Last year, a round before where we are now, I wrote about Paige Bueckers having “the Jordanesque, Bryantesque killer instinct in the Elite Eight.” At the time, Bueckers was two wins away from capping a phenomenal individual tournament with a championship that would immortalize her efforts.
Bueckers would not go on to win the national championship, so we know the legacy of Caitlin Clark’s 2023 tournament is still hanging in the balance — Iowa winning it all would place Clark’s performances in the Elite Eight and Final Four in an even higher air — but it is already unforgettable.
Clark opened the tournament with 26 points, seven rebounds and 12 assists against SE Louisiana. She had her most efficient game of the tourney from the field (9-of-14) and was 3-of-6 from downtown. In the second round, perhaps still spooked by last year’s second-round disappointment, she put up her weakest performance, yet for her that still meant 22 points, 12 assists and three steals. The 22 points marks a tournament low, as does her 35.3 percent shooting from the floor in that game (6-of-17).
Clark broke 30 points for the first time in the tournament in the Sweet Sixteen, going for 31 and eight helpers. She shot 11-of-22 from the field and 4-of-9 from distance.
Then came the epic Elite Eight game. Clark made a personal-2023-tournament-high eight threes at a 57.1 percent clip and also went to the line more frequently than she did in any other tourney game, finishing 11-of-13 at the stripe. When the dust settled on a 97-83 win over Louisville, she had 41 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists for the first 30-point triple-double in NCAAW Tournament history.
Perhaps an even more historically significant performance, given the opponent, came in the Final Four. Clark’s Hawkeyes took down a South Carolina team that was picked to win it all in 42.8 percent of ESPN Tournament Challenge brackets. Her signature stretch came when she made threes at 8:52 and 7:26 remaining to make it 62-60 Iowa and 67-62 Iowa, respectively. The second of those was a deep, straightaway trey that won’t soon be forgotten in Hawkeye lore.
Iowa led the rest of the way, with Clark icing the game by making 4-of-4 free throws after McKenna Warnock’s now-famous offensive rebound. Clark scored the Hawkeyes’ final 13 points and 16 of their 18 in the fourth quarter. She assisted Monika Czinano on the only other basket.
Bueckers and Aliyah Boston have been great in recent years. But what many of…
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