Caitlin Clark’s Happy Meal
Analyzing Iowa’s scoring distribution with the help of fast food
One thousand, three hundred, forty-seven.
That’s how many points the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team has scored so far this season. Of those 1,347 points, 16% came from free throws, 52% came from two-point field goals, and 32% came from three-point field goals.
It’s simple enough to understand — Iowa shoots quite a bit of threes, but they rely on drives and midrange shots to power their wins alongside getting to the line a decent amount. But to really put those figures into perspective, imagine the Iowa Hawkeyes sitting around a table at the local fast food restaurant. Covering their family-style table are 219 french fries (free throws), 702 chicken nuggets (two-pointers), and 426 hamburgers (three-pointers).
This assortment isn’t outrageous, though the scoring from beyond the arc is quite high. At the neighboring table, where the South Carolina Gamecocks are sitting, the plates are made up of 14% french fries, 62% chicken nuggets, and 24% hamburgers.
Now, imagine actually consuming that food.
A single french fry is no problem. One chicken nugget might go down quite easily. But after an entire hamburger, you might start to fill up. The point here is that hamburgers are more difficult to eat than the other food items and you can lose momentum quickly when eating several in one sitting. The same can be said about teams that lean on threes to fuel their offense — they need to be prepared to face risks associated with missing threes more often than other shots or going on a cold streak.
But, there, at the head of the table sits Caitlin Clark.
The undisputed Queen of Iowa gives the Hawkeyes the best chance of mitigating risks associated with shooting high volumes from deep while also being the cause of Iowa’s shooting trends. Clark’s scoring locations skews the team’s. Fifteen percent of her points come from the charity stripe, 38% from twos, and 47% from range.
Stacked on top of Clark’s plate at the dinner table are 70 french fries, 174 nuggets, and 228 hamburgers. If that sounds like a lot of food, that’s because it is. Clark might find herself scanning the table for others with overflowing stacks of food on their plates, but she won’t find one similar to hers. The closest comparison would be Kate Martin with 175 total food items — 29 fries, 104 nuggets, and 42 hamburgers. That’s one more piece of food in total than what Clark has just in chicken nuggets.
Caitlin Clark doesn’t simply outscore her teammates in free throws, twos, and threes, she accounts for 35% of Iowa’s points overall.
Thirty-five percent is either bewildering or egregious, depending on your view. Looking at the only three teams ranked above Iowa according to AP — South Carolina, UCLA, and NC State — no player scores more than 20% of their team’s points. South Carolina is even more distributed with no player scoring more than 15% of their total points.
While Clark sits at the table in front of her 472 food items, she may already know that she has 32% of the table’s fries, 25% of the nuggets, and a whopping 54% of the hamburgers on her plate. It actually isn’t a secret to anyone. Not to the nearby tables, not to the restaurant employees, and certainly not to the fans cheering through the window. The only surprise here is that Clark is able to consume all those fries, nuggets, and every last bite of the hamburgers without anything slowing her down.
The entire world knows that Caitlin Clark is an offensive powerhouse. Everyone and their mother knows she likes to shoot threes. And it isn’t a big surprise to discover she scores 35% of Iowa’s points.
So, if defenses can theoretically reduce Iowa’s offense by more than a third, will they ever find a way to stop Caitlin Clark?
Maybe we’ll find that answer when the check comes.
… Or when March Madness rolls around.
Sources:
- All data was taken from ESPN.com based on games played prior to January 4, 2024
