Iowa’s Caitlin Clark Could Set an All-Time Record This Weekend

Everyone knew the road was going to get much tougher for the Iowa women's basketball team after a blowout win over Farleigh Dickinson early in the week.

Thursday night's game featuring the 3rd-ranked Hawkeyes and #8 Virginia Tech proved to be just that. One thing you can always count on is Iowa guard Caitlin Clark rising to the occasion.

Clark, a senior who still has a year of eligibility for next season if she wants it, poured in 44 points as #3 Iowa beat the #8 Virginia Tech Hokies 80-76 in the Ally Tipoff in Charlotte, North Carolina. The largest crowd to ever witness a women's college basketball game in North Carolina (15,196) was there to enjoy it.

Megan Gustafson, Iowa's all-time leading scorer is definitely in Clark's sights. Gustafson's time as Iowa's top scorer in history is likely about over.

Gustafson scored 2,804 points in 135 games, a 20.8 per game average, during her Iowa career which spanned 2015-2019. Gustafson's scoring average went from 10.7 during her first season, to 18.5 as a sophomore, 25.7 as a junior, and 27.8 during her senior campaign. Her retired jersey hangs in the rafters at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Now a center with the Phoenix Mercury, Gustafson has played in 112 games in the WNBA.

In 102 games played at Iowa, every one of them as a starter, Caitlin Clark has been nothing short of legendary. Her points per game average by season:

• First Year: 26.6
• Sophomore: 27.0
• Junior: 27.8
• Senior: 36.0 (in the first two games)

Clark has now scored 2,789 points, putting her just 15 behind Gustafson for the Iowa record. She will likely break the record Sunday afternoon during a 2 p.m. game against the UNI Panthers at the sold-out McLeod Center in Cedar Falls. The game will be televised by KCRG 9.2 and streams on ESPN+.

If Clark can eclipse Gustafson's Iowa scoring mark on Sunday, she'll enter the Top 25 scorers in women's Division I basketball history. At the top of the list is former Washington Huskies player Kelsey Plum. She scored 3,527 during her career.

After Thursday night's game, Clark is just 738 points behind Plum. It's worth noting that Clark scored 799, 863, and 1,055 points in her first three seasons in Iowa City. There's no reason to believe she can't be at the top of the list by season's end. If Clark returns to Iowa City for a fifth season, who knows just how many points the best women's basketball player the state of Iowa has ever seen can accumulate.