Caitlin Clark is the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball, finishing her career with 3,951 points across four seasons.
Caitlin Clark was shockingly candid about the difference between college basketball and the WNBA
“If you go back and watch the way people guarded me in college, it’s almost, like, concerning,” said the Indiana Fever rookie.
Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Noa Dalzell is a senior writer covering the WNBA and all of women’s basketball for Breakaway, SB Nation’s women’s sports vertical, as well as the Celtics for CelticsBlog.
Now, when she looks back, she questions why she wasn’t guarded better.
In a TIME interview with Sean Gregory, Clark noted just how much higher the basketball IQ is in the WNBA than in the women’s game.
“Professional players and professional coaches — this is no disrespect to college women’s basketball — are a lot smarter,” Clark said. “I love women’s college basketball. But if you go back and watch the way people guarded me in college, it’s almost, like, concerning. They didn’t double me, they didn’t trap me, they weren’t physical.”
Clark acknowledged that many of the players she faced were not continuing their careers past college, and that basketball IQ played a role.
“A lot of those women will never go on to play another basketball game in their life,” Clark said. “They don’t have the IQ of understanding how the game works. So I completely understand it. And it’s no disrespect at all. They don’t have the IQ. You have to simplify it for girls at that age.”
In her senior season, Clark averaged 32.1 points, 8.5 assists, and 7.3 rebounds, recording six triple-doubles. Her 2024 tournament run was punctuated by a 41-point, 12-assist outing in an Elite Eight win over LSU. In that game, she was primarily guarded by Hailey Van Lith, a 5’ 7 guard who clearly struggled to keep up with her.
At the time, many wondered why LSU didn’t double-team her or put a more physical defender on her. The end result was a 94-87 Iowa victory.
Now, we know that Clark also often wondered about opposing teams’ and coaches’ lackluster schemes as well.
Clark struggled in the early days of her WNBA career, but quickly found her footing, going on to average 19.2 points, 8.4 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game. From the jump, she faced a level of physicality and defensive intensity she rarely faced in college.
In her TIME interview with Gregory, an NCAA women’s basketball game between USC and Ole Miss was fitting playing in the background.
“I feel like if I was out there, I would literally have 50 [points],” Clark said. “The college game is so much easier than professional.”
