By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Is Caitlin Clark the greatest women’s college basketball player of all time?

Is she better than Cheryl Miller?

Better than Diana Taurasi?

Better than Candace Parker?

Better than Brittney Griner?

Better than Maya Moore?

Better than Sherly Swoopes?

Better than Nancy Lieberman?

Better than Lynette Woodard?

Better than Lusia Harris?

There is no right or wrong answer to this question because it’s all subjective, and it’s so hard to compare players from different generations, and players that play different positions.

But a case, actually a very strong case, could certainly be made for Caitlin Clark, who this past Thursday became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer for women’s college basketball.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, who was a very good point guard in her own right, recently paid Clark the ultimate compliment in response to Clark breaking the scoring record, which Staley thinks will never be broken.

“What we’re witness is something that is quite incredible,” Staley said. “I think she’s going to go down in the history books as arguably the best player to grace our collegiate sports.”

Clark has caught our nation’s imagination and changed the way people think about women’s basketball with her generational talent, and with her flair for the dramatic and her moxie.

Fans now wait in line for hours at visiting arenas and pay incredible amounts of money to watch Iowa’s dynamic senior guard play, and Clark always seems to deliver; a stat-sheet-stuffing force whose long-distance shooting range is a big part of her growing legend.

But as great as Clark is as a shooter, and as a scorer, she is arguably a better passer and that’s a big reason why a case could be made for Clark being the greatest of all-time at the college level.

None of the previously mentioned players, other than maybe Lieberman, were as good as Clark is as a passer, and it isn’t even close.

Clark with her incredible shooting range, and with her vision and court awareness, is sort of a combination between Magic Johnson and Stephen Curry in how she plays.

She can dominate a game either by scoring or passing, and so few have been able to do that.

Clark was at her best as a shooter, and as a scorer against Michigan this past Thursday as she poured in a career-high 49 points. She needed eight points to break the record and it took her about three minutes to do it in spectacular fashion.

Clark was at her best as a passer against Penn State on Feb. 9 as she dished out 15 assists and played a key role with her pin-point passes in helping Hannah Stuelke score a career-high 47 points.

Clark has led the nation in scoring and assists for long stretches of her career, and she also has improved defensively.

She isn’t an elite defender, but she has learned how to use her 6-foot frame, and her long arms, to block shots, clog passing lanes and get deflections.

But fans also don’t pay as much as $1,000 for a single-game ticket to watch Caitlin Clark play defense.

They want the ball in her hands because right now there isn’t anything more exciting in college sports, and maybe in all of sports, than Caitlin Clark with the ball in her hands.

But again, as far as being the greatest of all time, there is no way to prove what ultimately is an opinion.

What I will say , however, is that Clark’s resume compares favorably with everyone else that has played women’s college basketball, including the nine former players that were mentioned at the beginning of this column.

To suggest that Clark hasn’t achieved greatness yet as former NBA guard Jay Williams did recently is just silly and ridiculous.

Come on, Jay, be serious.

To say that Clark isn’t great is like saying Taylor Swift isn’t great at what she does.

Williams said Clark is the Stephen Curry of women’s college basketball and the most prolific scorer of all time, but he stopped short of saying she is great because she has yet to win a national championship.

That’s an odd reason because I would argue that Clark’s greatest achievement as a Hawkeye is having led last year’s team to an NCAA runner-up finish. That secured her greatness.

Because if ever there were a case of a player putting a team on her back and lifting it to a level that seemed beyond reach, Iowa’s improbable march to the national title game for the first time in program history was it.

Clark makes everyone around her better, and that is a mark of greatness.

Iowa also has a 98-28 overall record with Clark on the roster, including 23-3 this season.

And one of the wins came against then top-ranked and undefeated South Carolina in the 2023 NCAA semifinal, a game in which Clark dominated.

Iowa fell short of winning it all, but Clark’s fame, and the respect that people have for her, climbed to a whole new level at the 2023 NCAA Final Four.

Clark could’ve played for one of the traditional powerhouses and she probably would have won two or three national titles by now.

But she chose a different route in being a Hawkeye.

She wanted to take a very good program and make it great, and she has accomplished that goal.

Diana Taurasi was part of three national titles for Connecticut from 2002 to 2004, but she was also surrounded by a bunch of star players and former prep superstars.

Taurasi played at a time when UCONN and Tennessee seemed to almost take turns winning the national title.

Thankfully, those days are over and the game will be better for that in the long run.

One thing that really isn’t open for debate anymore is whether Caitlin Clark is the most popular women’s college basketball player of all time.

That seems obvious, and it’s also hard to think of a male athlete in any sport that has reached her level of popularity in college because there isn’t one.

Clark, of course, benefits from playing in the age of social media, but it could be argued that social media needs Caitlin Clark at this stage more than she needs it.

Clark has turned into a cultural phenomenon, and she is helping the women’s game to evolve by attracting new fans.

She is now doing commercials for State Farm Insurance and she makes it look easy because she apparently has acting skills, too.

Clark will have a decision to make about whether she wants to use her free Covid year to play for a fifth season.

My hunch is that she will choose to enter the 2024 WNBA draft because what else is there to prove at this level?

Iowa doesn’t have to win a national title for Caitlin Clark to be considered great.

It would sure be fun if it happened, but Clark achieved greatness a long time ago.

She’s now just adding to her greatness.