Clark wins Wooden Award as women's player of the year
Departing Iowa star Caitlin Clark was named the recipient of the 2024 Wooden Award as the women's college basketball player of the year on Tuesday.
After a record-breaking season and tournament run, Caitlin Clark is the winner of the 2024 John R. Wooden Award Women’s Player of the Year Presented By Principal @principal @caitlinclark22 @iowawbb @LAAC pic.twitter.com/Ms7dxM0iPr
— John R. Wooden Award (@WoodenAward) April 9, 2024
It's the second consecutive Wooden Award for Clark, who becomes just the seventh women's player ever to win the honor twice.
The Hawkeyes star put together one of the greatest individual seasons in NCAA history, averaging 31.6 points and 8.9 assists, leading the country in both marks. She also tallied a team-high 7.4 rebounds per game while shooting 37.8% on 13.6 attempts from distance, taking the Hawkeyes to the national championship game for a second straight year. However, despite eliminating last year's champion LSU in the Elite Eight, Clark and Iowa fell to South Carolina in this year's title game.
Though the Hawkeyes came up just short, Clark's senior season will still go down in the record books; the 22-year-old broke the longstanding NCAA scoring record set in the late '60s by Pete Maravich, who put up 3,667 points in three years with LSU.
Clark eclipsed the late basketball icon in Iowa's regular-season finale at home against Ohio State and then extended her record career tally to a total of 3,951 points.
Clark is widely expected to be taken first overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft, which will be held Monday.