The University of Iowa women’s basketball team and head coach Jan Jensen are experiencing their first season without star Caitlin Clark since 2019.
The Hawkeyes are off to a 12-4 start and are ranked 23rd in the nation, but have 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 a loss to Illinois on Thursday, with the Hawkeyes losing consecutive 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 are giving me a lot and they’re still young, and I have to develop some senior leadership or upperclassman leadership, because that’s what “They’re missing,” Jensen said.
In four seasons at Iowa, Clark broke the all-time NCAA scoring record between men’s and women’s players, leading the team to the NCAA championship twice. She was also voted consensus National Player of the Year as a junior and senior.
FEVER SHOULD SIGN ‘ENFORCER’ TO ‘PROTECT’ CAITLIN CLARK, SAYS FORMER NBA ALL-STAR WHO HAS BEEN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROLE
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 with the first pick in last year’s WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever following her career at Iowa.
As a WNBA rookie in 2024, Clark set records for most points and triples by a rookie in league history, while also becoming the first rookie to record a triple-double, a feat she accomplished twice. times. His 337 assists were not only the most by a rookie, but they were the most by any player in a single season.
The Iowa women’s basketball team announced it will hold a ceremony to retire Clark’s jersey on Feb. 2.
Clark’s number 22, which he wears for Feverwill hang from the rafters of Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City after a ceremony honoring the program’s most outstanding player.
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark reacts while playing against Holy Cross in a first-round game 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 attend and the event will air on FOX.
Clark’s jersey retirement will come just two months after Time magazine named her the publication’s Athlete of the Year. The choice drew praise but also criticism from some, including Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson, who I recently asked myself in a CNN interview why Clark was chosen for the honor and not the entire WNBA. Johnson suggested it had to do with Clark’s race.
