IOWA CITY — Caitlin who?
Sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke scored a career-high 47 points Thursday night, setting a Carver-Hawkeye Arena record and coming one point away from the program record, as No. 2 Iowa overwhelmed Penn State, 111-93, in a fast-paced battle at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Stuelke scored 32 of her 47 points after halftime, shooting an astonishing 17-for-20 from the field; only a 13-for-21 performance at the free throw line kept her from breaking Megan Gustafson's program record of 48 against Minnesota in 2018.
"I don't think it's [dawned on me] yet," Stuelke said after the game. "Maybe tomorrow, I'll be like, 'oh my goodness, I did that'."
Never to be forgotten, Caitlin Clark scored 27 points with 15 assists, though only six points came in the second half, and Kate Martin set a career high with 16 rebounds along with her 16 points.
THE DEEP THREE
1. The Hannah Stuelke Show. On a night where fans and national journalists packed Carver expecting to see Caitlin Clark take a decisive step forward in her quest for the NCAA career scoring record, Stuelke made her presence known as the future focal point of Hawkeye basketball.
"I think my confidence is going to come up a lot," Stuelke said after the game. "Now I can be more aggressive offensively, so that's exciting."
Penn State's full-court press and lack of interior size made the Nittany Lions an easy target for Stuelke, who routinely outran defenders down the court and generated open layups.
"It was a lot of fun," Stuelke said. "My teammates did a great job of getting me the ball; I had some mismatches in [the paint]."
Indeed, 10 of Clark's 15 assists went to Stuelke Thursday night; Addison O'Grady was second among teammates with two.
Incredibly, Stuelke said after the game that she didn't know she was one basket away from breaking the program record on the last play, where neither Stuelke nor her teammates seemed particularly interested in feeding her one last post-up (even as the still-packed arena chanted Stuelke's name):
Cameras also appeared to catch Stuelke jokingly asking teammates "what if I just shot a three?" near the end of the game, so she probably did have some awareness of the team mark.
Maybe, though, this was the best possible outcome.
Iowa won the game by 18, led by double-digits for the entire second half and had no competitive reason to keep its starters in the game as long as they were. Stuelke still has the Carver record, second-place in program history, a personal record (topping her 44 in high school against Cedar Rapids Kennedy), and — crucially — two more seasons of eligibility to challenge Gustafson's still-standing record of 48.
"It's really cool," Stuelke said. "I remember watching Megan and seeing her score so many points, and now I'm the one that the little girls look up to. I think that's just amazing."
2. The record's coming at home. Probably. Caitlin Clark came into the Penn State game with 66 points between her and the Division I* career record, currently held by former Washington great Kelsey Plum at 3,527 points.
*Many in women's basketball think the record truly belongs to former Kansas great Lynette Woodard at 3,649, though Woodard played in the AIAW prior to the NCAA's certification of women's athletics; Woodard's "officially-unofficial" mark would require another 4-5 games for Clark to beat at her current pace, which would still fall within the window of Iowa's season.
At halftime, Clark looked utterly unconcerned with timing her record, having drilled a three-pointer on the first possession of what would be a 21-point first half. With the mild (and undeniably mutual) animosity between Nebraska and Clark, setting the record on the Huskers' home floor looked like an attractive option for the ultra-competitive gunner.
And then... Clark all but stopped scoring.
Clark didn't stop shooting, per se; she was 2-of-10 in the second half, including an uncharacteristic 0-for-6 from deep. Concurrently, Iowa's offense stalled out, allowing the frisky Penn State press to keep the Nittany Lions within a puncher's reach through most of the second half.
It was quickly turning into The Hannah Stuelke Game™ at that point, though, and Clark was in full facilitator mode in the second half, registering eight assists to three turnovers after halftime. Clark was already done with her day when Stuelke finally exited with nine seconds left, and gave Stuelke an especially enthusiastic greeting at the bench.
"[Clark] has a lot of confidence in me, and she wants me to play my best, so she just keeps building me up," Stuelke said. "She said, 'I expect you to do this every game.'"
Clark even demurred on the postgame press conference, leaving the spotlight to Stuelke and Bluder — the lone assist from Clark to Stuelke that didn't show up on the stat sheet.
