Caitlin Clark’s name is emblazoned on almost every collegiate basketball history book.
Throughout her four years at Iowa, the all-time scoring champion, Wooden Award and Naismith Award winner, three-time Big Ten champion, and three-time AP All-American has dominated the game.
She’s scheduled for one more NCAA Tournament run before she concludes her collegiate career and enters the WNBA Draft. Clark can earn that coveted national championship as the icing on top of an already illustrious career.
As Clark aims for the national title, she can also surpass 4,000 points — a feat no one has accomplished in history. Already the overall scoring champion, she can pad her total in each game during the Big Dance.
Here’s how Clark can hit the 4,000-point mark en route to a national championship.
How many points does Caitlin Clark need to reach 4,000?
Clark broke the overall all-time scoring record that Pete Maravich set in 1970 at LSU and is continuing to add cushion to her new record.
She’s up to 3,771 points with the NCAA Tournament remaining in her Iowa career. The most games she could play in the Big Dance is six: the round of 64, round of 32, Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, and national championship.
Clark needs 229 points to reach the 4,000-point mark, so if she leads the Hawkeyes back to the title game, she’d need to average 38.2 points per game to make history.
Of course, it’s not guaranteed that Iowa will win its way to the championship, but Clark has her best chance of hitting 4,000 if the Hawkeyes do. If she plays in just five games, her average would need to reach 45.8 points — a far less realistic outcome.
Clark is averaging 31.9 points per game through 33 games this season, which ranks as the third most in women’s college basketball history. Only Patricia Hoskins of Mississippi Valley State in 1988-89 (33.63) and Andrea Congreaves of Mercer in 1991-92 (33.04) had more points per game in a season.
The senior Iowa guard would need to surpass her season scoring average by about six points during the tournament to reach 4,000.
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