Caitlin Clark reacts to being named unanimous Big Ten WBB Player of the Year
Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark was named the Big Ten women’s basketball player of the year by a unanimous vote from coaches, as well as media members.
Clark, who set the all-time NCAA scoring record for men and women’s basketball, seemed to be the easy choice. Now, her sights are on winning a national title for Iowa.
She also declared for the WNBA Draft, so this will be her last hurrah for the Hawkeyes.
“It was definitely a really hard decision,” Clark said of declaring for the draft on Big Ten Network. “And I think the biggest thing for myself was I felt like I’m just kind of ready for a new challenge. And I feel like my game has developed enough to where I can play in WNBA obviously, there’s going to be things for me to learn and that’s what’s so exciting.
“And that’s always been my dream. There’s pros and cons to both and I would have loved to be able to do both and make our fans happy, make everybody else happy, but I feel like this season has allowed me to have a lot of closure.”
As far as making the announcement for the draft, Clark just simply wanted to get it out of the way and focus on her team.
“Just making an announcement, it’s kind of the same to enjoy senior night to allow my teammates to enjoy senior night and not distract from them because four other really great seniors that are on our team,” Clark said. “I’ve been through a lot with (them) and we’ve been able to do a lot of really good things, so I think those were kind of the biggest reasons why I felt like it was good to just kind of get it off my chest and then just play free basketball for the rest of the year.”
Clark made history and she can make more with Iowa this postseason. She certainly reflected quite a bit.
“Yeah, I think it has allowed me to reflect a lot,” Clark said. “I think the biggest thing is time goes so fast, and it’s hard for me to really wrap my head around the fact that I’m a senior and I’ve played my last regular season game at Carver Hawkeye. Lucky enough we’re gonna be able to host two more but I think I was very confident and happy with how my career has gone and that’s allowed me a lot of closure what I’ve been able to do here.”
Clark will play professionally and there will be a time where she looks back on her college career and reminisces. Heck, she might even have her No. 22 retired soon enough.
“I think as time goes on, I’ll be able to wrap my head around it more and go back and reflect obviously, my main goal is still to continue to win the Big ten tournament and then obviously, hopefully win a national title so it’s not too sad,” Clark said. “I think my best basketball is ahead of me and our best basketball is ahead of us and I think we’re playing really well right now. And that’s something about Coach Bluder, she always has her team’s playing the best basketball in March and I think we’re just excited.”
Other award winners from Big Ten Conference
Big Ten Freshman of the Year (Coaches): Natalie Potts, Nebraska
Big Ten Freshman of the Year (Media): Mary Ashley Stevenson, Purdue
Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year (Coaches): Celeste Taylor, Ohio State
Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year (Media): Serah Williams, Wisconsin
Big Ten Coach of the Year: Kevin McGuff, Ohio State
Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year: Theryn Hallock, Michigan State
Iowa is the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and will play a TBD opponent on Friday.