Caitlin Clark is nearing Kelsey Plum’s NCAA scoring record, and Plum has some advice for the Iowa star.

“I understand the importance of it, but let’s just say when she breaks it, I’ll be very, very happy,” Plum, a former guard at the University of Washington and now a two-time WNBA champion with the Las Vegas Aces, told the Associated Press.

First, Clark has one milestone to pass: the 3,000-point marker. She has a chance to do so on Wednesday against Iowa State, as she enters the game with 2,954 points. If she does, she’d be the fastest to reach 3,000 points in 109 games, four more than current record-holder Elena Delle Donne.

Plum holds the all-time NCAA Division I scoring mark with 3,527 career points, and Clark is on pace to surpass it by the end of February. She’s also within reach of Pete Maravich’s all-time Division I scoring record of 3,667 points.

Plum has said the attention surrounding her pursuit of the record in 2016 took a toll on her mental health and followed her into the WNBA, where she was the No. 1 draft pick. She advised Clark to keep the milestones in perspective.

“I feel like people started caring less about the game and more about just the individual points,” Plum said. “You can play really well and score 15, 20 points and have a great game and people will be like, ‘Aw, it was only a 20-point game.’

“It was tough for me because I felt like I lost a little bit of my identity and it ultimately led to a tough transition into the (WNBA) because the expectations were so high. So, if anything, I’d try to send her as much compassion and love as I can and I hope the people around her are checking in with her … because it’s going to be tough to feel like you’re just playing basketball.”

Clark is also on pace to become the first player in D-I history — men’s or women’s — to register 3,000 points and 1,000 assists for her career.

As she chases multiple records, Clark’s popularity has already reached astronomical heights.

“The way people have on our jerseys, the way people have on Iowa clothes, it’s just not the same for every other program,” Clark said. “So, I think for me, it’s ‘just don’t let it overwhelm you. Don’t let the moment pass you by.’ Living in the now is super important. It’s really special.

“These are going to be some of the best moments of my life that I get to share with my best friends, as a kid who’s 21 years old in college. I play this game because I love it. I play because it’s fun. And when I play that way, that’s what allows me to be as good as I am.”

At this point in Caitlin Clark’s career, it’s not a matter of if she broke an NCAA record – it’s which record she broke.

The Iowa guard’s 35-point performance in the Hawkeyes’ 113-90 win against Drake on Sunday marked her 39th career game with at least 30 points. That number breaks Kelsey Plum’s record for the most in Division I women’s college hoops history. She also had 10 assists, 6 rebounds and 7 steals – an all-around performance from the reigning national player of the year.

With just one more 30-plus point game, Clark will match the overall NCAA record, set by Detroit’s Antoine Davis last season. With her pace so far (31.0 points per game through five games), she seems likely to break the record.

Perhaps more important to Clark, though, was the rebounding performance from the Hawkeyes, as well as teammate Kate Martin posting a career high in points after going scoreless in the previous game, a 68-58 loss to Kansas State.

“I thought everyone responded really well,” Clark said. “People want to beat you. You’re the Iowa Hawkeyes. You were in the Final Four last year. You have a target on your back, but this group just worries about what’s in our locker room. We knew Thursday wasn’t who we are.

“Tonight, we got back to who we are.”

Another impressive note about Clark’s record is that many of her 30-plus point performances have come against top-tier opponents. The senior has averaged 29.6 points per game against AP top-10 opponents in her career, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Most recently, she hung 44 points on then-No. 8 Virginia Tech on Nov. 9.

Just another day at the office.

35 PTS
10 AST
7 STL
6 REB@CaitlinClark22 x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/vRjCxROeV5

— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) November 20, 2023

No. 3 Iowa’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark stunned No. 8 Virginia Tech, dropping 44 points en route to a 80-76 win Thursday night for the Hawkeyes. 

Clark clocked her ninth career 40-point game, which moved her into a tie with former Missouri State star Jackie Stiles for the most in Division I basketball, women’s and men’s, over the last 25 seasons. 

Clark was borderline unguardable for the Hokies, sinking 3-pointers, hooking layups and drawing fouls to collect her 44 points.

“Sometimes you’re playing checkers and she’s playing chess,” Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks said. “She’s that good.”

Clark shot 13-31 from the field and 13-17 from the free-throw line. Clark also pulled down eight rebounds and assisted on six buckets.

Her play even garnered praise from a fellow guard, Virginia Tech’s Georgia Amoore. Clark and Amoore traded 3-pointers back and forth during the fourth quarter of the close game.

