Caitlin Clark has carved her name into yet another historic club.
The Iowa superstar guard is the 2024 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Player of the Year, beating out USC’s Juju Watkins, Stanford’s Cameron Brink, and UConn’s Paige Bueckers, it was announced Wednesday.
Clark becomes the 10th player in women’s college basketball history to win the award multiple times, joining Charyl Miller, Breanna Stewart, Clarissa Davis, Dawn Staley, Chamique Holdsclaw, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, and Britney Griner.
The West Des Moines, Iowa, native adds another Naismith award to a long list of accolades just for the 2023-24 season alone. Some of Clark’s best 2023-24 accolades include being the unanimous Big Ten Player of the Year; earning first-team All-Big Ten honors; notching Iowa’s all-time scoring and assist records; notching the Big Ten’s all-time scorer and assist records; and becoming the all-time men’s and women’s NCAA D-I scoring leader.
“Winning this award is a huge accomplishment,” Clark said after winning the Naismith award for the 2022-23 season. “This is such a huge honor for our family and program. None of this would be possible without my tremendous support system. I want to thank Lisa Bluder and her staff for giving me the opportunity to play basketball at the University of Iowa.”
Clark led the Hawkeyes to a 26-4 regular-season record and a third straight Big Ten Tournament title. She is averaging career-highs of 32 points and nine assists per game along with 7.3 rebounds, 1.8 steals, and 0.5 blocks on 46 percent shooting from the field, 38 percent from three, and 86.2 percent from the free throw line in 37 games played this season. Her 32 points a game is the highest average since Andrea Congreaves’ 33 points per game in 1991-92 and the third-highest average in women’s college basketball history.
Some of the best individual statlines of the 2023-24 season came at the hands of Clark, including a 44-point, eight-rebound, six-assist outing against Virginia Tech on Nov. 9; a 35-point, 17-rebound, 10-assist triple-double against Loyola-Chicago on Dec. 21; a 49-point, 13-assist double-double against Michigan on Feb. 15 where she broke the women’s all-time scoring record; and most recently, a 41-point, 12-assist, seven-rebound outing on Monday to push Iowa over LSU and secure a spot in the Final Four.
Over the course of the season, Clark has logged 23 games with at least 10 made field goals, 20 games with at least five made three-pointers, 19 30-point games, 19 double-doubles, 15 double-digit assist games, eight double-digit rebound games, six triple-doubles and four 40-point games, including postseason play.
Iowa women’s basketball’s 14,998 average regular-season home attendance per game sat second in the nation behind South Carolina’s 16,489 average home attendance per game, per CBS Sports. The Hawkeyes have set the attendance record in all but two regular season games this season, with those two games taking place in Southwest Florida. The women’s Big Ten Tournament doubled in the record-setting attendance set in last year’s tournament and sold out for the first time in history.
Clark and Co. will face Bueckers and Uconn on Friday at 8:30 CT in a Final Four matchup for a spot in the National Championship game.
