No Iowa women’s basketball player will wear No. 22 again.

That is because, on Feb. 2, the Hawkeyes will retire Caitlin Clark’s jersey during an in-arena ceremony as Iowa takes on USC at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Over her four years with the program, Clark rewrote both the Iowa and NCAA record books. Last winter, she became the all-time women’s NCAA Division I scoring leader, major college scoring leader and all-time Division I men’s and women’s scoring champion in a 17-day span. During her career, Clark also broke the record for 3-pointers in a single season, made two national championship appearances, was a four-time AP All-American and was twice named the National Player of the Year.

All of that only relays part of Clark’s legacy, however, as her impact was seen and felt in the frenzy surrounding every game she played. Iowa broke countless attendance, merchandise and television records. ESPN said the 2024 national championship between the Hawkeyes and Gamecocks was the most-watched basketball game (men’s or women’s college or pro) since 2019, averaging 18.9 million viewers and peaking at 24.1 million viewers, a 90 percent increase from the 2023 title game.

“I’m forever proud to be a Hawkeye and Iowa holds a special place in my heart that is bigger than just basketball,” Clark said in a statement. “It means the world to me to receive this honor and to celebrate it with my family, friends and alumni. It will be a great feeling to look up in the rafters and see my jersey alongside those that I’ve admired for so long.”

To the rafters.

2.2.25@CaitlinClark22 x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/Qjq1Y1VfrZ

— Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB) December 18, 2024

“Caitlin Clark has not only redefined excellence on the court but has also inspired countless young athletes to pursue their dreams with passion and determination,” Director of Athletics Beth Goetz said. “Her remarkable achievements have left an indelible mark on the University of Iowa and the world of women’s basketball.”

When Clark’s No. 22 is raised to the rafters it will join Michelle Edwards’ No. 30 and Megan Gustafson’s No. 10 to become the third women’s basketball player to have their numbers honored at Iowa.

With Clark having transitioned to the professional ranks — where she made the All-WNBA first-team as a rookie with the Indiana Fever — the Hawkeyes entered into a transitional season. Shortly after last year, longtime head coach Lisa Bluder retired, giving way for her longtime associate head coach, Jan Jensen, to take on the lead role. Now led by junior forward Hannah Stuelke and senior transfer guard Lucy Olsen, Iowa opened the season winning its first eight games. However, the Hawkeyes have dropped two of their last three contests, falling to Tennessee and Michigan State.

Iowa’s matchup on Feb. 2 will be its first against the Trojans following USC’s move to the Big Ten. USC is led by JuJu Watkins, who despite being only a sophomore, is already viewed as an heir apparent to Clark in terms of continuing to elevate women’s college basketball.

Tipoff for USC-Iowa is set for 1:30 p.m. ET and the contest will air on FOX.

“Retiring her number is a testament to her extraordinary contributions and a celebration of her legacy that will continue to inspire future generations,” Goetz said. “Hawkeye fans are eager to say thank you for so many incredible moments.”

Required reading

(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)

It was only six months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when, on a balmy September evening in eastern Germany, I came across Mykhailo Mudryk shortly after midnight.

This was September 2022 and Mudryk was by then an emerging talent for the Ukrainian champions, Shakhtar Donetsk. He scored and was the team’s major attacking threat in a shock 4-1 victory for Shakhtar in the opening match of their Champions League campaign against German team RB Leipzig.

For Mudryk and his team-mates, the Champions League offered respite from the horrors of home. When Russian bombs landed in Ukraine in February 2022, many of Shakhtar’s foreign players took emergency refuge in a windowless room of a Kyiv hotel, before interventions from multiple national embassies, football federations and UEFA, the European football governing body, hatched an escape plan.

Shakhtar had, at that time, more than a dozen Brazilian players on their books, but many left for safer climes when the Ukrainian season ceased and did not return. Football did resume in Ukraine for the 2022-23 season and Shakhtar, who were first uprooted from their home in Donetsk in 2014 following Russian-backed incursions, were playing home matches in the relatively safer city of Lviv, in Ukraine’s west — though games were still frequently paused by air raid sirens.

Shakhtar’s squad was a shell of its former self, including only one player bought for more than £2million ($2.51m at current rates). This squad was largely comprised of young and inexperienced men. When they played against Real Madrid the following month, their starting team included 10 Ukrainian players, eight who had been produced by the club’s youth system and seven were aged 23 or below.

Mudryk, only 21, all of a sudden became the poster boy of a team whose indomitable spirit and improbable resistance appeared to encapsulate the Ukrainian struggle.

On that evening in Germany, The Athletic was embedded with the Ukrainian side to produce a documentary about their attempts to play on in the midst of war. I briefly spoke to Mudryk and his midfield team-mate and best friend Georgiy Sudakov as they headed out of their hotel in Leipzig in the early hours of the morning. Their heads were spinning after an unlikely victory, the adrenalin coursing through their veins. But, they explained, they also wanted to walk freely in the night, in a place where there were no shelters, no screams, no air raid sirens to force them rapidly underground, to remind themselves of normal life. For half an hour, they did that, before returning to their rooms.

At that point, Mudryk’s star was only just beginning to shine. He was raw, in the extreme, and had it not been for the untimely exodus of Brazilian players, it is unlikely he would have become risen to prominence so rapidly.

