Iowa women’s basketball will retire Caitlin Clark’s No. 22

Following a historic, record-shattering career at Iowa, the Hawkeyes announced plans to retire Caitlin Clark’s No. 22 jersey.

The news was announced during the team’s welcome home ceremony on Wednesday, following the Hawkeyes’ loss to unbeaten South Carolina in the national championship game on Sunday.

Iowa’s announcement comes just a day after the all-time leading scorer won the John R. Wooden Award for the second straight year as the nation’s top women’s college basketball player.

After leading her team to back-to-back national title game berths, multiple Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles, and more, her career has prompted a debate about whether she is the GOAT of women’s basketball.

[Further reading: Why Caitlin Clark isn’t the GOAT of women’s college basketball, but its most influential] 

Clark finished with 3,951 career points, which shattered the all-time NCAA Division I scoring mark for both men’s and women’s basketball and also drew huge numbers in viewership, ticket sales, and attention to the sport.

The unprecedented amount of coverage on the sport and her collegiate career is already set to follow her into the WNBA, where she is predicted to be drafted by the Indiana Fever as the No. 1 pick. The league announced on Wednesday plans to broadcast 36 of the Fever’s 40 games on national networks and streaming partners. 

While the end of Clark’s collegiate career was bittersweet after falling in the NCAA title game for the second year in a row, her jersey will forever hang in the rafters as a reminder of her monumental impact on the game of women’s basketball.