Iowa's Caitlin Clark declares for WNBA draft: What to know - ESPN

The news we thought might not come until March or even April instead rocked the basketball world on the final day of leap-year February: Caitlin Clark will not return for a fifth season at Iowa, and instead will enter the WNBA draft.

Clark made her announcement on Thursday afternoon via social media. She now has 3,650 points, and is 18 from passing LSU's Pete Maravich for the NCAA men's and women's scoring mark.

That could come in what will now be her final regular-season home game on Sunday, as the Hawkeyes face Big Ten regular-season champion Ohio State. Senior day will indeed be an emotional one at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, which has been sold out all season as fans clamor to see Clark and her teammates.

The news is not just big for college basketball, but also for the WNBA. The projected No. 1 picks the past two seasons — Kentucky's Rhyne Howard (2022) and South Carolina's Aliyah Boston (2023) — both opted not to utilize the COVID-19 waiver for a fifth season and were indeed picked first. Both were WNBA rookie of the year winners.

Clark is a lock as the top pick, and exactly what the Indiana Fever need: a scoring point guard to pair with young posts like Boston and 2022 No. 2 pick NaLyssa Smith. The Fever haven't reached the playoffs since Tamika Catchings retired in 2016.

Now that we know Clark's time is running short in college and that she will be playing in the WNBA this season — which opens May 14 — ESPN's Charlie Creme, Rebecca Lobo, Alexa Philippou and Michael Voepel look at what the news means for Iowa, the NCAA tournament and the WNBA.

Creme: Clark's teammates and Iowa's coaching staff likely had some idea this was coming for a while now, so I'm not sure the impact will be that significant. Clark's plans might