“She’s literally been gifted by every God you can imagine. She’s insane… She’s a generational talent,” Amoore told WUNC’s Mitchell Northam. 

Even at away games, Clark draws an unprecedented audience. According to the Associated Press, more than 15,000 people attended the matchup between the Hawkeyes and the Hokies, and other away teams have seen their attendance spike when Clark is in town. She’s already driving up ticket sales for Iowa games this season.

And on Thursday, the audience drawn in by Clark got the show they wanted to see.

“It seems like there are a lot of people that are just fans of our game, whether it is Iowa fans or Virginia Tech fans or just people that are here to support women’s basketball,” Clark told AP. “And that is why this game was put on is because they understand how great women’s basketball is and how much it is growing.”

For two years in a row, the Las Vegas Aces have ended the WNBA season as champions. Yet only after the Aces’ second title did Kelsey Plum finally allow herself to reflect on the accomplishment.

“I feel like for the first time in my career, I really have allowed it to soak in,” Plum told Just Women’s Sports.

That catharsis showed in the raucous celebrations after Las Vegas became the first team to win back-to-back titles since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002. From a parade down the Strip to a personalized concert invitation from Usher, the Aces did not hold back in sharing their joy.

“We have a lot of fun together,” Plum said. “And I think that’s why people really love watching us play, because that kind of permeates onto the court.

“I’m not going to lie, it was a long year for everyone, not just collectively but individually. And so I think that people let loose a little bit when we finally won, which, to me, I wasn’t mad at. I thought it was awesome.”

To reach that point, the Aces first had to do battle with the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals. And while both teams sniped at each other after the series, Plum called the attention and the rivalry “great for the game.” In particular, she pointed to the buy-in from both franchises, which paid off on the court.

“The incredible investment that both franchises have made have just put the W in a different place,” she said. “And I think that it’s really just elevated the league overall. And that’s the biggest win out of all of it.”

After the WNBA Finals and ensuing celebrations, Plum faced a quick turnaround for USA Basketball’s fall training camp, which is being held from Nov. 7-9 in Atlanta. The 40-game WNBA season and deep playoff run presented what she called a “brutal” challenge.

“So I think it’s done a number on my body,” she said. “At the same time, USA Basketball is very important to me. We’ve been training for this since — shoot, I mean, forever, it feels like.”

Plum won Olympic gold as part of Team USA’s 3×3 team at the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo. Now, she is primed to compete for a roster spot on the traditional 5×5 team for the 2024 Games in Paris.

After the USA Basketball camp, Plum will turn her attention to the rest of the offseason. And her competitive streak will come in handy as she partners with DICK’S Sporting Goods for their Holiday Shopping Sprint.

One lucky winner will team up with Plum for a frantic three-minute, $5,000 shopping spree. Plum remembers trips to DICK’S with her father for Spalding TF-1000 basketballs, but she’ll let her teammate lay out the shopping list this holiday season.

“I’m just a soldier in this fight, so whatever they tell me, whether that’s socks, shoes — now I will say, I’m not going to grab anything but Under Armour shoes,” said Plum, who inked a deal with that brand in 2022. “So if they want something else, I can’t help them with that. But everything else, I got them.

“I’m going to wear the best shoes I’ve got, I’m going to be hydrated. I’m taking this very, very, very seriously. … We’re not leaving anything on the table.”

The Las Vegas Aces had a lot to say during their 2023 WNBA championship parade, with much of it directed at the New York Liberty.

There was a lot of talking about going for a three-peat, with WNBA Finals MVP A’ja Wilson noting that the Aces are “going to do this s–t again.” The Aces were the first team in 21 years to win back-to-back titles, beating the Liberty in four games.

“We’re going to keep coming back, and everybody hates it,” Kelsey Plum told the crowd at Monday’s parade.

Yet the Aces’ Game 3 loss to the Liberty — their only loss throughout the 2023 playoffs — still sticks out as a source of frustration. In particular, Sabrina Ionescu’s “night night” celebration after hitting a key 3-pointer remains a point of contention. Sydney Colson mimicked the gesture after the Aces’ series-clinching win over the Liberty, and it came up again during the parade.

“They messed up when they went ‘night night,’” Chelsea Gray said. “And Sydney said I’m sitting on that Sabrina!”

Meanwhile, head coach Becky Hammon called out Liberty star Breanna Stewart’s Game 4 stat line, which included her going 3-for-17 from the field while being guarded by Alysha Clark.

“Alysha Clark was my rookie in San Antonio,” Hammon said, to which Clark replied: “Talk about it.”

