Fans of Caitlin Clark got a final chance to bid farewell to the basketball superstar Wednesday night when the University of Iowa held its end-of-year celebration.
Some 8,000 screaming fans packed into Iowa's home arena to commemorate the Hawkeyes' season. During the festivities, Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz announced that Iowa will be retiring Clark's No. 22 jersey, making it just the third in program history to be memorialized.
"There's been a lot of really good 22s to come before me and play for this program, whether it's Kathleen Doyle or Sam Logic," Clark said after the announcement. "So, that number holds a lot of weight, far beyond my name, and I guess I'm just really grateful."
Caitlin Clark offered $5M to join Ice Cube's BIG3 basketball league
The 22-year-old has already shared her intention to declare for the WNBA draft after this season, but Ice Cube thinks there's a way she can do both.
Despite falling one game short of a national title for a second consecutive year, it was a storybook season for Clark. From breaking the all-time college basketball scoring record to drawing the largest women's basketball regular season television audience of the past 25 years, there's no denying Clark's indelible impact on not only college basketball, but women's sports as a whole.
Next up for Clark is the WNBA draft on April 15, when she is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick. The Indiana Fever have the first selection for the second year in a row, meaning Clark may find herself staying in the Midwest.
