Sports
Caitlin Clark to ‘trust her gut’ on decision to return to Iowa or play for WNBA – KCRG
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – After winning just about every possible award last season, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark has not decided on if she will return to the Iowa Hawkeyes for another year. That’s why the senior is playing this season as if its her last.
“I feel like I was just a freshman,” Clark said. “I think the biggest thing is just enjoy every single second because a lot of these moments are going to be the best moments of my life.”
Clark, who could return for a fifth season, isn’t thinking about what’s next.
“It’s not something that I think about every single day. It’s not something that I let weigh on me. I’m focused on helping this team be the best team they can be,” she added.
“She’s constantly working to get better. It’s not like she’s sitting back and enjoying this time of her being the national player of the year. She wants to get it again. She’s wired that way,” Iowa women’s basketball head coach Lisa Bluder said.
This offseason Clark worked closely with former Hawkeye Tania Davis who joined the Iowa coaching staff as the director of player development.
“I put her in difficult situations. I put her where she’s going against a double team and you have to figure out how to score. You can’t use your notorious step back, going to the left,” Davis explained about working with Clark. “Just putting her in different situations that she may not think she’s going to need, but when a game time comes, she’s going to need it.”
“I understand people are going to be physical, they’re going to face guard me and I wasn’t always comfortable at times last year coming off a screen and being able to shoot the ball right away. I think those are some of the biggest things that I’ve worked on,” Clark said.
Clark also has the opportunity to become the all-time Division I women’s scorer as the guard is 810 points away from Kelsey Plum’s record of 3,527 points.
“It’s not something I’m counting down the numbers to at all,” Clark said. “I’ll live just as happy a life if I never break Kelsey Plum’s record.”
As accomplished as the superstar is, she’s also the ultimate teammate.
“I think it speaks volumes that Gabbie [Marshall] and Kate [Martin] elected to come back and wanted to play with her. That shows you what kind of teammate she is. That shows you what kind of person she is,” Bluder said.
When it comes to deciding her basketball future, she plans to trust her gut. That is what she did when she chose to go to school at Iowa.
“That was the most telling thing for me in the recruiting process. I knew there were a lot of really good options, but in my heart I wanted to be here and that’s why I selected this place. I think it’s going to be the same when I make the decision to stay here or leave,” Clark said.
Copyright 2023 KCRG. All rights reserved.
