Caitlin Clark's Iowa coach says team is now missing leadership after Clark's departure
Iowa University's women's basketball team and head coach Jan Jensen are going through 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 they've struggled with 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 having lost back-to-back 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 has happened in the past, because these guys are giving me a lot and they're still young, and I have to develop a little bit of senior leadership or upperclassman leadership, because that is what we're missing," Jensen said.
In four seasons at Iowa, Clark broke the NCAA's all-time scoring record among both men's and women's players, leading the team to the NCAA championship game twice. She was also a consensus National Player of the Year as a junior and senior.
Clark was selected with the No. 1 pick in last year's WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever after her Iowa career.
As a WNBA rookie in 2024, Clark set records for the most points and 3-pointers by a rookie in league history, while also becoming the first rookie to record a triple-double, a feat she accomplished twice. Her 337 assists not only were the most by a rookie, they were the most by any player ever in a single season.
The Iowa women's basketball team announced it will have a ceremony to retire Clark's jersey on Feb. 2.
Clark's No. 22, which she wears for the Fever, will hang from the rafters at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City after a ceremony honoring the program's most accomplished player.
Clark is expected to be in attendance, and the event will be broadcast 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 prompted praise, but also criticism from some, including Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson, who recently wondered in a CNN interview why Clark was tapped for the honor and not the entire WNBA. Johnson suggested it had to do with Clark's race.
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