Caitlin Clark says she never set out to break the NCAA all-time scoring record.

“I feel like there might have been some mentioning of it after last season: ‘It could happen depending on how, you know, her season goes,'” Clark said. “Obviously as we’ve gotten closer, it’s become more and more of a reality.”

With just eight points standing between her and history, it’s all but certain that she’ll top the record books come night’s end. Her main focus has been on winning and reaching her loftiest goals.

“My main goal is always to go out there help us win,” Clark said. “And obviously we’re 22-3 and we’ve done that quite a bit this year. This isn’t why you play basketball. I think it just comes with how I’ve been able to perform over my four years and I’m very fortunate and obviously Coach Bluder has really allowed me to be me. And that’s something I’m really thankful for, too.”

Lisa Bluder revealed she hadn’t even mentioned the record to her team until this week — but made sure it became a talking point yesterday.

“I want to talk about the significance of it,” Bluder said. “We want to celebrate this — this is really exciting for our university and our basketball program that one of our players is going to do this.”

For Bluder, this goes beyond anything she dreamed of when she recruited Clark out of high school.

“It’d be really easy for me to sit here and say I knew she was going to be this great of a player. You always have faith in your players that you recruit and you think they’re going to do well — that’s why you’re recruiting them. I don’t think anybody could have ever predicted this type of success.”

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