It's Her Record...But Also Hers (For Now)

We all knew Caitlin Clark was going to break the NCAA women's scoring record, and, when the day came, she sure did it with style!  Clark scored a career-high 49 points against Michigan on Thursday night to break Kelsey Plum's record, and the record-breaking points came with what else?  Her signature "logo three."

Clark's pursuit of the record has been the talk of college basketball this season, and it's certainly drawn a good amount of attention.  Everyone seems to have an opinion about Caitlin Clark, even if that opinion is completely off-base and makes the person look like an idiot.  Sheryl Swoopes is certainly entitled to feel however she feels about Clark and her prospects for the WNBA, where she'll be the likely No. 1 pick by the Indiana Fever in April.  Swoopes got one very important detail wrong in her criticism of Clark, though.

Swoopes suggested that the record is illegitimate because Clark "had an extra year."  That's the exact same argument I used against Detroit Mercy's Antoine Davis last year as he was chasing Pete Maravich's men's record.  There was even talk about inviting below-.500 Detroit Mercy to a postseason tournament just so he could have at least one more chance to break the record.

It's true that the NCAA gave every student-athlete who competed in 2020-21 an extra year of eligibility.  Davis took advantage of that extra year and played five full seasons at Detroit Mercy.  That's why I thought his record should've had an asterisk had he passed Pistol Pete.  Clark, however, is in her fourth year of eligibility.  She can use the fifth next year if she wants to return to Iowa, but she didn't need an extra year to break the record.  So, no Sheryl, it's not "illegitimate."

Questioning whether Clark will be just as good in the WNBA is one thing, but questioning the legitimacy of her record is something different entirely.  Caitlin Clark is the all-time leading scorer in Division I women's basketball.  Period.  End of sentence.  Kelsey Plum scored 3,527 career points.  Caitlin Clark has 3,569 and counting, with two weeks of the regular season, the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament still to go.  The all-time women's college basketball record is within reach.

That record belongs to Lynette Woodard, who scored 3,649 points (without the benefit of a three-point line) for Kansas from 1977-81.  One of the greatest women's players in history, Woodard won a gold medal with the U.S. National Team at the 1984 Olympics and later became the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters.  She even played in the WNBA during the league's first two seasons.

When Woodard was at Kansas, women's sports were governed by the AIAW.  The NCAA didn't begin sponsoring women's basketball until 1981-82, the year after Woodard graduated.  As a result, the NCAA record book starts with the 1981-82 season.  Since Woodard never played in the NCAA, she can't hold the NCAA record.

An argument has been made that the NCAA should recognize players' AIAW stats and incorporate the AIAW records into their own.  That's what the NFL did with the AFL, and MLB is in the process of adding stats from the Negro Leagues into its record books.  However, the NFL didn't include stats from the AAFC after absorbing that league.  Likewise, the NBA doesn't include ABA stats nor does the NHL with the WHA.  So, there's a precedent for both.

There's even an existing precedent within the sport of women's basketball.  Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer is the all-time winningest coach with over 1,200 career wins.  She started her career in the AIAW at Idaho.  Those victories are included as part of her career total.  So, why should her AIAW wins count, but not Woodard's AIAW points?  It IS a legitimate question!

Whether the NCAA should or shouldn't include the records set by female athletes during the AIAW Era is a completely different conversation.  And it's one that won't be settled anytime soon.  They've given no indication that it'll happen, and I'm not sure how much it was even discussed before Clark's record pursuit thrust Woodard back into the spotlight after all these years.  But it does highlight an era that should be recognized and is finally getting some long overdue focus.

Personally, I'm fine with there being two separate sets of records.  That's why it's not wrong to call Caitlin Clark the NCAA record-holder.  It doesn't take away anything from Lynette Woodard to say that.  Clark is NOT, however, the all-time leading scorer in women's college basketball.  That record still belongs to Woodard, at least for the time being.

Although, Woodard's hold on that record might not last too much longer, which would make the entire thing moot.  Clark is only 80 points behind her.  She averages nearly 33 per game.  Iowa has four regular season games left, so it's highly likely she'll have already passed Woodard before her Senior Day game against Ohio State on March 3.  And, after that, Pete Maravich's 3,667 points aren't too far away.  How cool would it be if she passes Pistol Pete on Senior Day?

Bottom line, it's ultimately not going to matter whose record she broke when.  Because she's going to pass all three.  Plum is already in Clark's rearview mirror.  Woodard and Maravich are next.  It's not a question of if she'll pass then.  It's when.  And how many she'll end up with.  It seems certain she'll break 3,700, and a long NCAA run by one of the best teams in the nation could easily bring her near or over 3,800, leaving little doubt over who the rightful record-holder is.

Despite what Sheryl Swoopes thinks, Caitlin Clark will go down as the greatest scorer in college basketball history.  Whether it's NCAA, women's or NCAA women's, it doesn't matter.  She'll have them all!