IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa women’s basketball sophomore Caitlin Clark was named to the John R. Wooden Award Late Season Top-20 Watch List, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced on ESPNU Monday night.
The list is comprised of 20 student-athletes who are front-runners for the John R. Wooden Award All-America Team and Most Outstanding Player Award. The list includes four additional Big Ten athletes, including Michigan’s Naz Hillmon, Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes, and Maryland’s Ashley Owusu and Angel Reese.
Clark, a Des Moines, Iowa, native is having a record-breaking season, registering four triple-doubles this season and leads the country in most career triple-doubles by an active player with five. Clark joins the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, James Hardin, Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo as the only NBA, WNBA, Division I men’s and women’s basketball to record back-to-back 30-point triple doubles since 2000. She is one of 10 women’s basketball players (15 times) to register back-to-back triple doubles in their careers — the only to do so with 30-plus points in the pair. She is the only women’s basketball student athlete to record 250 points, 50 rebounds, and 50 assists in a single month.
In her second season with the Hawkeyes, Clark set a career-high 44 points in the Hawkeyes’ win over Evansville. With 5:04 left in the first quarter, Clark broke the 1,000-career point barrier, becoming the fastest Big Ten women’s basketball athlete and the eighth NCAA athlete to meet the mile marker in 40 games or less. Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell previously held the record with 1,000 in 41 games during the 2016-17 season. Clark is only the second NCAA athlete in the last 25 years to tally 1,000 points in 40 games or less — Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne did it in 38 games (2011-12).
Against Penn State, Clark broke the Iowa single-game assist record, tallying 18 and breaking the Big Ten record against a conference opponent — regular season or Big Ten Tournament game. Former Hawkeye Kathleen Doyle previously held the Iowa record with 15 assists against Nebraska (Feb. 6, 2020) and Clark is tied with Nebraska’s Rachel Theriot who had 18 assists against Minnesota on March 7, 2014 in the B1G Tournament.
Clark was named to the John R. Wooden Award Watch List last season. Former Hawkeye Megan Gustafson was named to the list in 2019. Gustafson went on to be named a John R. Wooden Award All-American and was one of three finalists for the Most Outstanding Player Award.