball.”
Iowa only has two guaranteed games left this season — the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten Tournament and the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Iowa received the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament and will face the winner of No. 7 Penn State and No. 10 Wisconsin at 5:30 p.m. on March 8.
Iowa’s victory against Ohio State broke the tie between the Hawkeyes and Indiana Hoosiers for second place in the conference standings. Iowa ended the regular season with a higher winning percentage against the top team in the standings — Iowa was 1-1 against the Buckeyes, and Indiana was 0-1.
All-session tickets are sold out for the Big Ten Tournament — the first sellout in the event’s 31-year history. Over 109,000 fans are expected to attend the event at the Target Center in Minneapolis from March 6-10. The conference tournament champion earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Hawkeyes will then likely host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at Carver-Hawkeye Arena from March 22-25. The top 16 seeds earn the right to host the path to the Sweet 16.
With that weekend being Clark’s and the rest of the senior class’s last time playing in Carver, getting into the game may be difficult. Season ticket holders earn priority on tickets, and due to season tickets selling out for the regular season, Iowa Athletics “does not anticipate having additional tickets available for sale.”
Whether you’ll watch the Hawkeyes’ NCAA Tournament run courtside or from the comfort of your own home, it’s time to soak up every moment No. 22 has left in an Iowa uniform.
“I hope people remember me for the way I’ve played with a smile on my face, my competitive fire,” Clark said. “Sure, they can remember the wins. But also, the fun me and my teammates had together.”
