Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark broke the all-time Division I college basketball scoring record and she is rewriting history books in the process.
Clark, who recently announced that she will declare for the 2024 WNBA Draft, is one of the most impressive sharpshooters that the sport has seen. She is known for hitting 3-pointers from incredibly long distances and she even broke the women’s college basketball scoring record with a 3-pointer from the logo.
Iowa has even honored Clark’s scoring record by permanently marking the spot on the court where the record was broken, which has since become her signature shot.
While anyone who has watched her play know she is capable of shooting from incredibly far away, the numbers back this up as well. In fact, per CBB Analytics, Clark has made 84 field goals considered “long” 3-pointers beyond 25 feet.
That is considerably farther than the international 3-point distance (22 feet and 1.75 inches) for men’s and women’s college basketball, the WNBA, and FIBA. It is also beyond the NBA distance, which is 23 feet and 9 inches at the top of the key.
As you can see in her shot chart, Clark has made more “long” 3-pointers (84) than short 3-pointers (71) this season. Nearly one-third (31.5 percent) of her total shots are taken from this zone. To put that in perspective, the Division I average is 8.9 percent this season.
Meanwhile, her field goal percentage on shots between 25 and 30 feet is 39.3 percent. That is also significantly above the Division I average (29.5 percent) in 2023-24.
For comparison, no other women’s Division I college basketball has even come close to approaching as many long 3-pointers as Clark this season. In fact, she has more than the players with the second-most (Syracuse’s Dyaisha Fair has 47) and third-most (Marquette’s Mackenzie Hare has 34) combined.
| Name | Long 3’s | Team | Year |
| Caitlin Clark | 84 | Iowa (Women’s) | 2024 |
| Caitlin Clark | 76 | Iowa (Women’s) | 2023 |
| Max Abmas | 72 | Oral Roberts (Men’s) | 2023 |
| Darius McGhee | 65 | Liberty (Men’s) | 2023 |
| Max Abmas | 56 | Oral Roberts (Men’s) | 2021 |
| Antoine Davis | 56 | Detroit Mercy (Men’s) | 2023 |
| Jelly Walker | 55 | UAB (Men’s) | 2022 |
| Jelly Walker | 55 | UAB (Men’s) | 2023 |
| Max Abmas | 54 | Oral Roberts (Men’s) | 2022 |
With more games still left to play this season, Clark has already made more long 3-pointers than any other Division I player in men’s or women’s college basketball since CBB Analytics began tracking this data in 2018-19.
We know that Clark is capable of shooting from deep but let’s give it even more context. Clark has made exactly as many 3-pointers from at least 25 feet in her 30 games this season as NBA stars Devin Booker (50 games) and Kawhi Leonard (54 games) this season, per Stathead.
That is simply remarkable range from the future WNBA superstar.
[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=462925 tag=692536588]
