Kelsey Plum apologizes for congratulating Caitlin Clark too early on breaking NCAA scoring record
Some fans are on pins and needles as they wait for Caitlin Clark to officially break the all-time scoring record in the history of women’s basketball at the collegiate level. That includes Kelsey Plum, the current record holder, who actually jumped the gun on her own personal congratulations.
Clark and Iowa played earlier today at Nebraska where she needed 38 points to tie and 39 points to surpass Plum’s total from her days at Washington. That led to Plum send out a tweet sending her commends to the Hawkeye superstar.
“Congratulations on the record, and really your entire season!” wrote Plum. “I appreciate what you do for the game, much respect and love! See you at the next level, hopefully sooner than later.”
The only problem is Clark didn’t actually end up breaking the record this afternoon. She scored 31 against the Cornhuskers in an 82-79 loss for the No. 2 team in the nation. That leaves her still seven points from tying and eight points shy of breaking the record.
It also forced Plum to send out an amusing amendment in the form of a quote tweet on her original message.
Clark went for 31 more points on 10-25 (40%) from the field, including 5-15 (33%) from three. She paired that with 10 assists and eight rebounds for a near triple double to go along with four steals and two blocks. It was her 15th outing of 30-plus points and was the seventh time that she had reached that threshold over the last eight.
Still, it wasn’t enough to secure the win inside Pinnacle Bank Arena. Even after leading by as much as 14 in the fourth quarter over the ‘Huskers, Iowa scored just 10 points in the final frame to end up losing by three. It is the third loss of the season for the Hawkeyes and now currently has them half a game back from Ohio State in the Big Ten standings.
It became a foregone conclusion that Clark was going to eventually achieve this at some point. With an average of over 32 points per game as the nation’s leading scorer, it is all but a certainty that she will do so in her next time out against Michigan on Thursday.
Now, with four days to plan, Plum can plan and write out another tweet to compliment Clark once she actually passes her for the all-time scoring lead.
Clark’s father on pursuit of all-time scoring record: ‘She embraces it’
Before Caitlin Clark had a chance to surpass the former Husky, her father, Brent Clark, revealed what it has been like for his daughter in the recent weeks knowing that she is about to rewrite the history books.
“I can’t really imagine what she might internalize,” Clark said in an interview during the second quarter on today’s game. “My wife and I are very aware of it. We try to just see how she’s doing and, obviously, the coaching staff too. I think she enjoys it. She embraces it. I mean, if you’re a performer or an athlete? You want to play in front of the biggest crowds. I think it’s just everything she could ever imagine.”
“The first word that comes to mind is humbling, really,” Clark continued. “Who would have thought, you know? As a little girl, she loved to play. The bigger the crowd? The better. This is what it should be like for every sports event, really. I mean, women’s basketball? It’s awesome.”