Caitlin Clark has a seismic decision to make next year. Just a few days after Iowa's 2023-24 season comes to an end, she will need to choose between declaring for the WNBA — where she is all-but guaranteed to be the first overall pick — or returning to Iowa for her fifth and final NCAA season.
Of course, Clark can't go wrong with either choice — which she made clear to Coach K during an appearance on the legendary Duke coach's weekly SiriusXM show, "Basketball and Beyond", earlier this week.
During their interview, Krzyzewski asked Clark about the decision she'll need to make in the coming months; to which Clark responded, "It's a hard decision, because in my eyes, it's like a win-win. I can go and kind of live out my dream, or I can stay [at Iowa] and be in college, start working on my master's, or start working on another degree and still play college basketball with some of my best friends."
Could @CaitlinClark22 shock the basketball world and return to Iowa for another season?
"It's a hard decision, in my eyes it's like a win-win."@DukeMBB | @IowaWBB | @WNBA pic.twitter.com/GAxHy3PJlj
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) December 19, 2023
Clark continued, adding, "So that's almost what makes it so hard. It's like both seem so amazing. But yeah, it's cool, obviously COVID has allowed me the opportunity to have this choice... but I'm just trying to live in the moment. It's a big decision, and I try to not get too stressed out about it."
When Clark mentions that COVID has allowed her the opportunity to have this choice, she's referring to the NCAA having granted all student athletes who were playing a collegiate sport in 2020-21 an extra year of eligibility, to make up for their seasons which were cancelled because of the pandemic.
Considering that the Indiana Fever secured the first overall pick of the 2024 WNBA Draft last week, surely Fever fans aren't stoked to hear that Clark is still weighing a potential return to Iowa next season.
What's for certain is that Clark still has some more accolades to acquire while at Iowa. Not only is she eager to bring a national championship trophy back to Iowa City — especially after losing to Kim Mulkey's LSU squad in the national championship game last season — but Clark is also chasing Kelsey Plum's all-time Division I women's basketball scoring record of 3,527 points. Barring injury, Clark, who has 3,079 career points as of Thursday morning, will most likely surpass Plum's record by season's end. She also has a good chance of breaking Pete Maravich's record for most Division 1 basketball points scored regardless of gender, which sits at 3,667 points.
Indiana Fever fans are hoping she'll accomplish all of that as soon as possible.
