Everything Caitlin Clark, Kate Martin said after championship loss vs. South Carolina (2024)

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Caitlin Clark: I think any time someone like Coach Staley is able to recognize you and what you did for the game is obviously pretty special. Obviously she’s someone I respect so much. I respect what she’s done for South Carolina. I respect what she did as a player for our game.

Any time you can get the praises of her is pretty special. So it means a lot.

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Caitlin Clark: Yeah, it’s certainly been a special year. To be honest, after last year I was kind of, like, how do we top doing what we did last year? Somehow, some way, every single person in our locker room believed. To be honest, this year was probably more special than last year.

The teams we had to go through to get to this point, we won the Big Ten Tournament. We lost two players that were three-year starters for our program, and to be back in this position and come out here and battle — I mean, South Carolina is so good. There’s only so much you can do.

Cardoso has 17 rebounds. They have 51 as a team. We have 29. Hard to win a basketball game like that. You’ve basically got to shoot perfect at that point.

I’m just proud of our group. We never backed down, and we gave it everything we’ve got.

For me, just the emotions will probably hit me over the next couple days. I don’t have much time to sit around and sulk and be upset. I don’t think that’s what I’m about either.

Yeah, I’m sad we lost this game, but I’m also so proud of myself, I’m so proud of my teammates, I’m so proud of this program. There’s a lot to be proud of.

But there’s going to be tears. It is sad this is all over, and this is the last time I’m going to put on an Iowa jersey.

I think just reflecting back and soaking in everything that I was able to do because basically anybody other than me and Coach Bluder never thought this was possible.

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Caitlin Clark: I’ve been 110 percent focused on finishing my career here. That’s been my full focus. That’s been my driving force, and I think that’s what’s allowed me to play such great basketball through the month of March and April and through the end of our season, but really all year long.

It was never the decision of whether I was going pro or whether I was staying at Iowa, never was something I stressed on too much. I knew it was something that would become clear to me over time.

I think for me I know what’s next is soon. But at the same time, I’m not blind to the fact that I need to enjoy this, I need to soak this in and enjoy these last few moments with my teammates because these are some of my best friends. They’ll be my best friends for the rest of my life, and that’s what matters to me the most.

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Caitlin Clark: I think the biggest thing is it’s really hard to win these things. I think I probably know that better than most people by now. To be so close twice, it definitely hurts, but at the same time, we were right there. We battled. We took down some really great teams to get back to this point. It’s something that’s really hard to do.

When I think about women’s basketball going forward, obviously it’s just going to continue to grow, whether it’s at the WNBA level, whether it’s at the college level. Everybody sees it. Everybody knows. Everybody sees the viewership numbers.

When you’re given an opportunity, women’s sports just kind of thrives. I think that’s been the coolest thing for me on this journey, we started our season playing in front of 55,000 people in Kinnick Stadium. And now we’re ending it playing in front of probably 15 million people or more on TV. It just continues to get better and better and better. That’s never going to stop.

When you continue to give them the platform, things like this are just going to continue to happen.

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Caitlin Clark: I think the biggest thing is, for us, this team came along at a really good time, whether it was social media, whether it was NIL, whether it was our games being nationally televised. We’ve played on Fox, NBC, CBS, ESPN — you go down the list, and we’ve been on every national television channel. I think that’s been one of the biggest things that has helped us.

I think, no matter what sport it is, give then the same opportunities, believe in them the same, invest in them the same, and things are really going to thrive.

You see it with other sports, and I’m a big fan of other sports. Like I try to support as much as I can, and I think that’s the biggest thing is continue to invest your time, money and resources there, and continue to show up for those people and give them the opportunities.

I think that’s what’s going to help drive women’s sports forward in the future.

(Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)

Kate Martin: I don’t know if you can really describe and put it into words this legacy. Honestly, I just hope we’ve brought a lot of people joy and we’ve brought a lot of people together.

I hear all the time about how many friends people have made in the stands just watching our games. We sold out every single home game this year at Carver. And everywhere we go, we have fans lining up wanting Caitlin’s autograph, our autograph. More than anything, our legacy is what we’ve brought to the state of Iowa, I think, and all the joy and the fun.

It’s pretty cool to be coached by Coach Bluder and the culture she’s built at Iowa. I think just watching us, you can see the joy that we have. I think that’s the main thing for our legacy.

