The University of Iowa women’s basketball team and head coach Jan Jensen are going through their first season without a star Caitlin Clark from 2019
Hawkeyes they started 12-4 and were ranked 23rd in the nation, but struggled in conference play in the first year of the newly expanded Big 10, going just 2-3.
Jensen addressed the team’s “lack of senior leadership” to reporters after Thursday’s loss to Illinois — with the Hawkeyes losing back-to-back conference games for the first time since Clark’s freshman season — citing the youth of the current roster.
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“I can’t afford to compare what’s happened in the past, because these guys give me a lot, and they’re still young, and I need to develop some leadership in the upper grades, because that’s what I’m missing,” Jensen said.
In four seasons at Iowa, Clark broke the NCAA’s all-time scoring record among both men’s and women’s players, leading the team to the NCAA Championship game twice. She was also named the national player of the year as a junior and senior.
Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Lisa Bluder, left, and Caitlin Clark talk during practice for the NCAA women’s college basketball championship game between Iowa and South Carolina on April 6, 2024. (Zach Boyden-Holmes / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Clark was selected No. 1 overall in last year’s WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever following her career at Iowa.
As a WNBA rookie in 2024, Clark set the records for the most points and three-pointers by a rookie in league history, while also becoming the first rookie to record a triple-double, a feat she accomplished twice. Her 337 assists were not only the most by a rookie, they were also the most by any player ever in a single season.
The Iowa women’s basketball team announced that they will have a Clark jersey retirement ceremony on February 2nd.
Clark’s no. 22, which he wears for Feverwill hang from the rafters at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City following a ceremony honoring the program’s most successful player.
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Iowa’s Caitlin Clark reacts as Holy Cross plays in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa on March 23, 2024. (Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen/USA TODAY NETWORK)
Clark is expected to be in attendance and the event will be televised by FOX.
Clark will retire just two months after Time magazine named her Sportswoman of the Year. The choice drew praise but also criticism from some, including Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson, who he wondered recently in an interview with CNN why Clark was chosen for the honor and not the entire WNBA. Johnson suggested it had to do with Clark’s race.
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