Her time is up at Iowa Hawkeyes, ending in an 87-75 loss to South Carolina in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament championship game. Now, every WNBA fan wants to know if Caitlin Clark is going pro and which team will draft her. The superstar is regarded as one of the greatest players in college basketball history.
Clark was born on January 22, 2002, and as a student at Dowling Catholic High School, she was named a McDonald’s All-American and rated the fourth-best player in her class by ESPN. In her freshman season with Iowa University, she led the NCAA Division I in scoring and earned All-American honors. As a sophomore, Clark was a unanimous first-team All-American and became the first women’s player to lead Division I in points and assists in a single season.
In her final college game, Clark finished with a game-high 30 points (on 10-for-28 shooting) to go with eight rebounds and five assists but it wasn’t enough to secure the victory. “It’s really hard to win these things,” Clark said, per the Washington Post. “I think I probably know that better than most people by now. To be so close twice, it definitely hurts. But at the same time, we were right there. We battled. We took down some really great teams to get back to this point and [did] something that’s really hard to do.”
She later tweeted: “Words cannot express my love for my teammates, coaches, fans and our university – Thanks for making my dreams come true. Wearing Iowa across my chest the last four years has been an honor. This place will always be home.” Now, all eyes are on where she’ll go in the WBNA 2024 draft. Here’s if Caitlin Clark is going pro.
Is Caitlin Clark going pro?
Caitlin Clark going pro is the logical next step in her career; she is the predicted number one draft pick going into the WBNA 2024 Draft, which takes place on April 15 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. It’s the first time since 2016 that tickets have been sold for the event—thanks to Clark’s star power, 1,000 tickets sold out within 15 minutes.
As to which pro team Clark will head to, the Indiana Fever has the first overall draft pick during the draft lottery in December 2023, finishing 10th place in the 12-team league. It’s likely they’ll pick up Clark and pair her with 2023’s top pick, Aliyah Boston. This marks the second consecutive year in which the Fever won the right to select first in the upcoming draft.
“Whoever gets [Clark] is going to fill the seats up, win some basketball games, and have some fun while she’s there,” Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant said, per WaPo. “She’s one of those players who attracts other players and who attracts casual fans and turns them into real fans.”
Will Caitlin Clark go to the Olympics?
Caitlin Clark was one of 14 players invited to attend USA Basketball’s training camp in Cleveland ahead of the Paris Olympics, but she couldn’t participate because Iowa was still competing in the NCAA tournament. The team is going for their seventh consecutive gold medal—they’ve won gold in every Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Games—and are the favorites going into Paris, and putting Clark on the Olympic team would certainly attract viewers.
“Anytime you’re invited to do anything for USA Basketball, it’s a tremendous honor,” Clark said during a press conference, per USA Today. “For me it was a win-win, either doing that or this. Obviously, this was where my focus was. I wanted to get back to the Final Four with this group.”
She also addressed Olympic team speculation ahead of the Iowa final. “You always want to grow up and be on the Olympic team, but lucky for me, I have the opportunity of possibly not doing that because I want to be at the Final Four playing basketball with my team. But if not, that’s where I’ll be. People that are on that roster are people that I idolize and have idolized growing up. Just to be extended a camp invite is something you have to be proud of and celebrate and enjoy,” she said.
