Iowa junior Caitlin Clark is known for her triple-doubles prowess and has achieved the 10th most of her career after scoring four goals ahead of the NCAA tournament this season. This mark is the second in Division I women’s basketball history behind Sabrina Ionescu.
Clarke, once again a leading contender for Player of the Year, broke a Big Ten record on December 4 with her seventh career triple-double. Her last match was in the Big Ten Tournament Championship when she recorded 30 points, 17 assists and 10 rebounds to beat Ohio State.
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Ionescu, an Oregon star and No. 1 pick in the 2020 WNBA draft for the New York Liberty, has racked up 26 triple-doubles in her four-year college career. By her sophomore year, she set a women’s record, and as a junior, she broke the overall NCAA Division I men’s or women’s record.
Triple-doubles are not uncommon in the college game, as they used to be. has historically been in the WNBAbut few collected more than a handful until recently.
Here’s how Clarke’s triple-doubles and averages compare to the “triple-double queen.”
Triple-double speed Caitlin Clark
Clark currently has 10 triple-doubles competing in the NCAA Tournament, second in NCAA history.
She’s the only freshman it was in december of that season. In her sophomore year, she added five more to become third in scoring for the season. These were grassroots games that included 30-point games in a row for an elite NBA-level company. Last year, she became the first Division I player to lead the nation in points (27) and assists (8).
In her junior season, she ranked fourth in career triple-doubles with six. Triple-double against Wisconsin in December was she is the first of the season and broke a tie with Samantha Logic (also from Iowa) for the most in male or female Big Ten history.
Before the NCAA Tournament, she averaged 27 points per game (third), 7.5 rebounds (167th, 95th percentile), and 8.3 assists (first). At 4:00 pm ET Friday (ESPN), Iowa will play No. 15 Southeast Louisiana to open the NCAA Tournament in Seattle Region 4.
Sabrina Ionescu record for most triple-doubles
The bulk of Ionescu’s 26 triple-doubles in 142 games, all of which she started, came in her junior and senior seasons. In addition to that, she had three more games in which she had at least 9 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, according to Her Hoop Stats. And she scored at least eight points in each category 36 times. Her record for most interceptions is six.
Ionescu’s first triple-double was in the seventh game of her collegiate career in November 2016; she added three more that season. The six she had in her sophomore year connected her to Danielle Carson of Youngstown State. for most per season. Carson was senior in 1986 when she set the record with a record three consecutive hits that fall.
As a junior in December 2018, Ionescu broke the NCAA men’s record, set two years earlier as an NCAA Division I overall record. It was the 13th most of her career as she passed BYU’s Kyle Collinsworth and further cleared Chastady Barrs, who had nine points in the Lamar women’s program in 2016–2019.
She broke her own season record with eight field goals that season, including a memorable NCAA Tournament against Indiana. It was after this game that Ionescu made headlines by saying that ESPN did not cover women’s sports. Murray State’s Ja Morant opened the men’s tournament with a triple-double a few days prior, and media outlets including ESPN incorrectly described it as “the first triple-double of March Madness since 2012” when Ionescu made one last March of the year.
As the eldest, she added eight more jewels to her crown. Ionescu also holds the record for most triple-double seasons (four) and most against one opponent with three against Arizona.
|
Year |
Number |
Notable Moments |
|
Freshman |
4 |
11/27/16 – 11p, 12p, 11a for the first time |
|
sophomore |
6 |
03/16/18 — NCAA R64 Tournament |
|
Junior |
8 |
03/24/19 – NCAA R32 vs. Indiana |
|
Older |
8 |
02/24/20 – 21b, 12p, 12d in the last match against Stanford |
Ionescu averaged 18 points (45.5 from the field), 7.3 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 34.6 minutes per game in Oregon. The number of her rebounds and assists has increased with each season. She became the first player to record 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in NCAA Division I history, with a combined total of 2,562 points, 1,040 rebounds and 1,091 assists. She has three triple-doubles in 65 WNBA games.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