"[Clark] doesn't act like a prima donna; she just doesn't," Bluder said. "I think that everybody on the team respects her, and admires the way she treats them."
Clark's postgame "assist-in-absentia" to Stuelke could only do so much to quell the record talk, though.
"It's gonna happen," Bluder said Thursday — and she's right; Clark is a mere 39 points away from setting the D-1 mark, with anywhere from six to 14 games left in Iowa's season. "So to me, [pacing Clark's scoring] is not important. What's important to me is winning this game."
Accordingly, if beating Nebraska necessitates 40+ from Clark in Lincoln, nobody (from Iowa) is going to lift a finger to stop her. But make no mistake: if it stays up to choice, publicly and privately, the powers-that-be have expressed their desire for Clark to set the record in front of Iowa's fans, rewarding the home crowd that sold out the season long before opening tip.
"I would rather have [Clark] break it at home, because I think our Carver-Hawkeye fans deserve that," Bluder said. "But believe me, our number-one priority will be to win the game at Nebraska."
So, have Thursday, February 15 circled on your calendars. It probably is already.
3. The Ref Show runs long. Hannah Stuelke's shot at history included (and needed) a lot of trips to the free throw line; Stuelke's 21 attempts are in fact a program record, topping Kachine Alexander's 17-for-20 game against Illinois in 2010. Stuelke drew a jaw-dropping 13 fouls against the Nittany Lions, most of which were, shall we say, well-earned.
"Oh, yeah — I'm sore already!" Stuelke said with a laugh, when asked if she'd be sore the next morning after Penn State's physical defense.
The officials weren't just rewarding Stuelke; instead, they essentially took over the game, especially in the fourth quarter with 20 fouls called for 38 combined free throws.
20 fouls and 38 free throws. In one quarter. The fourth quarter of a game that was never within single digits in the second half. In a game that tipped off at 8 pm on a weeknight.
"There's 71 free throws shot in this game, 38 in the fourth quarter," Bluder said with palpable exasperation. "I felt like they changed the way was being called, which was a little frustrating."
As a result, the first half took 45 minutes to play, and the official game length was 2:15. Minus 15 minutes for halftime, that means the second half was fully 30 minutes longer than the first, and the officials' whistles are undeniably to blame.
Here is where an absolutist on refereeing integrity would say sensitivity to things like scoring margin, tipoff time, and foul totals shouldn't matter; it's all about getting the next call right, period.
Sure.
Here's a hard truth in response, one we'll say because, unlike Bluder, we're not subject to fines: the Big Ten's officials aren't nearly good enough to command that kind of respect over the game's surrounding context.
Basketball is a fiercely competitive sport that relies on integrity, of course; the officials should never play an undue role in determining the outcome of a game. There's also much more room for discretion in properly calling a game than what the zebras showed Thursday night.
It bears repeating that Iowa was primarily a beneficiary of the overzealous whistles; Penn State was whistled for 31 fouls to "only" 20 for Iowa. Iowa went to the free-throw line 43 times, not only a program record but a Big Ten record. Penn State, by comparison: "only" 28 free throw attempts.
"Nobody likes to watch a game where there's that many free throws shot," Bluder said. "Right? I mean, it's not fun. But at the same time, we can't control that."
The foul discrepancy didn't affect the outcome of the game (there's no real argument that Penn State "deserved" to win), so the officiating issue is more philosophical than competitive, as it pertains to Thursday's contest.
But there are real stakes involved here — ones that go to the heart of what has fueled Iowa's surge in popularity.
At its deepest core, basketball should be entertaining; it's why people buy tickets and television networks pay to broadcast the sport. Basketball referees are not entertaining; basketball players are entertaining. Caitlin Clark is the most entertaining player in college basketball, spearheading the most entertaining team in college basketball.
So the Big Ten owes it to its teams, fans and television partners to inform its referees who the real stars of the show are, and it's never been the whistle-blowers. Women's basketball has lightning in a bottle and one of its best-ever opportunities to harness that energy long-term; it would be a grave disservice to the sport if unchecked referees are enough to drive casual fans back away.
Iowa next plays at Nebraska on Sunday, February 11, tipping off at 12 noon CT. The game will be televised on Fox.