Caitlin Clark: Yeah, I would agree. I think this group has gone about it in the right way in every single thing that we’ve done in every phase of our life. I think that’s what you can be the most proud of.

We truly have each other’s back. Maybe we weren’t always the most skilled. Maybe we weren’t always the tallest. Maybe we weren’t always the fastest, but we just believed. We knew we could be in these moments. We trusted one another. That took a couple of years to get to that point.

There’s been so many great Iowa women’s basketball players to come before us and allow this program to be really, really good when Kate and I and everyone else stepped on campus. And I feel like we took it to a whole nother level. I feel like our program is in good hands moving forward.

I think more than anything people will probably remember our two Final Fours and things like that. But people aren’t going to remember every single win or every single loss. I think they’re just going to remember the moments that they shared at one of our games or watching on TV or how excited their young daughter or son got about watching women’s basketball. I think that’s pretty cool.

Those are the things that mean the most to me when people come up to me and — I don’t really get offended when people say I never watched women’s basketball before. I think, one, you’re a little late to the party, yes. But, two, that’s cool. We’re changing the game. We’re attracting more people to it.

But at the same time, those little things are, I think, the moments that we’ll remember forever.

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Caitlin Clark: They’re a really good team. We knew they were going to go on runs. By no means, when we started off as hot as we did, did we think we’d be able to hold that lead. That’s just what teams do.

There’s some crazy statistics where South Carolina just outscores everybody in the second half by a ton of points every single game.

To me, I’m just proud of our resiliency. We go into the fourth quarter, I think we cut it to five. And we just weren’t able to come up with a few stops and a few baskets.

That speaks to our team. That’s the story it’s been all year long. My whole entire career, we never give up. We just keep fighting.

Their runs are kind of daggers, especially when they keep making pull-up jump shots. That’s what we are going to give up. Sometimes you live with that and you’re going to live with them out-rebounding you. There’s only so much you can do for someone who’s 6’7. Hannah was doing her best to box her out. She’s a really great player, going to be a really great pro.

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Kate Martin: I don’t think I can fully grasp the whole entire concept of being a part of that right now. I think once I’m older and I can reflect back on this time, I think I’ll appreciate it way more.

Just like we’ve said before, seeing little girls and little boys look up to us, want our autograph, enjoy watching women’s basketball, that is just something so cool and so special.

I idolized Iowa women’s basketball, but it wasn’t like it is now. It’s just super cool to be a part of that. I think forever we’ll be known, like I said, our legacy as a team that’s really kind of changed women’s basketball in a sense. I mean, there’s other teams too.

But it’s just really cool to be associated with that, and I feel super grateful.

Caitlin Clark: I would say the same. I think there’s obviously so many amazing people that have come before us and give us this opportunity. I think, to attract so many people to watching women’s basketball is so special. And the way people have showed up consistently throughout my career, I was going through some old pictures last night and just how things have changed since my freshman year and my sophom*ore year, it was so incredible. Time goes so fast. It’s crazy.

I can’t believe this is my last career game. There’s just so much to be proud of.

I think people didn’t love us for our wins. I think they loved us for the way we carried ourselves every single day, for the way we played for one another, the joy we played with, the passion we played with, the competitive spirit we had, the way we high-fived and celebrated our teammates’ success. That’s the reason people loved turning on Iowa women’s basketball.

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Caitlin Clark: I would say I think the biggest thing is this is what I kind of said about my entire career is nobody really believed other than myself. I think confidence. I think as a young girl, just have confidence, a young boy, have confidence in yourself and confidence in whatever you want to be.

I think that was the thing that my parents instilled in me from a young age. They never told me no. They told me no about other things, but not in what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be and the goals I wanted to chase after.

I would say that’s the biggest thing. You’ve got to say it. You’ve got to work for it. You’ve got to earn it. You don’t ever want anything to be given to you.

That’s what I’m most proud of throughout my career, I’ve worked really hard to be in this moment. That’s where my confidence comes from. That’s the piece of advice I would give to the younger generation.

Kate Martin: Very well said. I used to sleep with an Iowa women’s basketball poster on my ceiling. So to be in this position and be with Coach Bluder and make it to back-to-back national championships, I just feel super grateful. It’s because I worked really hard, and I dreamed big.

I’m not some All-American, five-star recruit out of high school. I never was. And people believed in me, I believed in myself, and here I am. So if I can do it, so can you.

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