Less than 24 hours after winning her second consecutive Naismith National Player of the Year, the Iowa basketball star was named Thursday as the Associated Press’ Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year for the second straight year. And the Hawkeyes had some fun with the announcement to Clark: a game of Wheel of Fortune.
At what looked to be the end of the team’s film session in preparation for Friday night’s Final Four game vs. No. 3 seed UConn, Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder did her best Vanna White impersonation and served as the game-show hostess.
As Clark’s teammates were close to solving the puzzle, sophomore forward Jada Gyamfi shouted out ‘Caitlin is coming back’ to which the entire room busted out in laughter, including Clark.
Clark, the presumed No. 1 overall pick in this month’s WNBA draft, is averaging 32.3 points per game in the NCAA Tournament this season. In what has been a year of Clark making history with new records day in and day out, she made more history Thursday as she became the first player to win the award in back-to-back years since Breanna Stewart won three consecutive from 2014 through 2016.
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The Hawkeyes play the Huskies on Friday (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) in the Final Four at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.