In an almost empty arena at the end of November 2020, Caitlin Clark shot her first college 3-pointer. Time was ticking in the first quarter of the hawkeyes game against Northern Iowa. Clark forced a steal at midcourt and weaved her way to the right wing. With two defenders around her, she stood up. Her attempt was blocked.
This did not discourage her.
Now a senior, Clark is perhaps the biggest star in both men’s and women’s college basketball. She made more than 400 3-pointers throughout her college career and rewrote the record book — in Iowa and nationally. “We see it every single day in practice, she hits one (shot) that blows your mind or makes one pass that kind of makes your jaw drop,” Iowa assistant Abby Stamp said.
Clark succeeds with pinpoint accuracy. Teammates and coaches praise her work ethic and improved leadership skills. But it’s Clark’s 3-point shooting that often immediately jumps out at viewers. She has been compared to some other recent greats in the basketball world – Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, to name a few. But how does Clark actually compare to such sharpshooters?
Although the NBA and college 3-point line are different distances (the NBA is 23 feet, 9 inches at the top of the arc, and the college line and WNBA line are both 22 feet, 1 ¾ inches at the top), The Athletics dived into six categories to show just how prolific Clark really is and to explain how she became so deadly from behind the arc. The comparison — use the button at the top of most charts to scroll through Clark’s numbers from last season and this year (with games through Dec. 14) — reveals how this college star is already shooting like some all-time professional greats.
Clark’s ease with long-range shooting stems from years of practice. While hanging out at home in Des Moines, Clark often shoots 100 logo 3-pointers during workouts, says her coach, Kevin O’Hare. Her goal is to make at least 50. “It’s just something she’s always worked on,” O’Hare says. He adds that before Clark tries to do anything she “does all the early fundamentals to get to that point.” Considering she tries many over 30 feet, a 25-to-30-foot 3 is very much within reach.
Through Dec. 14, just over 31 percent of Clark’s shot attempts have come from between 25 and 30 feet from the rim, which is 22.1 percent above this year’s national average in college, according to CBB Analytics. She shoots 40.5 percent on such looks, more than 11 percent higher than her peers.
It is no coincidence that she shoots from such a distance, nor is it a coincidence when such attempts go in. In addition to offseason workouts, Stamp says Clark works on such efforts before, during and after practice. Iowa bigs also often set higher screens in drills when Clark is on the ball, knowing she’s more likely to draw from such distances in games. In that regard, she is like Curry, Lillard and Ionescu in how their own teams adjust spacing when they are on the floor.
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder has always been offensive and urged her teams to play with speed. The setup was ideal for Clark, who likes to push the basketball and make a play before her opponents can set up. Clark has taken more than 50 3s in the first 10 seconds of a possession this season. She took 137 top-break 3s last season and shot 39 percent on such attempts. “Sometimes she’ll get that best look right away when we get down to half court,” says Stamp.
In these early shot situations, Clark navigates a balancing act, avoiding forcing shots and instead figuring out when to get teammates involved and let possessions develop. “It’s not an easy science, the shot selection question with her, because we’ve seen her make so many challenging shots over the course of practice and her career,” says Stamp. Iowa views a good effort for all of its players as one that is in rhythm and in range. Clark’s range obviously differs from her peers, as does her willingness to move up immediately. She’s like Curry in that regard, with the Warriors star averaging 5.2 3-point attempts with between 15-24 seconds left on the shot clock last season.
Clark is, not surprisingly, Iowa’s leading creator. This season, according to CBB Analytics, her usage rate is in the 100th percentile nationally, trailing only USC freshman star JuJu Watkins. In addition to being an elite shooter, Clark succeeds with precision. As her college career progressed, she found new ways to finish around the rim as well. “We were just so excited about the way she developed her whole game,” says Stamp.
From the perimeter, however, Clark showed she can create her own shot and take advantage of kick-outs from her teammates. Last season, she led the nation in unassisted three-pointers, with 1.8 per game. She leads the nation again this season, and is also in the 98th percentile in assisted 3-pointers by making 0.7 more per game. “I would compare her to Steph; of course you take it with a grain of salt,” says O’Hare. “In how far she shoots, her release, how good she is with the ball in her hands to create things.” As the data shows, Clark, Lillard and Curry can all convert on assisted and unassisted. Ionescu has proven she can shoot from long range in the WNBA, but over the past three seasons she has made 0.56 unassisted 3s per game.
Clark rarely hesitates to attempt a 3-pointer off the catch. As a freshman at Iowa, she took 116 catch-and-shoot 3s, making 46.6 percent, according to Synergy Sports. Both her catch-and-shoot attempt total and percentage slipped as a sophomore. But during her tenure, the Hawkeyes’ coaching staff continued to develop that part of Clark’s 3-point arsenal. “We really worked on coming off screens, changing speed, changing direction, jumping to the ball, getting your feet ready, getting yourself square to catch-and-shoot more off screens,” said Stamp.
In private workouts, that meant putting down cones to mark the Iowa big’s setup screens, and mimicking the many defensive maneuvers an opposing player might take when trying to slow Clark down. She is on pace to shoot more catch-and-shoot 3s this season than she has previously in her college career. Not surprisingly, it’s an area she’s thrived in — posting a better percentage than Lillard in his final season with the Portland Trail Blazers and nearly matching Curry’s output in 2022-23. Clark’s current shooting percentage on catch-and-shoot 3s is also better than Ionescu’s during her final season at Oregon, when she shot a still-impressive 34 percent on such chances, according to Synergy Sports.
Few players, if any, have had greener lights than Clark. With each milestone, she confirms the fact that she has achieved much that no other player in the college has done. Still, Stamp does think of another comparison for Clark. She mentioned Megan Gustafson, a former Naismith Player of the Year, who was Iowa’s all-time leading scorer until Clark passed her earlier this season. Gustafson is a 6-foot-3 post player who attempted only two 3s in four years at Iowa, but she and Clark are both “masters of their craft” in Stamp’s eyes.
Clark moved into No. 9 all-time in career scoring in women’s college basketball this past weekend. If she stays healthy and maintains her current scoring average, she is on track to overtake former Washington star Kelsey Plum for no. 1 before the end of the season. Whether Clark then decides to enter the WNBA or return to Iowa for a fifth year remains uncertain, but her success has already put her in talks with basketball’s elite.
— The AthleticsSeth Partnow contributed to this report.
(Illustration and data footage: John Bradford / The Athletics; Photo of Stephen Curry: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images, photos of Caitlin Clark: G Fiume / Getty Images and Steph Chambers / Getty Images, photo of Sabrina Ionescu / Mitchell Leff)
