Caitlin Clark Betting: The Face of March Madness
Women’s sports have never been this big. Everywhere you go, women’s leagues have begun drawing the same large crowds as the men’s games – especially in college basketball, which will crown its latest champion at the 2023-24 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament. There is one player that everybody is talking about heading into the tournament, and that is Caitlin Clark.
Betting on women’s basketball has also been heating up here at Bodog Sportsbook. It helps when you’ve got superstar players like Caitlin Clark leading the way; Clark has become one of the most famous names in college hoops, after breaking Pete Maravich’s Division I record for most points scored.
They even have a name for Clark’s role in the rise of women’s basketball: the Caitlin Clark Effect. But what about the Caitlin Clark Betting Effect? Who is this wunderkind everyone’s talking about – and can anyone stop her meteoric rise to the top?
Caitlin Clark Bio
You don’t have to come from America’s Heartland to play college hoops – but it does seem to help. Clark was born in Des Moines, Iowa on January 22, 2002, and started playing basketball there at age five; they didn’t have a girls’ rec league at the time for people that young, so Clark played with the boys.
By age 13, Clark was playing – and thriving – against women in their late teens. She also played other sports including soccer and softball, but in Grade 6, Clark took a giant step on her basketball journey when she signed up with the AAU’s All Iowa Attack in nearby Ames, coached by local hoops kingpin Dickson Jensen.
At the same time, Clark was playing for Dowling Catholic High School under head coach Kristin Meyer. Clark’s scoring prowess became self-evident; she posted 27.1 points per game as a sophomore, 32.6 as a junior (including a 60-point game), and 33.4 as a senior, when she earned multiple Iowa Player of the Year awards.
Clark was considered one of the very top recruits coming into college, and she had her choice of several programs to join – but ultimately chose Iowa, where Clark had the opportunity to play under head coach Lisa Bluder and replace outgoing point guard Kathleen Doyle, the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year.
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In no time at all, Clark was making headlines. She put up 27 points, eight rebounds and four assists in her Hawkeyes debut against Northern Iowa, then 30 points and 13 assists in her second game versus Drake. Clark was the unanimous Big Ten Freshman of the Year after leading Division I in scoring, and became the first frosh ever to win the Dawn Staley Award as the best D-1 guard.
It was more of the same for Clark as a sophomore and a junior, including back-to-back unanimous Big Ten Player of the Year nods – and her first Wooden Award during her impressive junior campaign. But the Hawkeyes couldn’t quite get past the LSU Tigers in the National Championship Game. LSU forward Angel Reese infamously made the “you can’t see me” gesture at Clark, and pointed at her soon-to-be-adorned ring finger, sparking an explosive national debate over race, gender and sporting conduct.
Which brings us to Clark’s senior year. The 6-foot guard has somehow found yet another gear, posting a career-best 31.9 points, 8.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game while leading Iowa to their third consecutive Big Ten title. Now it’s up to Clark and the Hawkeyes to finally earn their one shining moment at the women’s March Madness tournament.
Breaking Kelsey Plum’s Record
Whatever happens at the Big Dance, Clark will go down in history as the leading scorer in all of college hoops. The first record to fall was this past February 15, when Clark dropped a career-high 49 points on Michigan to overtake Kelsey Plum as the women’s scoring leader in Division I. Then, on February 28, Clark scored another 33 points against Minnesota to overtake Lynette Woodward (who played for Kansas when they were in the AIAW) as the top woman in major college hoops.
She wasn’t done there. On March 3, in Iowa’s last regular-season game, Clark surpassed the great Pete Maravich as the all-time leading Division I scorer by dumping 35 points on Ohio State. And she could have continued adding to her total of 3,771 points; thanks to the pandemic, players are eligible to compete for a fifth season, but Clark has already decided to enter the WNBA Draft instead.
Will Any Male Player Outscore Caitlin Clark at March Madness?
