By Tyler Devine

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Individual accolades have and likely will continue to come Caitlin Clark’s way.

But the sophomore All-American guard’s main goal for the upcoming season is a team-oriented one.

A Final Four appearance.

“Honestly,” Clark said. “I don’t really care about my goals individually, as long as my team has great success and we get to the Final Four. If if that means me averaging less points, less assists, playing a few last minutes, I would totally do that. Because I mean, you got to do whatever it takes for your team to get to the Final Four. So I think more than anything, I have a lot of team goals and team success at the forefront of my mind rather than my self goals.”

Clark, a native of West Des Moines, is coming off of a stellar freshman season in which she led the nation in scoring with 27.4 points per game and was named a second-team AP All-American, as well as several weekly awards.

Clark also led Iowa to its second Sweet Sixteen appearance in three years.

Most recently, Clark was named the MVP of the U19 FIBA World Cup after leading Team USA to a gold medal.

It was Clark’s third gold medal as a member of Team USA.

In seven games in the World Cup, Clark averaged 14.3 points per game, 5.6 assists per game and 5.3 rebounds per game.

As the oldest member of Team USA, Clark took on a leadership role that she hopes to utilize during her sophomore season with the Hawkeyes.

“I played a super big role, not only on the court, but leadership wise, being the oldest,” Clark said. “I think growing in that area and then taking that to Iowa because that is still an area I want to improve on and me and Coach Bluder are still working on. Obviously, only being a freshman last year and playing such a prominent role, I think it was kind of hard and just developing that as I get older and older.”

How she grows her leadership role is something Clark is still working on.

But having a head coach like Lisa Bluder, who has 775 career wins and is entering her 21st season at Iowa, has been a major resource for Clark.

“I need to be vocal, I need to be a leader,” Clark said. “Your point guard has to do that and I think just finding the right time to know when to lead. Obviously having Coach Bluder as my coach, somebody that’s been around women’s college basketball for so long, she has so many great pieces of advice.

“So we’ve had a lot of meetings, a lot of learning opportunities for myself. And, you know, I’m still growing in that area. And I think that’s only gonna get better for me and help our team have more and more success.”