IOWA CITY — Leave it to Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark to make history her own way.
On a night where Clark needed just eight points to set the NCAA career scoring record, Clark decided to take it one step further and set the Iowa single-game scoring record in the process, dropping 49 points along with 13 assists and five rebounds as Iowa ran away from visiting Michigan 106-89 on a raucous, celebratory Thursday night.
"We were a force tonight. Nobody was going to stop us, especially coming off a loss," said head coach Lisa Bluder. "It really is hard to stop Caitlin Clark. People try to bring different things at her, and it is really hard."
Clark now stands alone atop the NCAA's official scoring charts with 3,569 career points, passing former Washington great and two-time WNBA champion Kelsey Plum with a typically audacious shot from next to the Hawkeye logo.
"You all knew I was going to shoot a logo three for the record, right?" Clark asked reporters after the game.
In a claim that may strain credulity by comparison, Clark said after the game that she hadn't set out to set the record so quickly.
"Honestly, it wasn't my goal to get it done really fast," Clark said. "But I made my first couple shots, so I was able to get another one up pretty fast. And it was nice to get it done there fairly quickly, so we could just kind of move on and focus on winning the basketball game."
The task of setting the (official) NCAA career record still went by in a heartbeat Thursday — less than three minutes into the game, Clark splashed one of her audacious, signature "logo threes" to give her eight points for the game and set the career record. Well, her first eight points of the game.
In fact, Clark needed less than a minute to get to the doorstep of history, hitting a layup then canning a three-pointer on Iowa's first two possessions.
"Well, I thought about [setting the record] a couple of possessions earlier, but I was a little tired, so I had to catch my breath," Clark said with a wry smile. "But yeah, I stepped back to my left a little bit, was able to get it off and it went in and I celebrated — honestly I thought Coach Bluder would have called timeout before I had to go play defense."
"I intended to call a timeout, but it happened so fast, I couldn't get it out," Bluder offered semi-sheepishly.
Indeed, Bluder was calling timeout in a timely manner — Iowa wouldn't have been granted it otherwise, being on defense — but for all Clark's talk Tuesday of not wanting the game to stop, it sure did anyway, and she sure didn't mind.
READ MORE: Social Media Reacts to Caitlin Clark Breaking the NCAA WBB Scoring Record
The swift vault into the NCAA's top spot left Clark with 37 more minutes with her shoes on, so Clark decided to make a little more history with her signature flair. The task of breaking Iowa's single-game scoring record starting with burying six three-pointers in a 23-point first quarter — the second-most for a quarter in Hawkeye history, according to the UI's game notes.
"Honestly during warmups, my shot felt pretty good, so usually as a shooter, you know, the ball just comes off your handle better some nights other than others," Clark said. "When you make a couple shots as a shooter, it feels like a green light just to get another one up and that's exactly what it was."
From there, Clark had 31 at halftime, 38 after three quarters, and her sights firmly set on that last summit of Iowa's program records, held until Thursday by former center and noted Pembroke Welsh Corgi enthusiast Megan Gustafson with 48.
Clark turned her aggressiveness back on for the fourth quarter, generating a layup and three perfect trips to the free-throw line before splashing — what else — a deep three to finally give herself the Hawkeye single-game record and finally earn her seat on the bench for the last two minutes of Iowa's romp.
Clark's superlative performance left Hannah Stuelke's Carver-Hawkeye Arena record as a mere footnote of history, a record that lasted for less that one game of women's regulation play (78 minutes if you count the men's game against Minnesota).
"[Stuelke] said she was passing the torch to me," Clark said with a laugh. "So I was like, 'oh, that's so kind of you.' Hannah's just hilarious — she asked why I had to do that."
Make no mistake, though: a record accumulator like Clark understands as well as anybody that they're made to be broken.
"Hannah will break my record — she better break my record, playing here another couple years," Clark said. "I'm perfectly fine with Hannah going out and scoring 50, next game. So hopefully she does that."
Unfortunately, with the NCAA's less-than-pristine track record with women's athletics muddying the waters of history, there's still some debate on whether Clark's record is all her own. For the next few games, anyway.
Former Kansas great Lynette Woodard, still holds a major-college record of 3,649 career points with the Jayhawks, if not the NCAA record. Woodard and the Jayhawks played in the AIAW, the organization that administered women's sports prior to the NCAA's certification as mandated by Title IX.
Of course, a basketball historian like Bluder not only knows this fact, she celebrates it.
"I'm very aware that Lynette Woodard has the scoring record in women's basketball all-time, pre-NCAA — and that was before the three-point shot," Bluder said Thursday night. "We played basketball before the NCAA, so I don't know why we have this NCAA record. I think [the NCAA recognizing Woodard's record] makes really good sense."
The NCAA should recognize Woodard's record, of course, just like it recognizes Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer's pre-certification wins as part of her own career record. Clark is just 81 points away from Woodard's mark; it would be respectful and appropriate to honor Woodard if and when Clark surpasses her, too. If Woodard wants to be in the building for it, even better.
That overriding, holistic approach to coaching Clark — to look at her accomplishments as part of the rich fabric of the sport, not something above it — extends to how Bluder has coached her team through this season.
"Sometimes we can forget that [Clark] is a person and not just this unbelievable basketball player," Bluder said. "Today, at the end of our shoot-around, I had our women go around the circle and every one of them say something that I liked about Caitlin that wasn't basketball-related."
"To me, everybody knows 'Caitlin, the basketball player'," Bluder continued. "There's so much more to Caitlin than that. She's the kindest person, she's thoughtful. She's generous. She's funny. So that was really fun to hear her teammates express what she means to them as a person."
Far from lip service, Bluder's kind words echoed the congratulatory messages from family, teammates and coaches in a special video after the game, prompting waterworks from the normally stoic Clark.
"I started crying watching that video because I was filled with so much gratitude and love," Clark said afterward. "When it's the people that have had your back through the through the ups and downs, been there every step of the journey whether it was good or bad, have seen the hard days and have seen the good days, I think that's when it means the most."
"They've seen me go through some really hard losses and some really great wins," Clark continued. "But also, it's a matter of pushing me to do my very best and allowing me to dream, ever since I was a young girl playing with all the boys growing up."
In the moment, it can be easy to forget that Clark is blazing trails in real time, redefining what stardom looks like in women's athletics and college athletics in general. It can be easy to forget because Clark makes it all look so easy, even when she wears her momentary frustrations as a competitor on her face — no sleeves on a basketball jersey, after all.
One of Clark's best strengths is how momentary those frustrations are, in fact. Not only does she turn her annoyances into focus on the court with alchemic efficiency, she speaks glowingly of her position of privilege in the spotlight, and of how much support is involved in that journey.
"I still wake up and I'm so thankful every single day, because I'm playing in front of 15,000 people, I get to do it with my best friends, I get to play the game that I absolutely love more than anything," Clark said. "And I know one day basketball is going to end, so one game, one win, one loss, never gets me too high or too low. And I think that's what's been the kind of story of my career, and that's been something I've had to learn: to stay steady and stay calm for this team."
No matter how much support she gets, though, make no mistake: Clark's accolades are all earned, and unimpeachable. Just ask anyone who's ever had the misfortune of guarding her, or coaching against her.
The Hawkeyes' electric superstar now sits at the top of the highest mountain the NCAA has to offer, and she'll spend the rest of her collegiate career setting the bar as high as possible for the next GOAT, whoever and wherever she is.
