The Indiana Fever officially selected Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. The 6-foot guard became Division I college basketball’s all-time leading scorer while playing for the Iowa Hawkeyes this past season, and now she is on a mission to prove her generational offensive power can translate to the professional level.
Clark officially finished her college career with 3,951 career points. She was an incredible offensive weapon for the Hawkeyes not just because of her scoring, but also her ability to create shots for teammates with great court vision and impressive passing skills.
An Iowa native, Clark led the nation in scoring and assists the past two seasons while guiding the Hawkeyes to back-to-back national championship game appearances. The furthest the program had gotten before in the NCAA Women’s Tournament was a Final Four appearance in 1993.
In her senior year, Clark averaged 31.6 points per game and registered 346 assists. Shooting from the logo was a common occurrence for Clark, and those long-range shooting abilities helped her pass the single-season 3-point record set by Stephen Curry during his time at Davidson.
The two-time Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year (2023, 2024) left such an impact at Iowa that the Hawkeyes announced they will be retiring her No. 22 jersey. All Iowa home games were sold out during the 2023-24 campaign, and at least some of that buzz is expected to carry over to the WNBA as the Fever have locked in 36 nationally televised games for the 2024 season.
The Fever had the league’s worst offense in 2022 with just under 78 points per contest, then jumped to seventh place in 2023 with 81 points per game. Last season they averaged 18 assists per game, which was second to last in the league. Clark should be able to help in both of these categories.
In Indiana, Clark will join former South Carolina star Aliyah Boston, last year’s No. 1 overall pick. Boston was named the 2023 Rookie of the Year despite the Fever finishing the year with a 13-27 record.
Boston and Clark faced each other when Iowa defeated the Gamecocks in the 2023 Final Four in Dallas. Clark scored 41 points in that game, but now instead of rivals they will be teammates.
“You know she can shoot the ball, you know that she’s going to get a lot of attention,” Boston said of Clark earlier this month. “And because of that, her ability to find the right pass, make the pass, the timing of the pass, you see it all. Her teammates run the floor, being able to get out because you know when she has the ball in her hand, she’s going to find you.”
