Iowa State’s Caitlin Clark, who is about to become the NCAA’s all-time scoring leader in college basketball, announced Thursday that she will leave the Hawkeyes after this season and enter the WNBA draft.
“While the season is far from over and we still have many goals to achieve, my last time in iowa,” Clark wrote on social media.
Clark has become a focal point of women’s basketball, with her flashy play and three-point shooting often seen on the court. Many players would be benched for shooting from such distance, but Clark had her coach’s approval and she got the job done while finding her teammates and hitting the boards.
The guard, who has a year of eligibility remaining, scored 33 points in Wednesday night’s 108-60 victory over Minnesota to surpass Lynette Woodard and record her 17th career triple-double to become the first player in major college basketball history. Leading women’s scorer.
In her statement, she thanked her teammates, coaches and the thousands of fans who packed stadiums across the country to watch her play against the sixth-ranked Hawkeyes.
Those fans chanted “One more year! One more year!” When Clark was interviewed on the court Wednesday night, she also broke the NCAA single-season record with eight three-pointers (156 total).
She has 3,650 career points. Woodard scored 3,649 points for Kansas from 1977-81 before the NCAA sanctioned the sport. Earlier this month, Clark broke Kelsey Plum’s NCAA scoring record (3,527 points).
Next up is Pete Maravich’s NCAA scoring record, just 17 points ahead of her.
Clark is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the April 15 draft.
Shortly after Clark announced their intention to select her, the Indiana Fever, who hold the No. 1 overall pick, took to social media to express their intention to select her.
“We’re just reminding you that there are only 46 days left until the 2024 WNBA Draft,” The team released After removing the link to its game tickets and the prominent “No 1”.
The Fever also had the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft. They selected Aaliyah Boston out of South Carolina. The forward averaged 14.5 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.
The two former AP Player of the Year spoke with NBC Sports in October.
“Well, the Indiana Fever is probably going to get the No. 1 pick, so people may, or may not, maybe not, maybe, have that duo. I don’t know?” Clark smiled at Boston said. “It remains to be seen. But Aliyah and I might be teammates at some point, you never know.”
Clark continued in the interview, “Your time in college is so special, it’s different than being a pro.”
“I wanted to experience every moment and really immerse myself in it,” she said.
Clark’s final regular-season home game at Iowa State could come with one of the most expensive tickets in women’s college basketball history.
The cheapest ticket for Sunday’s game against No. 2 Ohio State was listed Thursday at TickPick.com for $481.
