Caitlin Clark’s Record-Breaking Legacy: A Lasting Impact on Women’s Basketball

most of the points. highest average score. the season’s most 3-pointers made. most field goals made in a career. the majority of national scoring championships. And so it goes on and on and on.

Caitlin Clark’s time in college is now over. Furthermore, the statistics she leaves behind will go on for a very long time in the record books, whether they are Big Ten, NCAA, or Iowa.

“She has raised the excitement of our sport,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “There’s no doubt. She does things in a different way than anybody else can do.”

The figures support that. Here are just a few of Clark’s Division I women’s national records:

Career points

Clark’s record: 3,951 points.

Previous record: Kelsey Plum, Washington, 3,527.

Percentage difference: 12%

Plum expressed her support for Clark to shatter the record by saying, “When she smashes it, I will be very, very delighted,” to The Associated Press in November.

“To me, the record was never that big of a deal,” Plum said.

It is, however, to some people.

To be clear, the NCAA only recognizes the numbers played by Clark, Plum, and every other player who has participated in Division I women’s basketball over the past forty-odd years. Before then, women’s sports were governed by the AIAW, where Pearl Moore once scored more than 4,000 points.

At the Final Four, Lynette Woodard made news when she declared that, in an era when women still played with men’s basketball and without a 3-point line, she still feels she is the legitimate record holder with 3,649 points. (It should be mentioned that on Sunday, Woodard posted on social media that she thought Clark held the record.)

Points in a season

Clark’s record: 1,234.

Previous record: Plum, 1,109.

Percentage difference: 11.3%

There have been seven 1,000-point seasons in Division I women’s history. Clark has two of them.

JuJu Watkins of USC is one player in the women’s game right now who could pose a serious threat to both this record and the all-time scoring mark. This season, as a freshman, she scored 920 points. Clark scored 799 as a freshman.

Career points per game

Clark’s record: 28.42.

Previous record: Patricia Hoskins, Mississippi Valley State, 28.38.

Percentage difference: 0.1%

In the match where Iowa defeated LSU to get to this year’s Final Four, Clark overtook Hoskins. However, Clark needed at least 25 points in Sunday’s championship game against South Carolina to maintain her average ahead of Hoskins after she scored 21 points in the national semifinals against UConn.

3-pointers in a season

Clark’s record: 201.

Previous record: Taylor Pierce, Idaho, 154.

Percentage difference: 30.5%

Take a look at the difference on this list between No. 1 and No. 2. The NBA’s 3-point champ, Stephen Curry, is not the only NCAA Division I player who has not reached 200 in a season. The game is becoming more and more dependent on 3-pointers, and it has been for a number of years.

Career 3-pointers

Clark’s record: 548.

Previous record: Taylor Robertson, Oklahoma, 537.

Percentage difference: 2%

Clark did not break through to this mark until the final game of her time at Iowa. The most underappreciated aspect of Clark’s 3-point shooting scoring ability is that she was not an arrogant shooter. Over the past three seasons, she has led the country in assists, making history as the only athlete to do it in back-to-back years, along with La’Terrica Dobin of Northwestern State.

3-pointers per game in a season

Clark’s record: 5.15.

Previous record: Pierce, 4.53.

Percentage difference: 13.7%

She made more 3-pointers this season than 60% of Division I women’s basketball teams, to help put this statistic into context.

NCAA Tournament

Clark set the standard in a slew of NCAA Tournament categories.

She holds the records for the most points (491), assists (152) and 3-pointers (78) in the history of the women’s Division I tournament.

Other milestones

— In terms of career points, scoring average, 3-point field goals, 3-pointers per game, career assists, assists per game, field goals made, 3-point attempts, free throws attempted and made, Clark departs as the current NCAA women’s basketball leader. And that applies to Division I as well as the other divisions.

— Clark recorded 17 triple-doubles in her final collegiate season. That is more than the next three players—Zaay Green, Mia Castillo, and Destiny Battle—have combined for on the NCAA active list. At Saint Elizabeth in Division III, Castillo at Baruch in Division III, and Green at Arkansas-Pine Bluff in Division I, there are battle plays.

— Clark is the third player in Division I women’s basketball history to reach 1,000 assists and more than 2,000 points at the end of their career. She also outperformed the other two players in that top club in both categories. At Oregon, Sabrina Ionescu scored 2,562 points and disheveled 1,091 assists. At Gonzaga, Courtney Vandersloot recorded 2,073 points and 1,118 assists. With 1,144 assists and 3,951 points, Clark finished.