Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who is on the verge of becoming the all-time scoring leader in NCAA basketball history, announced Thursday she will leave the Hawkeyes after this season and make herself available for the WNBA draft.
“While this season is far from over and we have a lot more goals to achieve, it will be my last one at Iowa,” Clark wrote on social media.
Clark has become the focal point of women’s college basketball with her flashy play and 3-point shot, often from the on-court logo. Many players would be benched for shooting from so far out, but Clark has the green light from her coach and has delivered while also finding her teammates and hitting the boards.
She became the all-time leading women’s scorer in major college basketball by picking up 33 points to pass Lynette Woodard and post her 17th career triple-double in a 108-60 victory over Minnesota on Wednesday night. Clark also had 12 assists and 10 rebounds while playing 29 minutes in the Big Ten blowout of the host Golden Gophers.
Although this is her fourth college season, Clark could have returned for a fifth due to the extra year of eligibility granted to athletes by the NCAA early in the coronavirus pandemic. Clark was honored as the women’s college basketball player of the year by multiple outlets last season, when she helped Iowa reach the NCAA tournament title game for the first time, with the Hawkeyes losing to LSU.