There's Only One Caitlin Clark. Who Else Has "Clark-like" Stats?
There's Only One Caitlin Clark. Who Else Has "Clark-like" Stats?
Meet some of the guards - mostly at smaller schools - putting up numbers similar to the Iowa star.
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Let's begin with this fact: statistically speaking, Caitlin Clark doesn't really have any peers at the collegiate level. Her current averages of 27 points, seven rebounds and seven assists a game, if they hold up, would be unprecedented among Division I players not named Caitlin Clark in the Her Hoop Stats era (2009-present). Same for Division II and Division III, for which Her Hoop Stats has records since the 2017-18 season.
Just based on scoring and assists alone, the Iowa guard stands out among every college basketball player this season. There are (a few) players who score more and a few who distribute the ball more, but taken together her performance is singular.
If we were looking for basketball players at all levels this season who are putting up Clark-like performances across multiple categories, who are they? To answer this, I used what's called a cluster analysis that arranges players based on the average "distance" between them. Under this method, Clark is grouped with other players who had high scoring, rebounding and assist averages (I also used steals and turnovers for my analysis). Players with high per-game averages in just two of those categories - say, points and rebounding - would be in a different group.
To help illustrate the differences between players in Clark’s cluster, I calculated a composite index by adding up per-game stats for points, rebounds, assists and steals and subtracting turnovers. Clark's score on this index is 39.8, which is a good distance away from even those players closest to her, most of whom have indexes in the mid-30s. There are two players in all of college basketball with a higher current composite score than Clark, and both of them are forwards with higher rebounding averages: Angel Reese of LSU and Maddy Siegrist of Villanova. Neither of them average more than 2.5 assists per game.
Here are five guards who are in Clark's neighborhood, statistically-speaking, and you may not have heard of them because some play at smaller schools. I'll repeat what I said: this isn't evidence that these players are as good as Clark, just that they have put up some similarly eye-catching numbers against their peers.
Closest to Clark using that composite index is Gianna Gotti of Brooklyn College, who has increased her scoring average from 13 to 21 points a game this season while posting 6.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists a game. Her 5.2 steals a game is tops in Division III this season. Gotti transferred from Division II Bridgeport in 2020.
Just behind is Elizabeth Singleton, a graduate student at Clarks Summit University, a Division III school in Pennsylvania. The 5-foot-5 guard averages 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists per game, basically what she did last season. Among D-III players, she currently ranks in the top 50 in scoring, rebounding and assists. Singleton’s lesser scoring (compared to Clark) makes her composite figure lower.
D-III Northern Vermont's Paris Atuahene is a 5-foot-3 sophomore guard from Arizona who leads her team in scoring (24.5 ppg) and assists (5.3 apg) and is second in rebounding (7.3 rpg). Were it not for her team-high 5.9 turnovers a game, she'd have an even higher composite score. Like Clark, she excels at getting to the foul line; Atuahene ranks first in Division III with seven made free throws a game.
Keishana Washington of Drexel has put up some of the gaudiest scoring numbers anywhere this season, which boosted her composite score. Her smallest scoring output has been 15 points against Buffalo, and she is shooting 45% from the floor despite taking 37.5% of her team's shots. Washington isn't just a scorer, though. She's in the top 100 in Division I in assists per game, and for someone who has the ball in her hands so much, she averages just 2.5 turnovers a game.
Another D-I guard in Clark's neighborhood is McKenna Hofschild of Colorado State, a 5-foot-5 senior who started her career at Seton Hall before transferring to the Rams. A two-time All-Mountain West performer, she has increased her scoring and assists every season and currently averages 21.9 points and 7.2 assists a game. Her offensive win shares per 40 minutes score, an advanced statistic that estimates the total number of wins a player produces through their offense, is fourth in Division I. Hofschild isn't just racking up stats against lesser teams, either; she had 18 points and nine assists against BYU and 21 points, seven rebounds and seven assists against Auburn this season.
You might ask, what about Ta'Niya Latson, the Florida State freshman who has put up some remarkable numbers in the first 20 games of the season? She's close, based on the composite index, but comparatively low rebounding average (4.9 per game) and assists (3.3 per game) put some distance between her and Clark. Of course, this is Latson's first season, but one of the things that makes Caitlin Clark so unique is that she's had a similar stat line since she started playing college basketball.
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.