Clark’s Iowa profession ends in defeat, however no regrets

CLEVELAND — There have been principally smiles from Caitlin Clark after Sunday’s nationwide championship recreation, an 87-75 loss to South Carolina that ended her Iowa profession. She admitted the finality of this a part of her journey would hit her within the subsequent 48 hours or so, however for the second, nonetheless sitting in her black and gold Iowa uniform, her overwhelming emotion was gratitude.

Clark opted to remain in her house state for faculty, although Iowa had been to just one Ultimate 4: in 1993, 9 years earlier than Clark was born. She believed she may assist lead the Hawkeyes again there, and he or she did — twice. The Hawkeyes misplaced their NCAA finals to 2 SEC powerhouses: South Carolina this yr and LSU final yr.

However Sunday, Clark was pondering extra concerning the entirety of her school profession.

“Whether or not it is the best way the followers have supported me, the best way I have been in a position to characterize my state the place I grew up, my household being at each single recreation — there’s not a remorse in my thoughts of how issues went,” Clark stated. “I am going to be capable to sleep each evening although I by no means gained a nationwide championship.

“I do not sit and sulk concerning the issues that by no means occurred. My mother at all times taught me, ‘Hold your head excessive, be pleased with every thing that you’ve got achieved.’ And, you understand, I believe I am so hungry for lots extra, too.”

Clark is the overwhelming favourite to be the No. 1 choose within the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever on April 15. She was requested if realizing that she is going to begin one other season in about 5 weeks made the conclusion of her school profession any simpler.

“I believe it helps,” Clark stated. “What higher method to prepare and put together for my subsequent step in life than taking part in within the Ultimate 4? I am going to be capable to play my first WNBA recreation right here quickly.

“These moments are going to make me prepared for the subsequent chapter on my life, but additionally [I want to] get pleasure from this one, too.”

Iowa did nearly every thing the previous two seasons besides win the NCAA title. Final yr, the Hawkeyes upset 36-0 South Carolina within the semifinals. This yr, they beat defending nationwide champion LSU within the Elite Eight and 11-time NCAA champion UConn within the Ultimate 4.

“It is actually onerous to win these items. I believe I in all probability know that higher than most individuals by now,” Clark stated. “To be so shut twice, it undoubtedly hurts. However on the similar time, we have been proper there. We battled. We took down some actually nice groups to get again so far.”

Clark had 30 factors, 8 rebounds and 5 assists Sunday. She began out sizzling within the first quarter with 18 factors, however South Carolina’s protection bought higher after that.

“I believed they pressured the ball rather well,” Clark stated. “While you rise up so far within the match, all people’s protection is sweet.

“I do not suppose there was something we did not do this we may have to essentially assist ourselves. It might have been good to make just a few extra pictures. I believed they contested nicely on stuff. You would say rebound [better], however we have been attempting our greatest. That is all you possibly can actually ask.”

Clark did all that coach Lisa Bluder and the Iowa employees may have requested of her these previous 4 seasons. She leaves as not simply the most effective participant in Iowa historical past, however among the best in NCAA historical past.

“She moved needles, she did issues that nobody was doing apart from Steph Curry, taking pictures from the place she shot, however by no means shedding her sense of enjoyable and aptitude,” stated longtime Iowa assistant coach Jan Jensen, who made numerous drives from Iowa Metropolis to Clark’s hometown of West Des Moines to observe her play through the recruiting course of. “I want we may have helped her get us to the title … However most individuals can respect her greatness. Perhaps they will not name her ‘GOAT’ … However she’ll at all times be our GOAT.”

Her listing of NCAA data is prodigious. She completed with extra factors — 3,951 — than any males’s or ladies’s participant ever in Division I. She is the one D-I ladies’s participant to have greater than 3,000 factors and 1,000 assists in her profession, totaling 1,144 assists. She additionally had 990 rebounds.

Her 28.42 factors per recreation and 548 3-pointers are each D-I profession data, and this yr’s 201 3-pointers and 1,234 factors are D-I single-season data.

“Whether or not it is the best way the followers have supported me, the best way I have been in a position to characterize my state the place I grew up, my household being at each single recreation — there’s not a remorse in my thoughts of how issues went. I am going to be capable to sleep each evening although I by no means gained a nationwide championship.”

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark

“These issues are so onerous to perform,” Clark stated. “That was by no means one thing I used to be chasing in my profession [or] something I ever got down to do. I’ve to provide Coach Bluder loads of credit score as a result of she’s allowed me to be myself.

“Whether or not it is the pictures I take, the hearth I play with … She’s allowed me to be me, and I do not know if there’s many coaches throughout the nation that I may have dedicated to that will have allowed me to do this. I would not have had this sort of profession.”

Clark stated the surge in recognition of girls’s basketball has been thrilling for her to witness and be part of, and that may proceed within the WNBA.

“This staff got here alongside at a extremely good time, whether or not it was social media, whether or not it was NIL, whether or not it was our video games being nationally televised,” Clark stated of the Hawkeyes. “It doesn’t matter what sport it’s, give them the identical alternatives, imagine in them the identical, put money into them the identical, and issues are actually going to thrive.

“You see it with different sports activities, and I am an enormous fan of different sports activities. I attempt to assist as a lot as I can, and I believe that is the most important factor: Proceed to take a position your time, cash and sources there, and proceed to point out up for these folks and provides them the alternatives.”

Clark additionally hopes that the gang that flocked to see her Iowa groups retains coming to Carver-Hawkeye Area, which was bought out for each recreation this season.

“After I replicate again on my [Iowa] profession, I do know I gave it each single factor I had,” Clark stated. “Mainly, all people believed there is not any manner Iowa was making the Ultimate 4 as soon as. However to do it twice? That is fairly unbelievable.”