Caitlin Clark is breaking college basketball for Iowa

Caitlin Clark was a superstar from the moment she stepped on the court for the Iowa Hawkeyes. A consensus top-five recruit from nearby West Des Moines, Clark decided to play for her state school rather than a typical college basketball blueblood. All Clark did as a freshman was lay out a convincing case that she was immediately the best player in America: she led the country in total points and assists, she hit more threes than anyone in America and did it at better than a 40 percent from three, and she shared the freshman of the year awards with UConn phenom Paige Bueckers.

For as impressive as Clark’s freshman year was, she’s somehow taken her game up another level as a sophomore.

Clark started her second season by crossing the 1,000 point mark for career in the second fewest games in NCAA history — only behind one-time WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne at Delaware. Then she became the first player in college basketball history to drop 30-point triple-doubles in consecutive games when she lit up Nebraska and Minnesota.

Clark already had two 40-point games on her resume this season when Iowa traveled to Ann Arbor to face No. 6 Michigan on Sunday. All she did against the Wolverines was turn in arguably the most impressive game of her career with a shot-making display so impressive the highlights went viral.

Iowa lost to Michigan, 98-90, but Clark was incredible, finishing with 46 points and 10 assists on 14-of-29 shooting from the field 6-of-13 shooting from three. Some of these shots are just totally ridiculous.

That video has been retweeted more than 6K times already and has 26K likes and counting. It’s nothing new for Clark to put up video games and highlights that would make Stephen Curry blush, but now the entire country is starting to catch on.

Clark had a quiet first quarter before going bananas. Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico couldn’t believe what she was watching.

“I didn’t even know what the heck was going on,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “I’ve been coaching for a long time, but that was some display. She dribbled it one time from halfcourt and shot the ball from halfcourt. It was pretty ridiculous for sure.”

Barnes Arico wasn’t lying: the only basketball player at any level to watch Clark’s production against Michigan in the last 15 years was Kevin Durant.

The Iowa women’s hoops Twitter account has become an essential follow this season for keeping up with the Clark show. This is one of the great highlights of the college season.

So is this.

Like, what? Breaking the full court trap by herself, finding her way back to the three-point line, and unleash a pull-up triple that hits nothing but yet? This really is Curry-like, but it must be stated that Curry never did anything like this at 20 years old even during his standout college career at Davidson.

The highlights of Clark’s deep shooting ability are mesmerizing, but that’s just a small part of her game. Clark has an incredibly complete skill set with the ball in her hands perfect for a ‘heliocentric’ style of play. Clark is currently leading college basketball in points per game and assists per game, and it isn’t particularly close in either category. She’s shooting just 30.2 percent from three this year — a drop of 10 percentage points from last season — but she’s also improved her free throw shooting to nearly 90 percent this year. She’s clearly an incredible shooter who has been living off a tough diet of shots with opposing defenses completely keyed in on stopping her.

This is a future WNBA star we get to enjoy right now at the college level playing for her state team. Clark already feels like a prodigy, and this is just the start of her rise in the basketball world. Get on board now, because watching her play is going to be one hell of a ride.