BROOKLYN, NY – Eight days into a record-breaking college basketball career, Caitlin Clark was selected by the Indiana Fever with the No. 1 pick in Monday’s WNBA Draft.
Not only will Clark help the Heat return to the postseason for the first time since 2016, but she’s also poised to use her star power at a pivotal time in WNBA history.
“I think I’m more excited than anything,” Clark told NBC News last weekend.
Clark achieved historic success in four seasons at Iowa. She scored 3,951 points – the most in NCAA men’s or women’s Division I history. She broke the single-season 3-point record, played in two national championships and was twice named national player of the year.
Some of the accolades he’s received have come from a career so rich that Iowa announced last week that he’s not even a week away from the end of his college career.
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Clark frequently performed before sold-out crowds and his games broke television ratings records. South Carolina’s victory over Iowa in the 2024 national championship was watched by 18.9 million viewers on ABC, with a peak audience of 24.1 million viewers – a 90 percent increase from the title game from 2023 and a 289 percent increase from 2022. The game broke viewership. records. Set a few days earlier in Iowa’s Elite Eight matchup against LSU.
Monday’s draft at the Brooklyn Academy of Music was expected to break the event’s attendance record.
The prospect of Clark’s return to the WNBA fueled interest in Indiana. Thirty-six Fever games – 90 percent of their schedule – will be nationally televised next season, two more than the defending champion Las Vegas Aces.
As of Wednesday, Indiana’s average ticket price was up 190% from last season, according to ticket marketplace Vivid Tickets. Ticket sales picked up after Fever won the lottery in December, but Clark has yet to announce whether he will turn pro or return to Iowa for his final season of eligibility.
On February 29, a few days before Iowa’s final regular season home game, Clark announced her decision to enter the WNBA draft. Within minutes, Indiana, which had won just 18 games over the past two seasons, reminded fans to buy season tickets with a social media post that read, “Hope on board.” Tweeted at 9:30pm ET on Sunday with only 22 hours until the draft – a reference to Clarke’s number.
On Monday night, the wait ended as Clark joined the franchise, where he’ll join last year’s No. 1 Rookie of the Year pick, with South Carolina’s Aaliyah Boston’s popularity highlighted throughout the weekend. But before she even thought about being on a comedy show or filling an arena, she dreamed of playing in the WNBA.
In middle school, she wrote down one of her future goals: to enter the WNBA. That wish came true on Monday night.
WNBA Draft First Round Results
- Caitlin Clark, G, Iowa – Indiana Fever
- Cameron Brink, F, Stanford – Los Angeles Sparks
- Camila Cardoso, C, South Carolina – Chicago Sky (via Phoenix Mercury)
- Rickia Jackson, F, Tennessee – Los Angeles Sparks (via Seattle Storm)
- Jesse Shelton, G, Ohio State – Dallas Wings, (via Chicago Sky)
- Aaliyah Edwards, F, UConn – Washington Mystics
- Angel Reese, F, LSU – Chicago Sky (via Minnesota Lynx)
- Alyssa Feeley, F, Utah – Minnesota Lynx (via Atlanta Dream)
- Carla Light, G, Tarps (France) – Dallas Wings
- Leila Lakhan, G, Angers (France) – Connecticut Sun
- Markesha Davis, G, Ole Miss – New York Liberty
- Southside Flyers (Australia) – Atlanta Dream (via Las Vegas Aces)
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Second and third round results can be viewed here.
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(Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
