The University of Iowa 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 have struggled in 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 losing consecutive conference games for the first time since Clark’s freshman season — citing the youth of the current team.
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“I can’t afford to compare what happened in the past, because these guys bring a lot to me and they are still young, and I have to develop a little bit of high-level leadership or upper class leadership, because that’s what we have,” Jensen said.
In four seasons at Iowa, Clark broke the all-time NCAA record among men’s and women’s players, leading the team to the NCAA championship game twice. She was also named the consensus National Player of the Year as a junior and senior.
FEVER MUST SIGN ‘ENFORCE’ TO ‘PROTECT’ CAITLIN CLARK, SAYS FORMER NBA ALL-STAR WHO HAS BEEN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROLE
Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Lisa Bluder, left, and Caitlin Clark talk during practice for the NCAA women’s college basketball championship game between Iowa and South Carolina on April 6, 2024. (Zach Boyden-Holmes/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Clark was selected with the No. 1 pick in last year’s WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever following her career at Iowa.
As a 2024 WNBA rookie, Clark set records for most points and three-pointers by a rookie in league history, while also becoming the first rookie to record a triple-double , a feat she accomplished twice. His 337 assists were not only the most by a rookie, but also the most ever by a player in a single season.
The Iowa women’s basketball team announced it will hold a ceremony to retire Clark’s jersey on February 2.
Clark’s number 22, which she wears for the Feverwill hang from the rafters of Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City after a ceremony honoring the program’s most accomplished player.
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark reacts while playing Holy Cross during an NCAA tournament first-round game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, March 23, 2024. (Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Clark is expected to be in attendance and the event will be broadcast on FOX.
Clark will retire from the jersey just two months after Time magazine named her Athlete of the Year. The choice drew praise, but also criticism from some, including Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson, who I recently asked myself in an interview with CNN, why Clark was chosen for this honor and not the entire WNBA. Johnson suggested it had to do with Clark’s race.
