On Monday night, Caitlin Clark put on a performance for the ages as her Iowa Hawkeyes vanquished LSU and advanced to the Final Four for the 2nd straight year.
Her stats are eye-popping. She scored 41 points. She handed out 12 assists. She grabbed 7 rebounds.
As Kendall Baker noted in his terrific Yahoo newsletter, it was Clark’s 2nd NCAA tournament game with more than 40 points and more than 10 assists. The number of men and women other than Clark who have accomplished that feat? ZERO.
Those numbers — plus just the eye test of watching Clark play — raises an interesting question: Is she the best women’s college basketball player ever?
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I think most people, if you asked them today, would say “yes” without even thinking much about it. But, there’s a bit of recency bias built in there. Clark is, without question, the biggest star women’s college basketball has ever produced. But that is a very different question than whether she is the best player.
Let’s start with Clark’s stats. Here they are — via ESPN:
For her four year career, she has averaged more than 28 points a game. And more than 8 assists. And more than 7 rebounds.
Clark now has scored exactly 3,900 points in her career — the most for any man or woman in NCAA history. She has the most assists in the history of the women’s NCAA tournament. She has made the most threes in the history of the women’s tournament. (She also holds LOTS more records.)
Last season, Clark’s Iowa team made it to the national championship game — losing to LSU. The Hawkeyes will face off against UCONN on Friday night in the national semifinals.
It’s a remarkable record. But, before we crown Clark, it’s worth looking at a few other contenders for the title of best women’s college basketball player ever.
Here are my nominees.
Cheryl Miller: Miller was the first truly dominant women’s college player. After scoring 105 points in a high school game, Miller spent four years at the University of Southern California. During those four years, Miller was a four time All American. She was the national player of the year THREE times. She scored 3,018 points in her career — before the 3-point line existed! She averaged more than 12 rebounds a game for her career. In her first two years at USC, she led the Trojans to back-to-back national championships. She was the tournament MVP both years. During her four-year career, USC’s overall record was 112-20.
Breanna Stewart: At first glance, Stewie’s stats during her four years at UCONN don’t jump off the page. She averaged just under 18 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. But, here’s the thing: UCONN won the national championship every year Stewart was in college. And she was the tournament’s most outstanding player in each of those years. The team’s record during that time? How does 151-5 strike you? That’s right: Stewart lost a TOTAL of 5 games in four years of college.
Dianna Taurasi: Like Stewart, Taurasi’s stats don’t wow you at first glance. She averaged 15 points, 4 assists and 4.5 rebounds during her career at UCONN. But, stats alone don’t do justice to how dominant Taurasi was as a player. Watch this:
Also, there’s this: UCONN won three national championships in Taurasi’s four years in college. The team’s record in those four years was 139-8 — including 22-1 in the NCAA tournament.
Chamique Holdsclaw: People don’t talk enough about how great Holdsclaw was. When she finished her four years at Tennessee, the legendary women’s basketball powerhouse, she held school records for points (3,025) and rebounds (1,295). During her four years, Tennessee won three national championships. She was the national player of the year in 1998 and 1999 and finished second in 1997. The Vols were 131-17 during Holdsclaw’s four years at the university.
Candace Parker: Another standout for Tennessee, Parker averaged more than 19 points and almost 9 rebounds during her college career. The Vols won back-to- back national championships in 2007 and 2008 — Parker’s last two years at the school. She was named the national player of the year both of those years. (Also: Parker was the first woman ever to dunk in an NCAA game! She did it as a freshman in 2006.)
Sabrina Ionescu: Ionescu, unlike most of the players on this list, didn’t play for a national powerhouse program. But the numbers she racked up during her four years at Oregon stand equal to all of them. She was the first player — male or female — to score more than 2,000 points, grab more than 1,0000 rebounds and dish out more than 1,000 assists in a college career. She still holds the record — male or female — for most triple doubles in a college career (26). She was the national player of the year twice.
Lynette Woodard: Woodard is a forgotten (or never remembered) name except among the biggest hoops heads. But, her career at Kansas was remarkable. From 1977-1981, she scored 3,649 points — a record that Clark broke this year. Woodard average better than 26 points a game during her college career and snatched 1,734 rebounds.
Ok, that’s a lot of stats. But what do all of them tell us?
For me, the greatest women’s college basketball player is Miller. Maybe that’s nostalgia talking. But Miller’s combination of individual stats and team success is hard to match.
Where does that leave Clark? Indisputably — stats don’t lie — she is the greatest scorer in the history of women’s college basketball. And, as I said above, she is the biggest star the sport has ever produced.
But, the best? Not for me — and that’s even if Iowa manages to win the national championship this coming weekend.
What about you? Who’s your greatest?
I covered several of Clark's games in high school. She has come a long way since then, when she often took more than half of her team's shots and would get frustrated with her teammates. She went 7-of-29 with just 2 assists in one 20-point loss. As a senior, her team didn't even make it to the state tournament. I know she has gotten a lot better, but I'm amazed that some of the high school coaches who opposed her could figure out how to stop/contain her while these college coaches like Kim Mulkey think she can be guarded with just one defender. How did that work out for LSU last night? I have a feeling that UConn and potentially South Carolina will use a different strategy to defend Clark. Auriemma and Staley will force someone else to beat them.
To answer your question, though, it's just so hard to compare players from different eras.
It's Stewie - 23/9/3 with 3 blocks, 21/9/4 with 2 blocks, 8/15/0 with 4 blocks, 24/10/6 with 2 blocks in four title games, shooting 55% from the floor and 43% from 3. Four rings and four Final Four MOP awards, with championship wins by 33, 21, 10, and 31. Won every Player of the Year award at least twice, most three times, and even the "5 loss" stat doesn't do her teams justice, as four of those were in her freshman year. She won 45 games in a row (including two titles), lost by 2 in OT on the road at #6 Stanford, then won **73** games in a row and two more titles.
She was Kareem at UCLA.
(also FWIW Paige is better than Caitlin don't get mad at me everyone I'm not even a UConn fan I swear!)