Daily News 19

Tag: WNBA Rookie of the Year

  • Future WNBA Rookie of the Year Says Caitlin Clark Ranks Behind One Star as College Basketball’s Greatest Player Ever

    Future WNBA Rookie of the Year Says Caitlin Clark Ranks Behind One Star as College Basketball’s Greatest Player Ever

    With the WNBA season paused for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Berlin, Olivia Miles is making a compelling case for why the transition from college basketball to the professional game can produce immediate stars.

    Recent rookies who will represent Team USA at the World Cup, including Rhyne Howard, Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, have exceeded expectations and set a high standard for newcomers. This season, the second overall pick has raised that bar even further, emerging as the engine of the WNBA’s best team and entering the MVP conversation alongside A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark.

    Olivia Miles Leads Rookie of the Year Race

    Through 38 games, Miles is averaging 19.7 points and 6.0 assists per game. Both figures lead her team and rank among the top eight marks across the WNBA. She has scored 749 total points, just 20 shy of Caitlin Clark’s all-time rookie record of 769.

    With four games remaining, Miles appears poised to establish a new rookie scoring record. Her production has also made the Rookie of the Year award look increasingly certain.

    Paige Bueckers tells Caitlin Clark to “Calm Down” after heated exchange

    Miles built an impressive résumé during her collegiate career, which was split between Notre Dame and TCU. Among her achievements, she became the first freshman in men’s or women’s NCAA tournament history to record a triple-double, although she never reached the national championship game.

    Miles never faced Clark’s Iowa team in college, but she has no hesitation when assessing Clark’s place in women’s basketball history. In a ranking of the greatest players in NCAA history, Miles placed Clark second behind UConn legend Breanna Stewart.

    During a featured media segment after being selected in the draft, Miles was asked to compare historic women’s basketball stars in a bracket-style format. The field was gradually narrowed to a final matchup between Clark and Stewart.

    When asked to make the final decision, Miles chose Stewart. “See, this is hard,” Miles explained. “Caitlin has the scoring, the assists. Stewie has four chips and four MVPs. I’m just gonna have to go Stewie just based off her dominance and winning.”

    Breanna Stewart’s Championships vs. Caitlin Clark’s Records

    Stewart’s statistical résumé makes Miles’ choice difficult to dispute. She finished her college career with a 151-5 record, won four consecutive national championships at UConn and earned the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award four times.

    Stewart remains the only player in women’s college basketball history to win that honor in every NCAA tournament appearance of her career.

    Clark established a different but equally enduring legacy. She led the Iowa Hawkeyes to consecutive national championship appearances and finished her career as the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer across men’s and women’s basketball, with 3,951 points.

    A two-time national player of the year, Clark also holds the all-time NCAA tournament records for total points, assists and three-pointers. Whether the standard is Stewart’s unmatched collection of championships or Clark’s groundbreaking statistical dominance, both players rank among the highest achievers in collegiate basketball history.

    Source: www.marca.com

  • Caitlin Clark Reflects on and Ranks the Defining Moments of Her WNBA and NCAA Career

    Caitlin Clark Reflects on and Ranks the Defining Moments of Her WNBA and NCAA Career

    The WNBA’s 30th season is on a brief pause until September 17 because of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Berlin. When the league resumes, all 15 teams will play the final four games of their regular-season schedules during the closing week, with the regular season ending on September 24.

    Those final games will determine playoff seeding and help decide the league’s major individual awards. The WNBA MVP race has narrowed to a two-player battle between four-time winner A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark.

    Wilson, who withdrew from the World Cup at the last minute for health reasons, is seeking a third consecutive scoring title. Clark, meanwhile, has produced historic offensive numbers, averaging 41.4 points created per game—the highest figure in WNBA history—along with 22.5 points and a league-leading 8.4 assists per game.

    Caitlin Clark ranks her top career milestones

    With the WNBA season temporarily paused, State Farm, one of Clark’s leading sponsors, released a feature video asking the Indiana Fever star to rank the defining moments of her basketball career. Her list included achievements from her record-breaking NCAA career at Iowa and her early professional career in the WNBA.

    Clark said each milestone has a unique place in her journey, but she ranked her historic shot against Michigan in 2024 as No. 1. The basket officially made her the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer among both men and women.

    Clark finished her college career in Iowa City with 3,951 points, a record that appears extremely difficult to surpass given her career average of nearly 30 points per game.

    She placed winning the WNBA Rookie of the Year award second. The honor followed a record-setting debut season in which she established single-season rookie marks for points with 769, three-pointers with 122, and assists with 337.

    Clark ranked her first WNBA triple-double third. She recorded 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 13 assists in a victory over New York, becoming the first rookie in league history and the first Fever player to reach the milestone.

    From WNBA All-Star highlights to early rookie struggles

    Clark’s fourth-ranked moment was her appearance in the WNBA All-Star Game against Team USA ahead of the Paris Olympics. The game became the most-watched WNBA All-Star Game in league history, while Clark added to the occasion by setting a rookie single-game record with 10 assists and helping her team secure the win.

    Reaching 1,000 career points in the opening game of this season came fifth on Clark’s list. She acknowledged that the milestone did not feel especially significant at the time because she was not tracking when it occurred.

    Clark placed her first professional regular-season game sixth. The contest ended in a difficult loss to the Connecticut Sun, although she scored 20 points and set a WNBA debut record with 10 turnovers.

    At 24 years old and playing the most dominant basketball of her career, Clark has ample opportunity to add more memorable achievements during the final stretch of this season and in the years ahead.