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University of Iowa basketball all-star Caitlin Clark won’t be in an Iowa Hawkeyes jersey much longer.
She said Thursday that she will enter the WNBA draft this spring.
“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 said Thursday on X. “I am excited to be entering the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Clark, who this month became the all-time NCAA women’s scorer, said it’s “impossible to fully express my gratitude” to those who have supported her during her basketball journey for the Hawkeyes, including her teammates, coaches, trainers and staff, as well as University of Iowa fans and those who came out to support from around the nation — “especially the young kids.”
She also thanked her friends and family and said “none of this would be possible without” them.
“Because of all of you, my dreams came true,” Clark wrote.
The WNBA draft will take place April 15, after the college basketball season ends. The NCAA will crown a women’s basketball champion April 7 in Cleveland.
The Indiana Fever will have the first pick in the draft.
Clark, a senior, put up 33 points against Minnesota on Wednesday to cement her place atop the all-time career points among women to play for major colleges. The record had been held by Kansas great Lynette Woodard, who scored 3,650 points. (Woodard played from 1977 to 1981, when women’s sports were governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.)
And Clark is close to becoming the top-scoring NCAA basketball player ever. She’s just 17 points shy of Pete Maravich’s record of 3,667 points.
Clark, who was The Associated Press’ player of the year last year, has gotten into the habit of putting up big numbers: She’s averaging 32 points per game, but at least four times this season she has racked up 40 points.
A 6-foot guard from West Des Moines, Clark is also averaging more than 8 assists per game, and she recorded the 1,000th assist of her college career this month, making her only the sixth woman in college basketball history to do so.
She draws crowds and sells out venues when the Hawkeyes come to town. Though she’s a senior, Clark still had another year of eligibility remaining if she wanted to use it.
She and her team, 24-4, no doubt have their sights set on a national title. Last year, they made a run to the NCAA title game, where they lost to LSU.
