Caitlin Clark describes emotions of preparing to break scoring record

Caitlin Clark is looking to make history and become the all-time leading scorer in women’s college basketball history. It’s a record that she’s expected to obtain when her Iowa Hawkeyes host the Michigan Wolverines.

Ahead of that game, Clark described the emotions that have come with preparing to break the scoring record.

“I think I’m excited,” Caitlin Clark said. “It’s going to be a very special night. I’ve got a lot of family coming so that’ll be a lot of fun. But I think my main focus is just going out there and having a blast with my teammates and enjoying it.”

The current women’s scoring record is held by Kelsey Plum, who played for Washington. In 139 career games, Plum averaged 24.4 points per game for a total of 3,527 points. To this point, Caitlin Clark has 3,520 points. The game against Michigan will be her 126th career game, with Clark averaging 28.2 points per game to this point.

“Obviously, we need to come out and perform really well. I think today’s practice is really important, but I think for me, I’m not anxious about it, really at all,” Clark said.

“I’m just very excited. It’s going to be a special night. Honestly, we haven’t really talked about it as a team or me and Coach [Lisa] Bluder, we never talked about the record. It’s just go out there and play basketball and have fun and this is kind of what comes along with it.”

The game itself is an important one for Iowa in the Big Ten regular season race and it’s going to be important to not let the record become a distraction that costs the Hawkeyes the game. At 11-2 in conference play, Iowa is actually third in the Big Ten right now, behind 13-1 Ohio State and 12-2 Indiana. So, while Iowa does play both those teams later in the season, a loss now would make winning the Big Ten in the regular season very difficult.

Caitlin Clark opens up on what it means to reach 1,000 career assists

The scoring record isn’t the only milestone that Caitlin Clark has had to deal with this season. She also recently reached 1,000 career assists and explained what that meant to her.

“That’s what I take a lot of pride in, is I want to be able to set my teammates up and hopefully in return that makes my life a little too of getting to my spots. An assist doesn’t come without my teammate finishing the ball,” Clark said.

“And obviously I’ve played with a lot of really good players over the last four years whether it was Mon [Monika Czinano], whether it was McKenna [Warnock], whether it’s Hannah [Stuelke], Addi [Addison O’Grady], Kate [Martin], Gabbie [Marshall]. I’ve played with so many really great players that find a way to put the basketball in the hole, so I’m just really grateful in that regard. Obviously, Coach Bluder’s kind of let me do my thing and be me and that’s something I’m grateful for too.”