Iowa’s Caitlin Clark wins AP Player of the Year

DALLAS (AP) —Caitlin Clark has put together one of the greatest individualseasons in NCAA history with eye-popping offensive numbers.

Iowa’s juniorguard, though, saved her best performance for the game’s biggeststage, recording thefirst 40-pointtriple-doublein NCAA history to get Iowa to the FinalFour for the first time in 30 years.

Clark washonored Thursday as The Associated Press women’s basketball Playerof the Year. She received 20 votes from the28-member national media panel thatvotes on the AP Top 25 each week. Voting was done before MarchMadness began.

“It’s a hugehonor,” Clark said. “I picked a place that I perfectly fit into andthat’s allowed me to show my skill set. I’d be lying if I said itdidn’t mean something. It’s not the reason you play basketball,it’s just something that comes along with getting to do what youlove.”

The Iowacoaching staff surprised Clark by sharing that she won the awardwhile they were visiting the Iowa Children’s Hospital — a placenear and dear to her. It also has hugeties to the Hawkeyesathletic department.

They puttogether a video of some of the children in the hospitalcongratulating Clark on an outstanding season, and in the middle ofit, Iowa coach Lisa Bluder popped on the screen to tell her shewon.

“I’m therefor inspiring the next generation and being there for the peoplethat you know are going through a hard time,” said Clark, who grewup in Iowa. “Being able to give joy to people that watch you playand watch your team play is amazing.”

She averaged27.0 points, 8.3 assists and 7.5 rebounds during the season to helpIowa go 26-6. Clark has 984 points, the sixth-most in a season byany player in Division I women’s history. She also has over 300assists.

“She isspectacular. I don’t know how else to describe what she does on thebasketball court,” Bluder said.

Next up forthe Hawkeyes is undefeated South Carolina in the nationalsemifinals. The Gamecocks are led by Aliyah Boston, last season’swinner of the award. She garnered the other eight votes thisseason.

“There’s somany great players, more than just me and (Aliyah),” Clark told theAP. “You can go on and on and list the tremendous players. I thinkthat’s really good for our game when there’s a lot of greatplayers. That’s what is going to help this game grow more thananything else.”

Whether it’shitting deep 3s from the Hawkeye logo at home games, hittingoff-balance game-winning shots or throwing pinpoint passes toteammates for easy baskets, Clark has excelled on the court thisyear to get Iowa to a place it hasn’t been in a long time.

“It’s funny,because the better the opponent, almost the better she plays,”Bluder said. “It’s like she locks in on those, when we’re playingagainst Top 25 teams. That’s when her statistics even go up evenmore, against great opponents.”

Clark is thesecond Iowa player to win the AP award in the past few seasons,joining Megan Gustafson who won it in 2019.