Caitlin Clark Repeats as AP Player of the Year, Wade Trophy Winner
Another day, another set of Player of the Year awards for Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark.
Yesterday it was the Naismith National Player of the Year award. Before that it was the ESPN Player of the Year award, The Athletic Player of the Year award, and The Sporting News Player of the Year award.
Today, Clark added two more notable awards. First up, the AP Player of the Year award, which was announced to the Iowa team using a "Wheel of Fortune" theme:
Clark was also named the Wade Trophy recipient later in the day.
Clark becomes a repeat winner of both the AP Player of the Year award and the Wade Trophy, having also received both honors in 2023. Clark became the sixth player to be named AP Player of the Year more than once and the first to do so since UConn star Breanna Stewart won three in a row from 2014 to 2016.
"I think that's the best part about what I get to do. I grew up having those role models and aspiring to be where I am today," Clark said. "It's super special to see your impact not only in the state of Iowa but across the country. ... To be able to have that impact on the next generation is really special, and you just hope to dream and aspire to be like you one day and chase after all their dreams."
Clark received 35 of 36 votes from the national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week. Stanford star Cameron Brink received the other vote.
This season's win by Clark adds to Iowa's recent dominance of the award. Iowa center Megan Gustafson also received the honor in 2019, giving Iowa the AP Player of the Year winner in three of the past six seasons. Clark and Gustafson are also the only Big Ten players to win the award since its inception in 1995. Center Luka Garza is the only winner of the award for Hawkeye men's basketball, winning in 2021.
The Wade Trophy is the oldest national player of the year honor in women's basketball and is awarded by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). The trophy is named after Lily Margaret Wade, who won three national championships as the trailblazing head coach of Delta State University,
Clark is the seventh player to win the Wade Trophy more than once and the first since Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu claimed back-to-back honors in 2019 and 2020. Clark is also the first Big Ten player to win the award since Purdue's Stephanie White won the trophy in 1999.
"On behalf of the WBCA, and for the second straight year, I am pleased to present women’s basketball’s highest player honor, the Wade Trophy, to Caitlin Clark," said WBCA executive director Danielle Donehew.
"Caitlin, a four-time WBCA Coaches’ All-American who also was the 2021 WBCA NCAA Division I Co-Freshman of the Year, is a generational talent. The ‘Caitlin Clark effect’ has helped fill arenas across the country, boosted television ratings to record highs, and inspired a whole new generation of young girls to pick up a basketball and play the game. The many records she set in her collegiate career may one day be broken, but the extraordinary impact she has had on our sport will be everlasting.”
Clark, a senior from West Des Moines, Iowa, has been the most dominant player in women's college basketball in recent seasons and this year led the nation in scoring per game (32.0), assists per game (9.0), field goals made (386), three-pointers made per game (5.2), total three-pointers made (193), and triple doubles (6). She also became the first Division I player to score 1,000 points in consecutive seasons, set the NCAA single-season scoring record, with 1,183 points (and counting), and has scored an NCAA-record 3,800 points in her career.
That record was one of several that Clark has smashed this season, including the career scoring records for Iowa, the Big Ten, NCAA women's basketball, pre-NCAA women's basketball, and NCAA Division I basketball as a whole (men's and women's). Her brilliant play has been instrumental in guiding Iowa back to the Final Four for the second straight season and only the third time ever.
Aside from the on-court records, the Caitlin Clark phenomenon has also resulted in shattered attendance records and massive TV audiences. Clark and Iowa basketball have became an enormous box office draw, selling out the full slate of home games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena almost instantly last summer and breaking attendance records (often via sellout crowds) at every Hawkeye road game as well.
Before the season even officially began, Iowa set a women's basketball single-game attendance record with the Crossover at Kinnick event, which drew a record-shattering crowd of 55,646 to see Clark and Iowa play DePaul at Kinnick Stadium last October.
TV audiences haven't been able to get enough of Clark and Iowa basketball, either, with this Iowa team featuring in the top ratings for a women's basketball game on seven different networks over the course of the season. On Monday, Clark and Iowa set a new record by drawing 12.3 million viewers to their win over LSU in the Elite Eight in what was a heavily-hyped rematch of last year's national championship game.
Just as it did a year ago, this year's Final Four will also pit two AP Players of the Year winners against one another in the national semifinals. Last year it was Aaliyah Boston (2022 winner) and South Carolina facing Clark; this year it will be Paige Bueckers (2021 winner) and UConn taking on Clark and Iowa. The Iowa-UConn game is scheduled to be played at approximately 8:30 PM CT on Friday, April 5. ESPN will televise the game.