Upcoming honor for Caitlin Clark makes perfect sense after record-setting collegiate career

The Iowa Hawkeyes have something special planned for their former star player after her record-breaking collegiate career.

On Wednesday, the school announced that Caitlin Clark will have her No. 22 jersey retired on Feb. 2.

The list of accolades from Clark during her collegiate career (2020-24) is ridiculous.

For starters, she finished her career as the all-time leading scorer in women’s and men’s Division I history with 3,951 points.

If that was not enough by itself, Clark became Iowa’s all-time leading scorer with 1,144 points, broke the Hawkeyes’ single-game scoring record (49 points) during the 2023-24 season and recorded the most three-pointers in a single season by a female DI player (201).

Clark’s productivity during her time at Iowa (28.4 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 8.2 APG, 1.5 SPG) helped lead the Hawkeyes to back-to-back national championship games and three Big Ten tournament titles. Her sensational efforts gave her the honor of being named consensus National Player of the Year during her junior and senior seasons.

Clark released this statement regarding the honor:

“I’m forever proud to be a Hawkeye, and Iowa holds a special place in my heart that is bigger than just basketball,” Clark said. “It means the world to me to receive this honor and to celebrate it with my family, friends and alumni. It will be a great feeling to look up in the rafters and see my jersey alongside those I’ve admired for so long.”

The success has not stopped since the Indiana Fever selected Clark as the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. Clark broke Seimone Augustus’ rookie scoring record of 744 points by putting up 769 points in her rookie campaign, per Sports-Reference. That effort, along with leading Indiana to its first playoff appearance since 2016, positioned Clark to be named WNBA Rookie of the Year.

Considering the WNBA season does not start until May 16, as well as her decision not to partake in the newly created Unrivaled basketball league, which begins Jan. 17, everything sets up perfectly for Clark to attend the event.

Take into account that Iowa (9-2) is hosting Juju Watkins and No. 7 USC (10-1), and the fact the date happens to symbolize her jersey number. 

Regardless of where the two teams stand at that point in the season, there should be an excellent environment for the special ceremony as Clark gets celebrated for all she has accomplished for the entire sport of college basketball.