Iowa City, IA- The WNBA added two more Hawkeyes to their roster after last night’s WNBA draft, one of the picks made history for Iowa’s basketball program.
To no one’s surprise, the all-time leading scorer in collegiate basketball history with 3,951 points, Caitlin Clark, was the first Hawkeye to ever be selected first overall as the Indiana Fever selected the phenom. Clark led the nation in assists and scoring in back-to-back seasons, the first to ever accomplish the feat.
The Fever, led by Christie Sides in her second season at the helm, are in desperate need of a superstar after going 13-27 last season with their last non-losing season taking place back in 2016, which was also the last time the Fever made the playoffs.
The 2012 season marks their only WNBA championship and since their inception in 2000 they have posted a 0.447 winning percentage.
17 selections later, Kate Martin was picked by the Las Vegas Aces where she will join another Hawkeye legend Megan Gustafson, who is in her fifth season in the WNBA. Martin averaged 8 points per game, while shooting over 50% from the floor. She also averaged 6.8 rebounds per game.
Their fourth name change was all the Aces needed; since their move to Las Vegas in 2018, the Aces have gone 137-61 and have won the WNBA championship in back-to-back seasons under the coaching of Becky Hammon.
Before the move, the Aces—then the San Antonio Stars and Silver Stars—experienced a losing season in 13 of their 21 seasons.
Clark and Martin are now the fourth and fifth Hawkeyes to be drafted into the WNBA since 2019, including Kathleen Doyle, Monika Czinano, and the aforementioned Gustafson.
The WNBA season is set to start on May 14th.