Why Caitlin Clark passing Pete Maravich is such a huge moment

College basketball star Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes became the all-time leading scorer for both women and men in NCAA Division I history Sunday afternoon when she made a single free throw to end the second quarter against Ohio State. With that ice cold bucket, she has passed the mark of 3,667 points that LSU’s Pete Maravich set in 1970, two years before the passage of Title IX.

Clark’s innate showmanship and ability to amuse is one of the reasons she’s the most recognizable person in college athletics.

Clark’s innate showmanship and ability to amuse (and sometimes frustrate) crowds of thousands, as Maravich himself did, is one of the reasons she’s the most recognizable person in college athletics.

When Clark broke Kelsey Plum’s NCAA women’s college basketball record of 3,527 points on Feb. 15, the Iowa superstar said she did it the only way she could. She received a pass from teammate Gabbie Marshall, dribbled once, crossed over her defender, and launched a three from the sponsor’s logo at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“You all knew I was going to shoot a logo three for the record, c’mon now,” she told reporters after the game.

On Wednesday, Clark broke the 3,649-point record that Lynette Woodard set in 1981 while playing for Kansas, which then belonged to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). To break that record, Clark couldn’t help but fire off another crafty trey. She dribbled twice as she came off a screen, stepped back and fired. The ball swished.

Clark’s latest record-breaking moment is a reminder of what records signal. Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins recently wrote that a record is a “symbolic message” that holds “potential, history and memory, all in one.”

The sharpshooter from Iowa has ushered in a new era of women’s college basketball. Droves of fans line up like she’s Beyoncé or Taylor Swift every time the Hawkeyes are in town, the television ratings for the sport are up, and tickets for the Sunday-afternoon game where she broke Maravich’s record were the most expensive in women’s basketball history.

Tickets for the Sunday-afternoon game when she broke Maravich’s record were the most expensive in women’s basketball history.

Clark should be remembered as a driving force who brought the general public to a sport that has years and years of undertold stories. When Clark broke Woodard’s record Wednesday night, she and her coach, Lisa Bluder, reminded reporters of who Woodard is and that her record of 3,649 points has wrongly been othered and minimized by the NCAA.

“At a school like Iowa that has been so rich in AIAW history, I just want to make sure we acknowledge Lynette’s accomplishments in the game of basketball,” Bluder said.

The records set in the AIAW, the governing body for women’s college sports prior to 1982, aren’t included in the NCAA’s account of collegiate sports history. Those records have been in a separate section outside of what are designated as Division I, II and III records. (Pearl Moore, who played at Division II school Francis Marion between 1975 and 1979 scored 4,061 total points.)

Clark is a generational talent playing at a time when people across the country and all over the world are better able to witness her greatness. Many of Clark’s games have been appointment viewing on national television. She has played college basketball in an era with a grassroots movement that has demanded that more women’s sports be put on television and that coverage be substantive. She’s played during a time when T-shirts were made and media companies were established to promote more women’s sports coverage. That can’t be said of the women who came before her. Women like Woodard, Cheryl Miller, Sheryl Swoopes, Chamique Holdsclaw, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson.

“I think it just speaks to the foundation that these players have laid for us to have opportunities to be able to play in environments like this and in front of crowds like this,” Clark said about Woodard. “So I wouldn’t have the opportunity to be able to do what I’m doing every single night if it wasn’t for people like her, and obviously there are so many great players across the board.”

When Plum was closing in on what was then the NCAA Division I women’s college basketball record, there wasn’t nearly as much media coverage.

Contrary to what some people may believe, Clark isn’t saving women’s basketball. Without all who came before her, she might not be in the position she’s in right now. What is that position exactly? It’s one that has brought many of the forgotten stories of the sport out of the woodwork, including stories about Woodard and Moore. Back in 2017 when Plum was closing in on what was then the NCAA Division I women’s college basketball record, there wasn’t nearly as much media coverage. Nor did we read stories about Woodard and Moore.

But what will happen to this level of momentum for the sport when Clark reaches the next level? That’s when the “potential” that Jenkins addresses comes into the picture.

On Thursday afternoon, Clark announced on X that when the NCAA championship tournament is over, she’ll declare for the WNBA draft. (The NCAA granted players who played during the 2019-20 season an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic. So Clark could have chosen to stay at Iowa another season.)

🖤 pic.twitter.com/9bd3w390Ka

More from MS NOW Daily

Must reads from Today's list

Trump die-hards and fellow travelers are using a ‘Jedi mind trick’ on themselves

Anthony L. Fisher

Republicans are suddenly in a health care bind

Michael A. Cohen

— Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) February 29, 2024

The consensus among pro talent evaluators is that Clark will make an excellent WNBA player. But how soon?

It took years for Plum and Sabrina Ionescu (who holds the record for the most college triple-doubles of all time with 26) to reach elite status in the WNBA. Plum, the 2017 No. 1 overall draft pick, began her WNBA career on the bench. Ionescu, the 2020 No. 1 overall draft pick, began her pro career rehabbing from a season-ending injury she sustained three games into her WNBA career. Ionescu is a three-point shooting champion and Plum is a two-time WNBA champion and the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game MVP.

Will Clark be ready for the WNBA’s speed and physicality? How will she adjust to having grown adults, not college kids, guarding her? How will she adjust to not being the No. 1 scoring option at all times?

Will the droves of fans follow her to the WNBA, likely to the Indiana Fever, the team with the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft?

Will the droves of fans follow her to the WNBA, likely to the Indiana Fever, the team with the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft? The league has struggled to bring fans of players like Plum, Ionescu, Wilson, Stewart and South Carolina great Aliyah Boston over from the NCAA.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert stepped into her role just before the 2020 season, the season when the Covid pandemic hit and Ionescu was drafted. She referred to that 2020 bubble season during last month’s NBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis when asked about capturing more fans of women’s college basketball.

“We still have some work to do and now we have this huge opportunity because they’re already coming in with all those followerships,” Engelbert told The Next, the women’s basketball outlet I work for. “And I would say Sabrina was one of the first ones because at Oregon and what she accomplished, and the unfortunate thing was then the pandemic hit as we were drafting her.”

Indiana is catching Caitlin Clark Fever 🥵🎟️

As the likely No. 1 overall pick, Clark declared for the WNBA draft yesterday — with the @IndianaFever holding the top pick.

Since then, the average ticket price to see the Fever in action next season has more than DOUBLED from last… pic.twitter.com/fFjDOP3223

— Vivid Seats (@VividSeats) March 1, 2024

To make sure history doesn’t repeat for Clark, the WNBA will look to have its feet on the ground during the NCAA tournament, when Clark will be playing her final college basketball games. The WNBA’s Chief Marketing Officer Phil Cook said that the league will be marketing itself more alongside the women’s NCAA March Madness tournament this year, because that’s where “the basketball universe is.”

“We’re going to start our annual advertising campaign during the tournament,” Cook told the Indy Star. “It’s our Super Bowl, so to speak.”

Following Clark’s Thursday announcement that she’ll enter the WNBA draft this April, Vivid Seats, a ticket exchange and resale company, reported that the average ticket price to watch the Indiana Fever had more than doubled, leaping from $60 to $140. It looks like the Clark effect won’t end in Iowa, but rather is just beginning.