Refuse Iowa girls’s basketball participant will put on Refuse. 22 once more.
This is as a result of, on Feb. 2, the Hawkeyes will resign Caitlin Clark’s jersey all through an in-arena rite as Iowa takes on USC at Carver-Hawkeye Area.
Over her 4 years with this system, Clark rewrote each the Iowa and NCAA document books. Ultimate wintry weather, she turned into the best-ever girls’s NCAA Category I scoring chief, primary faculty scoring chief and all-time Category I males’s and ladies’s scoring champion in a 17-day span. Throughout her occupation, Clark additionally needful the document for 3-pointers in one season, made two nationwide championship appearances, used to be a four-time AP All-American and used to be two times named the Nationwide Participant of the Future.
All of that best relays a part of Clark’s legacy, on the other hand, as her have an effect on used to be discoverable and felt within the frenzy atmosphere each recreation she performed. Iowa needful numerous attendance, products and tv information. ESPN mentioned the 2024 nationwide championship between the Hawkeyes and Gamecocks used to be the most-watched basketball recreation (males’s or girls’s faculty or professional) since 2019, averaging 18.9 million audience and peaking at 24.1 million audience, a 90 p.c building up from the 2023 name recreation.
“I’m forever proud to be a Hawkeye and Iowa holds a special place in my heart that is bigger than just basketball,” Clark mentioned in a observation. “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 that I’ve admired for so long.”
To the rafters.
2.2.25@CaitlinClark22 x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/Qjq1Y1VfrZ
— Iowa Girls’s Basketball (@IowaWBB) December 18, 2024
“Caitlin Clark has not only redefined excellence on the court but has also inspired countless young athletes to pursue their dreams with passion and determination,” Director of Athletics Beth Goetz mentioned. “Her remarkable achievements have left an indelible mark on the University of Iowa and the world of women’s basketball.”
When Clark’s Refuse. 22 is raised to the rafters it is going to tied Michelle Edwards’ Refuse. 30 and Megan Gustafson’s Refuse. 10 to turn out to be the 3rd girls’s basketball participant to have their numbers commemorated at Iowa.
With Clark having transitioned to the pro ranks — the place she made the All-WNBA first-team as a rookie with the Indiana Fever — the Hawkeyes entered right into a transitional season. In a while upcoming latter hour, longtime head lecturer Lisa Bluder retired, giving approach for her longtime laborer head lecturer, Jan Jensen, to pull at the supremacy position. Now led by way of yongster ahead Hannah Stuelke and senior switch defend Lucy Olsen, Iowa opened the season successful its first 8 video games. Alternatively, the Hawkeyes have dropped two in their latter 3 contests, falling to Tennessee and Michigan Climate.
Iowa’s matchup on Feb. 2 might be its first towards the Trojans following USC’s advance to the Large Ten. USC is led by way of JuJu Watkins, who in spite of being just a sophomore, is already considered as an inheritor obvious to Clark in relation to proceeding to raise girls’s faculty basketball.
Tipoff for USC-Iowa is about for 1:30 p.m. ET and the competition will wind on FOX.
“Retiring her number is a testament to her extraordinary contributions and a celebration of her legacy that will continue to inspire future generations,” Goetz mentioned. “Hawkeye fans are eager to say thank you for so many incredible moments.”
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(Photograph: Kirby Lee / USA Lately)