“3-for-17 is you need to talk about it,” Hammon responded.

Wilson, meanwhile, was focused on her MVP snub, opting to wear a shirt that had the voting numbers on the back. She finished third for the regular-season award behind Stewart and Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas. Wilson also called out the person that voted for her in fourth place, noting that she was going to use it as fuel for next season.

.@_ajawilson22 got the MVP votes and put em on a shirt!

Petty A’ja is my favorite A’ja 🤭🔥 pic.twitter.com/boXXiB4o0d

— highlightHER (@HighlightHER) October 24, 2023

And at the end of the night, the Aces couldn’t resist getting in one more “night night.”

Night Night, Aces fans 😴#RaiseTheStakes pic.twitter.com/kyIdpiDHzZ

— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) October 24, 2023

The Las Vegas Aces are hosting their WNBA championship parade Monday on the Strip. And according to Finals MVP A’ja Wilson, the back-to-back champions are raising the stakes for their 2023 celebration.

After the Aces won their first title in franchise history in 2022, Wilson told fans to come to the parade “four shots in.” Make it double for 2023, she said after the Aces won the 2023 Finals over the New York Liberty.

“Last year I said four shots. But this year, we going eight,” Wilson said, to the delight of her teammates. “So get ready.

“Children, drink your ginger ale, have fun, listen to your parents, go to bed on time, go to school, get good grades. Old people — not old people, but people that aren’t children — drink responsibly, but we about to turn it up out here.”

The parade, which is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET Monday, will run up Las Vegas Boulevard toward T-Mobile Arena. It will end outside the arena at Toshiba Plaza.

During the Aces’ 2022 parade, Kelsey Plum promised it would not be the last. Since then, Las Vegas has celebrated a Stanley Cup with the 2023 NHL champion Golden Knights, and now the Aces are back for another party.

“This is a long time coming,” Plum said in 2022. “I wanna let you guys know that this is just the beginning. We’re just getting started.”

New York Liberty players took exception to Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum’s criticism of their team following the WNBA Finals.

The Aces won a second consecutive WNBA championship, running it back with a very similar lineup to their 2022 title-winning season. After Wednesday’s series-clinching win, Plum pointed to Las Vegas’ long journey to that point — as compared to New York, which assembled its roster in the 2023 offseason.

“There was a lot of years that we weren’t so super,” she said. “But you can’t build a superteam in a couple of months. It takes years.”

Plum also questioned the Liberty’s team mentality.

“We also knew that, as much as they’re a team, they’re not a team, if that makes sense,” she told Yahoo Sports. “They’re really good individual players, but they don’t care about each other. And you can tell in those moments. They revert back to individual basketball.”

On Friday, Liberty players called out Plum’s comments in their end-of-season interviews.

“I think it’s easy to kick people when they’re down and you’re up, and honestly to me, it felt classless,” Jonquel Jones said. “You could celebrate with your team, and instead you chose to essentially s— on someone else.”

Sabrina Ionescu pushed back on the notion that New York isn’t a team, saying that “couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“I’ve never been on a team that’s been more committed to one another than what it’s been like this year,” she said. “We had players that came together in a short amount of time… to try to win.”

Breanna Stewart sidestepped a question on Plum’s criticism, calling the Aces “phenomenal” and congratulating them on their win.

“Win or lose, we’ll just continue to carry ourselves with grace and keep that going forward,” she said.

Head coach Sandy Brondello admitted she had not looked much at social media since her team’s loss Wednesday, but she did say that what Plum said about the Liberty is “wrong.”

“I don’t even think I should comment, because I know it’s not true,” she said. “This team has grown so close together in a short period of time, and what Kelsey said is wrong.”

Plum then took to social media to clarify her comments.

“Since the media wants to do click bait, imma cut this drama out right now so we can move on and be in peace,” she wrote on X. “What I said was taken extremely out of context. I was trying to articulate my teammates and I have been through a lot and we used our bond to get over the hump.”

Since the media wants to do click bait, imma cut this drama out right now so we can move on and be in peace. What I said was taken extremely out of context. I was trying to articulate my teammates and I have been through a lot and we used our bond to get over the hump. https://t.co/FgD7STZTEN

— Kelsey Plum (@Kelseyplum10) October 20, 2023

She also apologized for how her words came on, noting that she didn’t intend to “throw shade.”

“Never been the type to throw shade, quite the opposite actually,” she continued. “I see how it came off, never was my intention and I apologize. Our game grew immensely from this series, don’t let this bull shit detract from the biggest win here.”