University of Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark became the NCAA women’s career scoring leader on Thursday night in classic Caitlin Clark fashion: pulling up from parallel to the logo at center court and Launch a three-pointer that goes right past the rim. She did it nearly two minutes into the game, and fittingly, her basket netted Clark 8, Michigan 6.

Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark celebrates after breaking the women’s all-time scoring record on Thursday against the Michigan Wolverines at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Caitlin Clark became the NCAA women’s consecutive scoring leader

Clark’s teammates finally scored a few baskets. Because Clark is a complete package, she just keeps scoring points after that. She finished with a career-high 49 points, 46% of Iowa’s total, in a 106-89 home win over Michigan. It was the most any Iowa player has ever scored in a game, breaking the record Clark set earlier this season.

Clark’s 3,569 career points (and counting) are the new gold standard, putting her ahead of former Washington guard Kelsey Plum, who scored 3,527 points. (Pete Maravich’s five-decade Division I recorded 3,667 points not far behind.) Women’s college basketball has had plenty of outstanding talent in the years when the 22-year-old Clark was not accepted as the greatest player ever To this day, not all sports fans agree on such things. There are cases to be made for Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart and Southern California’s Cheryl Miller, among others. But in terms of pure offensive electricity, neither the women’s nor the men’s college circuits have ever seen a player quite like Clark. She was a threat to score from virtually anywhere on the hardwood, her ability to set up teammates with foreign passes was almost as strong as her scoring talent, and she was incredibly consistent. great for four seasons in Iowa City.

A native of Des Moines, the state capital, Clark was a gift to the Hawkeyes when she committed to the program in 2020. A year before her college career began, Iowa graduated National Player of the Year forward Megan Gustafson. Somehow, Clark has had an even more improved career, winning the same honor last year and looking like a match to repeat this season. Clark has been a high-scoring player since averaging 27 points as a freshman in 2020-21, good enough to make the Hoan My team his first year.

But it’s the constant, gradual improvement in Clark’s game that has turned her into a superstar over the past few seasons. This year she’s averaging a career-best 33 points with her best shooting percentage ever.

Clark is the most famous college basketball player, male or female, by a wide margin. Not since Zion Williamson played at Duke in 2019-20 has the sport seen an athlete capture hearts and minds — or, more completely, social media feeds — like Clark done. Williamson achieved his reputation with highlight reels of alley-oops and amazing dunks, which he did throughout his high school career. He was already a national figure before he even entered college. Clark’s rise has been very different; She herself was a top recruit, but her consistent theatrical performances throughout her four-year career made her a household name.

No one has defined an entire sport, at least not since Tiger Woods rebuilt golf in his image. But Clark is front and center in an explosive time for the women. Every Iowa game is a semi or (in the case of away games) an occasion for a team to set its own women’s tournament attendance record. She drew huge TV ratings, with audiences as large as six feet watching some Iowa games. (This season’s most-watched women’s matches were almost all Clark’s). Nearly 10 million people watched her in the NCAA tournament national championship game against LSU last year, a game LSU won. Clark will have another shot at the title this year, with even more followers.