Women's Final Four 2023 - How Caitlin Clark and Iowa learned to merge her historic scoring with championship-level team hoops

DALLAS — She's been the talk of March Madness, the 21-year-old junior point guard who has scored or assisted on 64% of the Iowa Hawkeyes' points in the 2023 NCAA tournament. She can hit NBA range 3-pointers and toss no-look bounce passes with equal ease. And she has much of her adoring home state of Iowa (minus some rival Iowa State Cyclones fans) in the palm of her hand.

Caitlin Clark is a hoops junkie and historian, who as a kid instantly fell in love with basketball and now has fans nationwide in love with the way she plays it. Clark has scored 41 points in each of her last two games: first to advance to the women's Final Four, and then to upset the then-undefeated No. 1 overall seed South Carolina Gamecocks to secure Iowa's first national championship appearance Sunday (ABC, 3:30 p.m. ET) against the LSU Tigers.

When asked Saturday about comparisons to LSU Tigers legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Pete Maravich, whose NBA career ended 22 years before Clark was born, she grinned and said, «I've seen a lot of his highlights. Obviously a tremendous compliment. I saw somebody called me 'Ponytail Pete.'»

Clark is ultra-prepared for this spotlight but has also become very good at sharing it with her teammates, her coaching staff and women's basketball in general. Clark thinks big-picture in a way that seems — much like her skill set — well beyond her age.

Caitlin Clark hits logo 3s, tallies triple-doubles and has led Iowa to its first Final Four in 30 years. Steph Curry, Sue Bird and more break down why she's the most exciting player in March Madness. Story »

«I don't like to use the word 'never,' but I don't know that I've ever seen a player that can do what Caitlin does,» LSU coach Kim Mulkey said after Clark dismantled