The last time Iowa guard Caitlin Clark played in Evanston, things were a lot different.
There was no hype around the NCAA scoring record being broken or any fanfare attached to her arrival in town. There were only 1,578 fans in attendance as Clark and teammate Monika Czinano each had double-doubles to lead the Hawkeyes to a 72-67 overtime victory against Northwestern in January 2022.
Since then, Clark has become the face of women’s basketball. That, in turn, has made the Iowa women’s team the hottest ticket anywhere it takes the court. On Wednesday, Clark and the No. 3 Hawkeyes will play in front of the first sellout crowd in the history of NU women’s basketball at Welsh-Ryan Arena (7 p.m., Peacock).
The most pressing question every opponent has the task of answering before facing the reigning women’s player of the year is simple: How do you guard her?
‘‘I’m not playing,’’ Wildcats coach Joe McKeown joked.
Humor aside, the only real way to defend Clark, McKeown acknowledged, is to accept that she’s going to score, regardless. From there, the goal is to make her as uncomfortable as possible and force her into turnovers.
In her senior season, Clark is averaging 32 points, 7.6 assists and 7.1 rebounds. The last time she was held to fewer than 20 points was last February, when she finished with 18 in a loss to Maryland.
In Clark’s four college seasons, NU has limited her to an average of 21 points — including a game with a career-low eight in her freshman season — in going 3-3 against Iowa. But the Hawkeyes have won the last three games between the teams, with the missing piece for the Wildcats being Veronica Burton, the most decorated defensive player to come through the program.
‘‘We always had to know where she was on the floor,’’ Burton said about her matchups against Clark. ‘‘We played a blizzard defense, so it wasn’t going to be one person defending her.
‘‘From a scouting-report standpoint, when she would go left, we knew that she loved her step-back three. When she went right, we knew she wanted to get to the basket.’’
Clark still loves to take step-back three-pointers going left and drive to the rim going right. The only difference is, she’s more efficient. She’s shooting 40.7% from three-point range and has a true shooting percentage — when adjusted for three-pointers and free throws — of 63.9%.
She doesn’t make it easier on opponents when she’s starting her own fast break, either. Clark’s averaging about seven defensive rebounds a game.
Iowa reached the NCAA women’s title game last season before falling to LSU and is in pursuit of another championship opportunity this season. NU, meanwhile, has fallen from Big Ten champions into rebuilding mode in the last four seasons. McKeown has six underclassmen on his roster, with freshman Casey Harter and sophomore Caroline Lau leading the Wildcats in minutes in the backcourt.
On the flip side, the Hawkeyes’ biggest asset — aside from Clark, of course — is their experience. Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall can punish teams from outside, and Hannah Stuelke is averaging 12.6 points in the post.
McKeown acknowledged the game won’t be business as usual for NU from a logistical standpoint. He said the athletic department is prepared for the sellout crowd and, more specifically, for a court-storming in the wake of a recent incident at Ohio State in which a fan ran into Clark while she was on her way to the locker room.
Clark has 3,389 points in her college career, 138 behind Kelsey Plum’s record of 3,527. She won’t break Plum’s record in Evanston, but she’s all but guaranteed to pass No. 3 Jackie Stiles (3,393) and No. 2 Kelsey Mitchell (3,402) on the all-time list.
