The Iowa University 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 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 — in which the Hawkeyes had lost back-to-back conference games for the first time since Clark’s freshman season — citing the youth of the current roster.
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“I can’t afford to compare what’s happened in the past because these guys give me a lot and they’re still young and I’ve got to develop a little bit of senior leadership or upper class leadership because that’s what we lack , Jensen said.
During four seasons at Iowa, Clark broke the NCAA all-time scoring record among both men’s and women’s players, leading the team to the NCAA championship game twice. She was also a consensus National Player of the Year as a junior and senior.
FEVER TO SIGN ‘ENFORCER’ TO ‘PROTECT’ CAITLIN CLARK, SAYS FORMER NBA ALL-STAR WHO HAS BEEN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROLL
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 Iowa career.
As a WNBA rookie in 2024, Clark set records for most points and 3-pointers by a rookie in league history, while also becoming the first rookie to record a triple-double, a feat she accomplished twice. Her 337 assists were not only the most by a rookie, they were the most by any player ever in a single season.
The Iowa women’s basketball team announced it will have a ceremony to retire Clark’s jersey on February 2.
Clark’s no. 22, which she wears for 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 in a first round NCAA Tournament game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, on March 23, 2024. (Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen/USA TODAY NETWORK)
Clark is expected to be in attendance and the event will be televised on FOX.
Clark’s jersey retirement comes just two months after Time magazine named her the publication’s athlete of the year. The pick drew praise but also criticism from some, including Washington Mystics owner Sheila Johnson, who recently wondered in a CNN interview why Clark was tapped for the honor and not the entire WNBA. Johnson suggested it had to do with Clark’s race.
