The first of what will likely be many accolades rolled in for Iowa women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark.
The NCAA all-time scoring leader was named Big Ten Player of the Year on Tuesday, her third consecutive year winning the honor in what has been a historic season. Clark was also named a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection.
There was no question about who would be named the conference’s top player of the season, especially when she was named the conference player of the week 11 times this year. She has received that honor 29 times in her career, the most in Big Ten history. Clark also became the first back-to-back-to-back recipient of the honor since Ohio State’s Jantel Lavender in 2008-10.
This season, Clark averaged a Division I high 32.3 points and 8.7 assists per game, and became the first person in Big Ten history to make more than 500 career 3-pointers. She also has the Big Ten career assists and field goals made record.
She also is the only NCAA women’s basketball player in history to lead her conference in scoring and assists in four straight seasons. To top it off, she broke the women’s scoring record and all-time NCAA scoring record, capped off by her passing Pete Maravich’s 54-year-old record of 3,667 career points in her final home game for the Hawkeyes. Heading into the postseason, Clark has 3,685 career points.
The awards for Clark this season aren’t likely to stop this season, as she is the overwhelming favorite to win several national player of the year awards. Iowa will begin its play in the Big Ten tournament Friday, as the No. 2 seed will await the winner of Penn State vs. Wisconsin in the quarterfinals. After that, the Hawkeyes will likely be a No. 2, or even No. 1 seed, in the NCAA tournament, with the first round beginning March 22 and 23.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Caitlin Clark named Big Ten Player of the Year for third straight year
