To say that Caitlin Clark has had a successful year on the basketball court is an underhand shot. Her 1,234-point senior season at the University of Iowa led to a shattered NCAA Division I scoring record and the university’s decision to retire her jersey number, 22, to the rafters. On April 15, she was the first overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, when she was selected by the Indiana Fever.
As of Sunday, Sept. 22, the 22-year old standout guard from West Des Moines, Iowa can add yet another accomplishment to her resume: the Associated Press 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year award.
The numbers say everything. This season with the Fever, Clark started in all 42 games, including the team’s two postseason matches. In the regular-season, she scored 769 points, averaging 19.2 per game. Her 337 regular-season assists set a new WNBA record — an average of 8.4 per game — as did her combined tally of points scored and assisted, an impressive 1,520. From the three-point line, Clark was a force to be reckoned with, shooting with 34.4% accuracy.
The Fever’s start in May wasn’t ideal. Of their first nine games, the team was victorious in just one of them, but by the end of the season, they were even at 20 wins and 20 losses, earning their first playoff spot since 2016. A CNBC statistic reports that fan attendance in the 2024 season was four times as great as it was in 2023. Despite this comeback effort, the Fever’s post-season was cut short on Wednesday, Sept. 25, in a first-round sweep by the Connecticut Sun.
Clark spoke optimistically about the future of the franchise. “There’s a lot for us to hold our heads high about,” she said to ESPN in an interview. “This team won five games two years ago.” Clark said that she was excited for her own personal improvement, too.
According to an NCAA report, an estimated 18.7 million viewers tuned into April’s NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the South Carolina Gamecocks. It was the first time in history that the women’s championship game drew in more viewers than the men’s. This massive achievement for women’s sports, as well as the similar surge in viewership observed across the WNBA this season, was made possible by Caitlin Clark and this year’s extraordinary class of rising stars in women’s basketball.
Vera Sablak is a senior art history and biology major from Concord, Massachusetts. She loves coffee, chatting, and chilly weather. Her most favorite food of all time is grilled cheese and she could spend hours in a plant store. Other than writing Mess articles, Vera loves to write songs and is practically playing the guitar at all times. One day, she hopes to be a florist and the owner of a combined coffee and flower shop.