The 2023-24 basketball season was the year of Caitlin Clark.
The Iowa senior made every Hawkeyes game a must-watch event with her logo 3-pointers and her fiery attitude. And Clark didn’t just score, she chased down records of all kinds.
Next season won’t be the same without Clark. The 22-year-old won’t be at Iowa, as she is leaving her historic college career to pursue her WNBA dream. But she doesn’t need another season to make her mark.
Clark leaves behind the next generation of NCAA basketball stars to rise to the top (see freshman sensations Juju Watkins, Madison Booker and Hannah Hildago, to name just a few).
Already a Hawkeyes legend, Clark leaves behind a legacy that will be celebrated for years. Her legacy includes the all-time NCAA Division I scoring record, which she set earlier this season.
Her pursuit also included surpassing Lynette Woodard, who held the women’s basketball scoring record before the NCAA recognized women’s sports. How does Clark measure up to Woodard? And what has Woodard said about Clark?
MORE: Revisiting Lynette Woodard’s college basketball career
Caitlin Clark scoring record
Clark’s scoring record chase began with Kelsey Plum’s NCAA Division women’s record of 3,527, which she passed against Michigan on Feb. 15 with a logo 3-pointer for the ages and a career-high 49 points.
Then the Iowa star passed Woodard’s record of 3,649 points two weeks later, scoring 33 points against Minnesota.
She claimed her final scoring record when she passed Pete Maravich’s mark of 3,667 in Iowa’s regular-season finale against Ohio State. Maravich set the record in his final season at LSU in 1970, and Clark’s new mark could stand for another 50 years — or much earlier, if USC freshman phenom Watkins has her say.
Ahead of Sunday’s national championship game, Clark’s career points total stood at 3,921.
Lynette Woodard scoring record
Clark’s record pursuit shined a light on Woodard’s career — the Kansas basketball great had been something of a “hidden figure” in basketball history before this season, as Woodard acknowledged in Cleveland ahead of the national championship game.
The Hall of Famer competed for Kansas in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) from 1977-81, so her 3,649 points are not recognized by the NCAA. The NCAA took over governance of women’s basketball in the 1981-82 season.
Woodard attended Clark’s performance against Ohio State, in which the Iowa senior scored 35 points and broke Maravich’s record. But Woodard doesn’t feel like Clark’s record is the same one she set in her collegiate career, as she explained Saturday at the at the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association convention.
Woodard played without the 3-point line, which wasn’t established until 1987. Women’s players at the time also used what are now considered men’s-sized basketballs. Women’s basketball were downsized in 1984.
So Woodard’s record can’t be duplicated, because the games and the eras are so different, as Woodard explained Saturday.
“I’ll just go ahead and get the elephant out of the room: I don’t think my record has been broken because you can’t duplicate what you’re not duplicating,” she said. “Unless you come with a men’s basketball and a 2-point shot, hey, you know.”
Hall of Famer Lynette Woodard says her all-time scoring record has NOT been broken by Caitlin Clark
#caitlinclark #lynettewoodard #ncaabasketball #collegebasketball #womenscollegebasketball #wfinalfour #finalfour #marchmadness pic.twitter.com/R9X1neT9Bo
— Chrystal Stone (@chrystalstone_) April 6, 2024
Woodard’s accomplishments speak for themselves, even without comparison to Clark.
She was a four-time All-American at Kansas and the recipient of the Wade Trophy in 1981. She went on to captain the 1984 Olympic team, which won a gold medal in Los Angeles. In 1985, she became the first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters. She played professionally overseas before joining the WNBA for two years, including in its inaugural season in 1997. She’s a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee.
“I’m just really thankful and grateful to have those players who have come before me. Yeah, it’s super special. Obviously she’s one of the best all-time,” Clark said after surpassing Woodard’s scoring total. “It just still shows the room that we have to improve, and where women’s sports is going is a really great place.”
Woodard offered similarly glowing remarks about Clark.
“I know what it must mean to her because I’ve been there,” Woodard told ESPN. “I would have some wisdom for her if we ever talk, and I hope that we will one day.
“I think she’s an awesome player. I would love to meet her. But what I say would be between her and I, because I can share some things that nobody knows. She will be the only one that will understand what I’m saying because she’s doing it.”
