With Caitlin Clark Climbing to 6th, Who Leads NCAA Women’s 3 Points Ladder?

Caitlin Clark’s achievements are going off the charts this season. Match after match, her resume is becoming remarkable. Earlier this month, she delivered a winning 3-pointer from close to half-court and led the Hawkeyes to a 76-73 win over the Michigan State Spartans. Currently moving forward in a fresh record-breaking pursuit, she stands 4th on the NCAA all-time scoring list. But there is one more aspect where she has enlisted her name among other exceptional players– the NCAA’s all-time 3-point field goal scorers list.

However, Clark still needs a few steps to lead on that as she now ranks at #6. In the beginning of this season, however, she surpassed Magan Gustafson’s record of 2804 points, marking herself as the all-time scoring leader. Then in December 2023, her score of 35 points and 10 assists against Minnesota earned her the position of the all-time Big Ten leader in assists (952 and counting). In addition, she is the first Division I player in both men’s and women’s basketball to record a career 3000 points, 900+ assists, and 800+ rebounds. But it looks like the super stat-star still needs to come a long way.

Taylor Robertson 5 steps ahead of Caitlin Clark

Oklahoma Sooners guard Taylor Robertson is leading the list with 537 3-pointers made out of 1221 3-pointers attempted which concludes to a 3-point scoring percentage of 44%. Notably, Robertson is not playing in this year’s NCAA season because her eligibility ended with the 2022-23 season.

It’s exactly a little more than last year when Robertson broke the NCAA’s all-time record for made career 3-pointers in a matchup against Iowa State. It happened during the first quarter of the game when she broke this record. Moreover, it was her 62nd consecutive game with a 3-point shot.

The then-senior guard had reached 500 3-pointers while she played with the Sooners for 5 seasons. What carries more importance is that before Robertson, this record was being held by Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell with 1286 3-point attempts across 139 games in 4 seasons. Meanwhile, Robertson surpassed this feat in just 138 games registering 1134 3-point attempts.

With this record still standing, she has solidified her name as one of the best shooters in college basketball. In addition, she was named the Big 12 and Oklahoma Career 3-Point Record Holder along with NCAA Active Leader in Free Throw Percentage. She also received the 2022 AP All-America Honorable Mention, besides being a part of the 2022 Unanimous All-Big 12 First Team, and the 2022 Ann Meyers Drysdale Finalist.

Before that, she was also a part of the 2021 Battle 4 Atlantis All-Tournament Team, along with the 2021-22 Preseason All-Big 12 Team and the 2022 Academic All-Big 12 First Team. During her senior season, she started all 34 games while averaging 17.2 points, and a career-high 4.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists. Also, she shot 44.4% from 3-point range with over 8 attempts per game.

In her last season she played, she averaged 11 points, while making 2.7 3-point shots per game. Also, she ranked #8 across the United States in points per play, and #15 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.13. In her career as a college basketball athlete, she averaged 15.9 points per game and shot with a blazing 43.8% from the 3-point range and 92% from the free-throw line.

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Although it seems a very simple calculation to be mastered in, however, it is much more than just a shot. Let’s find out why.

How did the 3-point field goal evolve?

The evolution of the three-point line distance from the basket over the years has been a transitional journey. For 20 years from the 1987-88 season till the 2007-08 season, the 3-point perimeter was marked at 19 feet 19 inches (6.02m) for both men’s and women’s college basketball.

However, in May 2007, this rule took its first step toward change as the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee passed a measure to extend the distance of the men’s 3-point line back to 20 feet 9 inches (6.32m), while the women’s line remained at the original distance until 2011-12 when it was too moved again to match the then-current men’s distance.

Then again after 8 years in June 2019, the NCAA Men’s Rules Committee voted for the extension of the men’s three-point line to the FIBA distance of 6.75 meters, i.e. 22 feet 2 inches. This change in distance became effective in 2019-20 in Division I and 2020-21 in other NCAA divisions. After the changes in distance in men’s basketball settled, it was now turn for the women’s line to face another change after 10 years in 2021-22 when it was moved to the FIBA arc that season.

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Despite ranking at the 6th position, it won’t take long for Caitlin Clark to top this list too, hopefully before the season ends.