On Super Bowl Sunday, Clark had a chance to cement her place in history against Nebraska. Unfortunately, the second-ranked Hawkeyes blew a 16-point fourth quarter lead, losing just their third game of the season.
With just over two weeks left until the Big 10 Tournament, the Hawkeyes sit at 22-3 overall, 11-2 in conference play. The loss dropped them a game back of Ohio State in the race for the top seed. The top four teams will earn an automatic bye into the quarterfinals. Iowa is tied with Indiana for second, while Nebraska moved up to fourth with the victory.
Clark had a look at breaking Kelsey Plum’s record of 3,559 career points, but was held scoreless in the fourth quarter. Her 31 points were a game high, but nothing fell late, as the Huskers pulled off an 82-79 victory. The loss will likely drop the Hawkeyes out of the top five. With Nebraska’s 16-8 record, this could be looked upon by the Selection Committee as a bad loss, if Nebraska does not win their opener in the tournament.
Clark needs just eight points to break the mark that Plum set in 2017. Plum was the first overall pick of that April’s WNBA Draft, going to the Las Vegas Aces, who are the two-time defending champions. Plum was named the WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year in 2021, and was an All Star each of the past two seasons.
While Plum won the 2017 Naismith Player of the Year Award at Washington, Clark is almost assuredly poised to win her second consecutive award this spring. In leading Iowa to their first Final Four in 30 years in 2023, Plum was the first woman to score over 900 points and have 300 assists in the same season.
For as much as the scoring record would mean to Clark, a National Championship would be the ultimate way to end her college career. Only Britney Griner finished in the top 10 in career scoring, and won a National Championship in her career. Plum, Griner, and Clark will be the only three in the top 10 to win the Naismith as well. Griner won the award twice (2012 & 2013).
Clark will also be guaranteed to be the first player taken in the WNBA Draft on April 15. The Indiana Fever will have their franchise guard playing in the same building as Tyrese Haliburton of the NBA’s Pacers, and where Larry Bird won the 1998 NBA Coach of the Year for the Pacers.
She also will be teammates with last year’s top overall pick, Aliyah Boston. Clark’s Hawkeyes beat Boston’s South Carolina Gamecocks in the Final Four just a season ago, before falling to LSU in the Championship Game.
Clark will be the 10th player to win the Naismith at least twice since the award was first presented to female players in 1983. She will become the first since UConn’s Breanna Stewart to win the award in consecutive seasons, where Steward won the award three times, tied with the legendary Cheryl Miller.
In a month that also featured UConn’s Geno Auriemma winning his 1,200th career game as head coach, and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer breaking the all-time Division-I coaching wins record (men and women), it should be no surprise that Clark is going out in style as a player.
One more record may be in Clark’s sights before April in Cleveland…she is only 140 points away from Pete Maravich’s all time Division I scoring record of 3,667. Despite Maravich reaching his record in only three years, individual awards ask how many, not how you got there.
-JC24