Caitlin Clark Nears NCAA Scoring Record

Caitlin Clark is poised to make history in NCAA women’s basketball as she closes in on breaking the all-time scoring record. Millions of viewers are expected to tune in as the Iowa Hawkeyes take on the Michigan Wolverines, making it a potentially record-breaking event in women’s basketball history.

Clark is just eight points away from surpassing Kelsey Plum’s record of 3,527 career points. With her remarkable season average of 32 points per game, Clark has consistently scored at least eight points in the first half of every game this year. This suggests she could break the record early in the game against Michigan, adding to the excitement of the matchup.

Despite a previous opportunity to break the record during a game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Super Bowl Sunday, Clark fell short as the Cornhuskers upset the then-No. 2 ranked Hawkeyes. Nevertheless, the game became the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever broadcast on Fox Sports, with 1.7 million fans tuning in alongside a sold-out crowd at Nebraska’s 15,500-capacity arena.

Clark’s outstanding performance this season has led to sold-out arenas at nearly all of Iowa’s away games in 2024, including matchups against Rutgers, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Indiana, Purdue, Nebraska, and Ohio State. All of the Hawkeyes’ home games sold out in August before the season started, with resale tickets for Thursday’s game in Iowa City going for as high as $291 on StubHub, while courtside seats are selling for $1,152.

The highly anticipated game between No. 4 Iowa and unranked Michigan will take place at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday night at 8 p.m. EST. The game will be streamed live exclusively on Peacock.

Kelsey Plum set the previous all-time scoring record in 2017, scoring 3,527 points over the course of her career from 2013 to 2017. Plum, now playing for the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, also holds the NCAA record for most points scored in a single season, which she achieved during her 2017 campaign with 1,109 points. Clark has scored 803 points in the 2023-24 season, with 10 games remaining to catch up with Plum’s record. The closest Clark came to that record was last season when she scored 1,055 points.

The buzz surrounding Clark’s record-breaking pursuit follows a record-breaking March Madness tournament last year, which concluded with Iowa losing the National Championship game to LSU. The championship game was the most-viewed college women’s basketball matchup in history, with an average of 9.9 million viewers, marking a 100% increase from the 2022 championship game. Ratings for regular-season games last year were also 11% higher than the 2021-22 season, with an average of 190,000 viewers per game, making it the most-viewed season since 2014.

Clark remains focused on the game ahead, stating, “I’m not anxious about it really at all,” during a press briefing. She also mentioned that she and Coach Bluder haven’t discussed the record much as a team, emphasizing their focus on the game itself.