Caitlin Clark Takes Aim at Record Thursday

History is just a few logo threes away, but Caitlin Clark said on Wednesday that she’s just another college student.

“Sure, my life kind of changed somewhat, but like I still live the exact same way,” the Iowa senior guard said on Wednesday.

Clark, with 3,520 career points, is eight points away from passing Kelsey Plum on the NCAA all-time women’s basketball scoring list, a record that should fall on Thursday night when the fourth-ranked Hawkeyes play Michigan at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

As the distance between Plum and Clark dwindled in recent weeks, the attention has grown exponentially. But Clark said the best way she has handled it has been to just put down the phone.

“Like I said, I’m still a college kid,” Clark said. “I still clean my apartment, do my laundry, (although) a lot of times I call my mom to come do it for me.”

Clark appeared at the weekly media availability smiling at the thought of what would be coming a night later.

“I think I’m excited,” Clark said. “You know, it’s going to be a special night. I’ve got a lot of family coming, that’ll be a lot of fun. But I think my main focus is just, honestly, going out there and having a blast with my teammates and enjoying it. Obviously we need to come out and perform really well.”

The Hawkeyes (22-3 overall, 11-2 Big Ten) are coming off Sunday’s 82-79 loss at Nebraska that knocked them out of a share of the conference lead. They’re tied with Indiana for second place, one game behind Ohio State, with five regular-season games remaining, so they can’t afford a home stumble against the Wolverines (16-9, 7-6).

The record, Clark said, hasn’t been a topic of conversation within the team.

“It’s just, go out there and play basketball and have fun,” Clark said, “and this is kind of what comes along with it.”

“Honestly I don't know that we really talked about that record that much,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “I mean, it's like you guys are talking about it all the time. But we're really not talking about it. I don't know if we’ve talked about it one time in practice yet, or one time in a team meeting yet.”

Bluder said she planned on talking about it during a team meeting later in the day.

“That might be the first time,” she said.

Plum had said during a recent media availability that her pursuit of the record in 2017 was “very much a low point in my life” because of the stress that went with it.

“I haven't really felt that at all,” Clark said. “Obviously I get what Kelsey is getting at. I have so much respect for her and she's reached out and been very supportive through all of this. And I think that's so cool to have somebody that I grew up idolizing support me so much and want to see young women's basketball players be really great. I think that's really cool.”

“I think just for me, it's just the excitement. You know, no matter what record I broke or not broke, that's never something that I'm focused on or wanting to do or accomplish. And obviously, I understand the magnitude of this, but I think it's just kind of come along with how my four years have gone and it's crazy looking back and how fast everything's gone. But I'm just really thankful and grateful.”

“You know, it's pretty exciting,” Bluder said. “It should be a historic day tomorrow because eight points is what we're looking at for this record. And obviously she's going to just blast it out of water and so it's going to be fun to see how many points she adds on to that.”