Caitlin Clark Thanks Lisa Bluder for 'Believing' in Her After Iowa WCBB HC Retires

Indiana Fever guard and former Iowa standout Caitlin Clark congratulated Hawkeyes women's basketball head coach Lisa Bluder following her retirement on Monday.

"Simply no one better at building a team… Thank you for believing in me more than anyone," Clark wrote in a post on X. "Enjoy retirement, coach. Very much deserved."

Bluder, who spent 24 years leading the program including two NCAA championship game appearances in the past two seasons, stepped down with assistant coach Jan Jensen named as her successor.

Clark has previously credited Bluder for her versatility as a coach, crafting her game plan around the players on her roster instead of forcing them to adapt to a certain system.

"I think the biggest thing for me throughout the recruiting process that I loved about her is she's a player's coach," Clark said on March 31, per Pat Eaton-Robb of the Associated Press. "She's not going to have a set offense that you have to run. She's going to tailor everything to what she has on her team and what's going to put her team in positions to be very successful."

The 22-year-old thrived under Bluder, becoming one of the most prominent figures in college sports and leading the Hawkeyes on several March Madness runs. Clark averaged 28.4 points per game in her collegiate career, becoming the NCAA's all-time leading scorer on March 3 and earning three consecutive Big Ten Player of the Year awards.

She was selected by the Fever with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft.

As for Bluder, she leaves Iowa with a 528-254 record after she took over as head coach ahead of the 2000-01 season. She earned three Big Ten Coach of the Year awards and was named the 2019 Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year.