In late November 2020 on a nearly empty field, Caitlin Clark shot her first college 3-pointer. Time ticked down in the first quarter of the Hokies’ game against Northern Iowa. Clark forced a steal at midcourt and weaved his way to the right wing. He stood up with two defenders around him. His attempt was blocked.

That did not discourage him.

Now a senior, Clark is perhaps the biggest star in both men’s and women’s college basketball. He made more than 400 3-pointers throughout his college career and rewrote the record books — at Iowa and nationally. “We see it every day in practice, he hits a (shot) that surprises you or makes a pass that makes your jaw kind of drop,” Iowa assistant Abby Stamp said.

Clark passes with pin-point precision. Teammates and coaches alike praise his work ethic and advanced leadership skills. But it’s Clark’s 3-point shooting that often jumps out at viewers immediately. He has been compared to some of the basketball world’s recent greats — Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, to name a few. But how does Clarke actually stack up against such sharp-shooters?

Although the NBA and college 3-point lines are different distances (the NBA is 23 feet, 9 inches above the arc, and both the college line and the WNBA line are 22 feet, 1 ¾ inches above). athletic Split the dove into six sections to show how cheerful Clark really is and how he became so lethal from behind the arc. The comparison — use the button at the top of most graphs to toggle through Clark’s numbers from last season and this year (including games through Dec. 14) — reveals that the college star is already shooting like some of the all-time professional greats.

Clark’s comfort shooting from long range comes from years of practice. Back home in Des Moines, Clark often shoots 100 logo 3-pointers during workouts, his coach Kevin O’Hare said. His aim is to make at least 50. “It’s something he always works on,” O’Hare said. He added that he “does all the basic basics to get to that point” before Clark tries to do any helpers. Considering he tries more than 30 feet, a 25-to-30-foot 3 is a lot of range.

Through Dec. 14, just over 31 percent of Clark’s shot attempts have come from within 25 to 30 feet of the rim, which is 22.1 percent higher than the national average in college this year, according to CBB Analytics. He is shooting 40.5 percent on such looks, which is 11 percent more than his peers.

It’s not a coincidence that he shoots from so far away, nor is it chance to go in for such an attempt. In addition to offseason training sessions, Stamp said Clark works on such efforts before, during and after practice. The Iowa bigs also often set higher screens in practice when Clark is on the ball, knowing he’s more likely to advance from such distances in games. In that regard, he’s like Curry, Lillard and Ionescu in how their own team adjusts spacing when they’re on the floor.

Iowa coach Lisa Bluder is always offensive-minded, urging her team to play with speed. The setup was ideal for Clark, who likes to push the basketball and create a play before setting up his opponents. Clark has grabbed more than 50 3s in the first 10 seconds this season. He took 137 above-the-break 3s last season, shooting 39 percent on such attempts. “Sometimes he’s going to get those best looks as soon as we come across half court,” Stamp said.

In these early-shot situations, Clark performs a balancing act, avoiding forcing shots and instead figuring out when to get teammates involved and allowing possessions to develop. “It’s not an easy science, a question of shot selection with him, because we’ve seen him make a lot of challenging shots in practice and in his career,” Stamp said. Iowa sees a better effort from its players in rhythm and range. Clark’s range certainly stands out from his peers, as does his willingness to pull away. Like Curry in that regard, the Warriors star averaged 5.2 3-point attempts last season with 15-24 seconds left on the shot clock.

Clark, not surprisingly, is Iowa’s chief creator. This season, according to CBB Analytics, his usage rate is in the 100th percentile nationally, trailing only USC freshman star Juju Watkins. In addition to being an elite shooter, Clark passes with precision. As his college career progressed, he found new ways to finish around the rim. “We’ve been thrilled with the way he’s built his whole game,” Stamp said.

From the perimeter, though, Clarke has shown he can create his own shots and benefit from kick-outs from his teammates. Last season, he led the nation in unassisted 3-pointers with 1.8 per game. He leads the nation again this season, making 0.7 more per game along with the 98th percentile in assisted 3-pointers. “I would compare him to Steph; Obviously, you take that with a grain of salt,” O’Hare said. “How well he shoots outside, his release, how good he is with the ball in his hands to create stuff.” As the data shows, Clark, Lillard and Curry all have assists and Can convert on unassisted chances. Ionescu has proven she can shoot from long range in the WNBA, but over the past three seasons, she’s made 0.56 unassisted 3s per game.

Clark rarely gets away with 3-pointer attempts off the catch. As an Iowa freshman, he took 116 catch-and-shoot 3s, making 46.6 percent, according to Synergy Sports. His total number of catch-and-shoot attempts and percentage both slipped to second. But throughout his tenure, the Hokies’ coaching staff has continued to develop that part of Clark’s 3-point arsenal. “We’ve really worked on trying to come off screens, change speed, change direction, sprint to the ball, get your feet ready, square yourself up to be able to catch-and-shoot more screens,” Stamp said. said

In individual workouts, that meant Iowa dropping the cone to spot big setting screens and simulating the many defensive maneuvers an opposing player might take when trying to slow down Clark. He is on pace to shoot more catch-and-shoot 3s this season than he has ever in his college career. Not surprisingly, this is an area where he’s thrived — shooting a better percentage than Lillard in his final season with the Portland Trail Blazers and nearly matching Curry’s output in 2022-23. Clark’s current shooting percentage on catch-and-shoot 3s is even higher than Ionescu’s in his final season at Oregon, when he shot 34 percent on such chances, according to Synergy Sports.

Few players, if any, had a greener light than Clarke. With each milestone, he cements the fact that he has accomplished more than any other college player. Still, Stamp thinks of another comparison for Clark. He cited Megan Gustafson, a former Naismith Player of the Year, who was Iowa’s all-time leading scorer until Clark was passed earlier this season. Gustafson is a 6-foot-3 post player who attempted just two 3s in four years at Iowa, but both he and Clark are “masters of their craft” in Stamp’s view.

This past weekend, Clark moved into No. 9 all-time in career scoring in women’s college basketball. If he stays healthy and maintains his current scoring average, he will surpass former Washington star Kelsey Plum as No. 1 before the season is over. Whether Clark then decides to enter the WNBA or return to Iowa for a fifth year remains uncertain, but her success has already put her in the conversation with basketball’s elite.

– athleticIts Seth Partnow contributed to this report.

(Illustration and data visual: John Bradford / athletic; Stephen Curry Photo: Theron W. (Photo by Henderson/Getty Images, Caitlin Clarke: G Fume/Getty Images and Steph Chambers/Getty Images, Sabrina Ionescu/Mitchell Leff)