Caitlin Clark Wins 2023 Naismith Women's College Player of the Year Award

Caitlin Clark still has some work ahead as she hopes to deliver Iowa's first-ever national championship, but she already has some hardware to show for her standout junior season.

Clark was named the Naismith Player of the Year on Wednesday. She was one of four finalists for the award. She beat out South Carolina's Aliyah Boston, Virginia Tech's Elizabeth Kitley and Villanova's Maddy Siegrist.

Boston was the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season, and South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley is the Naismith Coach of the Year for the third time. She was the winner in 2020 and 2022.

Clark is the most electric offensive player in the country. She's scoring 27.3 points and dishing out 8.6 assists per game. Per Her Hoop Stats, her 1.05 points per possession put her in the 98th percentile, and her 57.0 percent effective field-goal rate is good enough for the 95th percentile.

The Hawkeyes guard has added to her legend in the NCAA tournament as the program punched its first ticket to Final Four since 1993. She was the first player ever to drop at least 30 points in a tournament game when she finished with 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in the Elite Eight against Louisville.

Iowa isn't a one-woman show, but it's not far off. Clark's 35.7 percent usage rate was the ninth-highest in Division I, and she accounted for nearly a third of her team's offense (31.1 percent) and 40.8 percent of its assists every night.

In terms of value, there was arguably nobody more important to her squad than Clark.

Boston was the reigning Naismith Player of the Year and entered the season as the prohibitive favorite with South Carolina looking to defend its national title from a year ago. As the year unfolded, Clark steadily closed the gap to make the Naismith Award a compelling two-horse race.

Boston continued to be brilliant, as the Gamecocks ran the table in the regular season. Their dominance has extended into the NCAA tournament, in which they've advanced to the Final Four with an average margin of victory of 22.5 points.

While Boston doesn't have gaudy numbers, her impact is undeniable.

The 6'5" forward is averaging 13.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks through 36 games. She has anchored a defense that ranks second in points allowed (51.1 per game) and first in opponent field-goal percentage (31.7).

Boston isn't her team's leading scorer—an honor reserved for Zia Cooke—but that reflects both her selflessness and the frequency with which she's flooded by multiple defenders around the basket.

"No one else demands that kind of attention," head coach Dawn Staley said to Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg. "And actually, people are pretty good at executing it. They're committed to it. … If I'm somebody else, I do the same thing. You single-coverage her, it's over. I mean, it ain't a ball game. It ain't fair. So they have to do that. You have to beat her up."

It has been great watching Boston and Clark go head to head for college basketball's top individual accolades, and fans might get to do it all over again next season.

Boston is eligible for the 2023 WNBA draft but could take advantage of the extra year of eligibility afforded to athletes from the COVID-19 pandemic. She has remained coy when asked whether she'll return to South Carolina or head to the pros.

At this point, Boston has nothing left to prove in college, and that will be even more true if the Gamecocks lift another national title. Maybe the allure of a possible three-peat or avenging a Final Four defeat will provide sufficient fuel for her to stay at South Carolina.