Caitlin Clark’s storied college career came to a close on Sunday, and she leaves with no regrets. She walks away from the college game with two national championship games lost, but an excess of scoring records and attendance records won.
Clark finishes her time at Iowa with 3,951 career points, the D-I career scoring record, as well as the record for scoring in a single season. She is also the Big Ten’s all-time assist leader and leaves college as the first Division I women's player to score at least 1,000 points in two different seasons, according to ESPN.
"It's really hard to win these things. I think I probably know that better than most people by now," Clark said after the game. "To be so close twice, it definitely hurts. But at the same time, we were right there. We battled. We took down some really great teams to get back to this point."
Clark insisted after the game that she's not going to sulk. Instead, she reflected Sunday on the entirety of her college career.
"Whether it's the way the fans have supported me, the way I've been able to represent my state where I grew up, my family being at every single game -- there's not a regret in my mind of how things went," Clark said. "I'll be able to sleep every night even though I never won a national championship.
Those around Clark took time on Sunday to re-affirm the impact she's had on the sport.
"She moved needles, she did things that no one was doing other than Steph Curry, shooting from where she shot, but never losing her sense of fun and flair," said longtime Iowa assistant coach Jan Jensen. "I wish we could have helped her get us to the title ... Maybe they won't call her 'GOAT' ... But she'll always be our GOAT."
Clark also gave credit to coach Lisa Bluder for giving her the space to be the player she could be.
"I have to give Coach Bluder a lot of credit because she's allowed me to be myself," Clark said. "She's allowed me to be me, and I don't know if there's many coaches across the country that I could have committed to that would have allowed me to do that. I wouldn't have had this type of career."
Despite being the face of the recent surge in interest around women's college basketball, Clark insists the talent has always been there.
“Women’s basketball isn’t just suddenly good,” she said. “It’s been good. … No matter what sport it is, give [women] the same opportunities, believe in them the same, invest in them the same, and things are really going to thrive."
