She may have come up short in her bid for an NCAA basketball championship but Caitlin Clark is the top player in women’s college basketball this year. The Iowa star received the 2023 John R. Wooden Award winner, completing a clean sweep of the major National Player of the Year awards.
Highlights from Caitlin Clark's historic 41-point triple-double #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/hgrbAt00o0
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) March 27, 2023
Clark won the award over a group of four finalists, including Final Four Most Outstanding Player Angel Reese of LSU, reigning Wooden winner Aliyah Boston of South Carolina, and the nation’s leading scorer Maddy Siegrist of Villanova.
A plethora of awards for Clark
So far she’s won the Naismith Trophy, Associated Press Player of the Year, Wade Trophy and USBWA national player of the year honors, on top of her second unanimous All-American honors, a second Big Ten Player of the Year award and a third Dawn Staley Award as the nation’s best guard.
Clark filled up the stat book
The 6-foot junior point guard was the nation’s second-leading scorer, averaging 27.8 points per game. She also averaged a Division I-leading 8.6 assists and 7.1 rebounds per game, and added five triple-doubles.
The Hawkeyes (31-7) had just three losses in calendar year 2023. And with Clark leading the way, Iowa won the Big Ten tournament and advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 1993. It was in the national semi-finals were Clark was at her best
She scored 41 points in an upset of defending champion and previously unbeaten South Carolina and came back with a 30-point effort in a 102-85 loss to LSU in the title game.
Defending the “Trash Talk”
LSU winning the tournament over Iowa and Clark was huge news, but it was eclipsed by the fake outrage over Reese’s “you can’t see me” gesture. Clark did it first, but Reese is the one who got the criticism.
Here’s Caitlin Clark herself explicitly saying Angel Reese shouldn’t be being criticized, they all trash talk because trash talking is apart of the game and what brings people out. pic.twitter.com/Al1ZW2WwlO
— Olayemi Olurin (@msolurin) April 4, 2023
Clark and Reese both have remaining collegiate eligibility. So it’s quite possible they’ll play against each other in college before going pro.
After the game against LSU, an emotional Clark was asked ab0ut her legacy:
"I want my legacy to be the impact that I have on young kids and the people in the state of Iowa.
I hope I brought them a lot of joy this season."
-Caitlin Clark pic.twitter.com/LfmnVamTXC
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) April 2, 2023
The question might be a bit premature given that Clark has two more years of collegiate eligibility remaining. And she makes more from her NIL contracts than she could make in the WNBA.
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