Caitlin Clark Could Go Down as Greatest Basketball Player Ever, Purdue WCBB HC Says | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

AP Photo/Darron Cummings

Purdue women’s basketball head coach Katie Gearlds said that Iowa superstar guard Caitlin Clark could go down as the greatest basketball player of all time.

“Twenty years from now, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re talking about her as the greatest female basketball player,” Gearlds said during an interview with Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star.

She then added: “Maybe not just female. Not just that. She’s one of the best basketball players I’ve ever seen. She’s it.”

Clark has been a transcendent superstar during her three years at Iowa, averaging 27.2 points, 8.0 assists and 7.0 rebounds per game. She just led the Hawkeyes to their first-ever national championship appearance after they beat undefeated reigning national champion South Carolina in the Final Four.

Gearlds’ remarks were in response to comments Doyel relayed about Clark being the GOAT 20 yeas from now.

“Someday you’ll see, when Caitlin Clark joins the past – 20 years from now, after she’s done at Iowa and in the Olympics and the WNBA – and it’ll feel safer, less disrespectful to those who came before her, to acknowledge she’s the greatest of all time,” Doyel wrote.

Clark very well could be, but the women’s game is loaded with star power everywhere. Doyel also spoke with Indiana head coach Teri Moren, who had this to say:

“She is by far a once-in-a-lifetime player, and is there a Caitlin Clark effect? Yeah. But I want to spread the love. I’m going to the Wooden Awards (Monday in Los Angeles), and Caitlin Clark will be there and she’s probably going to win it, but Mackenzie Holmes of Indiana, Aliyah Boston of South Carolina, Cameron Brink of Stanford and Maddy Siegrist of Villanova will be there, and they’re tremendous players.”

That Wooden Award finalist list (Clark won the award on Monday) doesn’t even include LSU forward Angel Reese, a double-double machine who just led the Lady Tigers to their first national championship. Nor does it include UConn’s Paige Bueckers, a superstar in her own right who should be back next season after sitting out this year with a torn ACL.

Clark’s recent dominance is one of the top storylines in American sports now, though, and her excellence has people wondering what could be next.