Notre Dame legend Muffet McGraw claims women’s basketball “owes Caitlin Clark quite a lot”
Former Iowa Hawkeyes guard and Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark is hailed as one of the best in the women's game. Despite just entering her second season in the WNBA, the scorer has trailblazed a new era in women's basketball with her talent.
Former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw acknowledged Clark's impact, despite being a product of a different program, during the 2025 Naismith Awards on Thursday.
"I think women my age all dreamed this would be possible, and when Caitlin Clark came on the scene a few years ago, she made it all happen," McGraw said. "I think we all owe Caitlin Clark quite a lot, how she's grown, everything about women's basketball. The attention that we're getting in the media, from fans, from kind of fans that aren't women's basketball fans." (o:10)
"We got the casual fan now watching the game. I think we've come so far, just in the last five years, that it's amazing certainly something that we hoped would happen and dreamed would happen and it's great to see it come to fruition," she added.
Ever since McGraw retired in 2020, the Fighting Irish have been under the tutelage of Niele Ivey, who led the program to a 28-6 overall record, 16-2 during conference play, in the 2024-2025 campaign.
Meanwhile, Clark is ramping up for her sophomore season in the WNBA after being named the 2024 Rookie of the Year.
Caitlin Clark made an irreplaceable mark in women's basketball despite not winning a national title
Although regarded as one of the greatest women's college basketball players of all time, Caitlin Clark could not bring home a national championship to the Iowa Hawkeyes in her four-year tenure. The closest she ever got was in 2023 and 2024, when, in both seasons, Clark brought the team to the national title game but lost on both occasions.
Still, the 23-year-old's legacy is in the upper echelon of all-time college basketball greats, given that she garnered a plethora of individual accolades such as being the all-time leading scorer in Division 1 women's basketball, a two-time Naismith College Player of the Year awardee and a two-time John R. Wooden Award recipient.