With Clark taking the top spot from Pistol Pete, bettors want to know if there’s anyone playing in this year’s Men’s Basketball Tournament who can outscore Clark at March Madness. We have one particular Canadian in mind – but it won’t be easy.
Clark’s Hawkeyes are almost certainly going to be a No. 1 seed after winning the Big Ten tourney, and while they face stiff competition from the likes of South Carolina, UConn, Texas and Stanford, there’s every chance Clark will lead Iowa on another deep run into the Final Four.
Meanwhile, there’s so much talent in the men’s Tournament – and so much defensive intensity – that choosing any one player to outscore Clark is near impossible. But we can certainly hope for Toronto’s own Zach Edey (24.2 points per game) to cut down the nets for Purdue, after they were unceremoniously bounced from the first round last year by No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson.
NCAA Odds: Who Can Stop Her?
As supremely talented as Clark may be, basketball is still a team sport, so the fate of the Iowa Hawkeyes isn’t entirely in her hands. Here’s a quick preview of that stiff competition we mentioned above, keeping in mind that Champ Week is still in progress at the time of this writing. These are the four teams the NCAA has ahead of 29-4 Iowa in terms of “net ranking.”
South Carolina (32-0)
The Gamecocks are the unanimous No. 1 team in both the Associated Press and the Coaches polls. The closest anyone has come to knocking off South Carolina was at the SEC Tournament semis, where Tennessee gave them a scare before falling 74-73. SC sealed the deal in the finals with a 79-72 victory over LSU.
Head coach Dawn Staley, now in her 16th season at the helm, has assembled by far this year’s best women’s college hoops team – at least on paper. South Carolina leads Division I in made field goals (33.2 per game) and lowest 2-point percentage for opponents (34.4%), thanks in no small part to 6-foot-7 Brazilian centre Kamilla Cardoso, who helped lead the Gamecocks to the championship in 2022 after transferring from Syracuse.
Connecticut (28-5)
No women’s team has enjoyed more success than Geno Auriemma’s Huskies – but despite reaching the Final Four every year from 2008 to 2022, UConn hasn’t won the title since the end of their four-year dynasty in 2016. And they might be a bit over-valued this season coming out of the relatively soft Big East.
There’s nothing wrong with Paige Bueckers, though. The 2021 Wooden Award-winning point guard joins Clark as one of the very best players in basketball, putting up 21.3 points per game while hitting 42.4% from downtown. Can Bueckers lead UConn to glory as a projected No. 3 seed at the Big Dance?
Texas (29-4)
The Big 12 wasn’t quite as soft as the Big East this year, but the Longhorns are still projected as a No. 2 seed heading into Selection Sunday. Vic Schaefer has been their head coach since 2020; the reigning Big 12 Coach of the Year will try to get them back into the Final Four for the first time since 2019, and win their first title since 1986.Schaefer has been to the top of the mountain before. He was associate head coach alongside Gary Blair when the Texas A&M Aggies won it all in 2011, then parlayed that experience to earn the head coaching gig at Mississippi State before moving to Austin. Schaefer’s Longhorns don’t shoot much from the perimeter, but they still manage to score inside and grab rebounds with 6-foot-4 senior forward Taylor Jones and 6-foot-1 freshman forward Madison Booker.
Stanford (28-5)
If the Pac-12 is indeed riding off into the sunset, they’re going out in style. This was the most competitive conference in women’s college hoops this year, and not only was Stanford the best team in the Pac-12, they’re probably the best team in the nation outside of South Carolina.It’s no fluke, either. Tara VanDerveer has been head coach of the Cardinal since 1985; she has three titles to her credit, most recently in 2021, and this year’s defensive juggernauts feature one of the country’s top prospects in forward Cameron Brink, the reigning and two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year.Clark and the Hawkeyes can compete with any of these four programs, but it’s pretty much a toss-up who will win in the end. Keep an eye on the basketball odds at Bodog to see what’s on tap for this year’s Tournament, and we’ll see you at the Final Four in Cleveland.
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