This was a player who only debuted for his national team in June 2022 yet by January 2023, following a handful of impressive performances in the Champions League, including against Real Madrid, Mudryk became the most expensive Ukrainian footballer in history. He signed for Premier League side Chelsea, who committed an initial £62m, plus £26.5m in potential additional payments dependent on his and Chelsea’s success.

This week’s news that Mudryk has tested positive for the banned substance meldonium is a dagger to the heart of Ukrainian football and leaves the player in a fight to salvage his career. The extent of the damage will hinge on the result of Mudryk’s ‘B’ sample, which is yet to be revealed, as the adverse finding relates to his ‘A’ sample, but he has been provisionally suspended by the English Football Association.

Chelsea’s commitment to acquiring the player was significant, tying him to a seven-and-a-half-year contract, with the option of another year. Even in the middle of the invasion, Shakhtar managed to attract a bidding war, such was the interest. He had previously been pursued by Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen, as well as Newcastle United, Brentford and Everton in the Premier League, but it came down to a fight between Arsenal and Chelsea.

At the time, Shakhtar’s director of football Dario Srna told The Athletic: “If somebody wants to buy Mudryk, they must pay huge, huge, huge money. Otherwise the president of the club (Rinat Akhmetov) will not sell him. All the clubs must respect the president, respect Shakhtar and in the end they must respect Mykhaylo Mudryk, who is one of the best players I saw. The price is so big.”

Srna said he rated Mudryk as being only behind Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior in his wide forward position and insisted big money would be required, considering Manchester United signed Antony from Ajax in a £86m deal and Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund £73m, while Manchester City bought Jack Grealish for £100m.

Shakhtar, conscious of the power of sport in steering the narrative around the war, also announced upon completion of the transfer that their own owner, Rinat Akhmetov, would donate $25m to the war effort, to support in particular the defence of Mariupol and the families of those who have lost loved ones. The agreement with Chelsea also included a clause that said Shakhtar would play a future friendly against Chelsea in Donetsk, when and if that area of Ukraine is no longer occupied by Russian forces.

“It is written into the contract,” Sergei Palkin, the Shakhtar chief executive, told The Athletic in January 2023. “But actually, we did not even need to read it in the contract because Behdad Eghbali (the Chelsea co-owner) spoke with our president. Behdad supports Ukraine a lot because he is American and it is an English club, so this is a positive triangle. When you say England and Ukraine, it is important for our war support.

“It was Behdad who proposed (the friendly), because he said he wanted to help Ukraine, to help Ukrainian refugees and to support Ukrainian people. This match (in Donetsk) would be like a miracle (having not played in their home city since 2014). We would have this match every weekend if we could.”

When Mudryk was unveiled at Stamford Bridge, he did so wrapped in a flag of Ukraine. The player was born and raised in the city of Krasnohrad, close to Kharkiv, one of the most brutally hit areas of the country. “Since the the beginning of the full-scale war, my city has been bombarded with missiles day and night,” Mudryk said, speaking in a powerful video of 13 Ukrainian players talking about the impact of the war on their hometowns, released by the Ukrainian Football Association before the European Championship in the summer of 2024.

Mudryk (left) competes with Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard last month (Ryan Pierse / Getty Images)

He is a more reserved figure than his Ukrainian compatriot Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has been at the forefront of media initiatives to promote solidarity with Ukraine. He appears to be a devoutly religious figure, a follower of the orthodox Christian faith, who carries religious icons with him to games. On his chest, he has a tattoo that reads: “Dear god — if today I lose my hope, please remind me that your plans are better than my dreams”.

For his national team, the speaking has more often been done on the field, most notably when he scored the winner in a victory over Iceland to take his country to Euro 2024. Ukraine exited that tournament at the group stage and Mudryk did not score, although his nation went out only on goal difference with all four teams in Group E tied on four points after three games.

For club and country, he is yet to fulfil his potential. He has scored only five goals and recorded four assists in 53 Premier League appearances for Chelsea. This week’s sample revelation cast doubt on his ability to play at all, meldonium being a drug that previously saw the tennis star Maria Sharapova barred from competing.

GO DEEPER

Explaining Mudryk’s drugs ban: What is meldonium – and possible punishments

The adverse test was reported during a routine urine test, according to a Chelsea statement. The club added that Mudryk “has confirmed categorically that he has never knowingly used any banned substances”.

Writing on Instagram, Mudryk said the result “has come as a complete shock as I have never knowingly used any banned substances or broken any rules”.

He added: “I am working closely with my team to investigate how this could have happened.

“I know that I have not done anything wrong and remain hopeful that I will be back on the pitch soon. I cannot say any more now due to the confidentiality of the process, but I will as soon as I can.”

The English Football Association’s (FA) anti-doping regulations state that any breaches will be dealt with as strict liability violations. For example, a player will be found guilty of a violation if a prohibited substance is found in that player’s body. It is not necessary to demonstrate intent. A player’s alleged lack of intent or knowledge is not a valid defence to a charge.

A violation of the FA’s anti-doping regulations carries a maximum penalty of a four-year suspension, although mitigating factors can reduce that from anywhere from two years to just a month. The B sample will be key.

Shakhtar’s Georgiy Sudakov voiced support for his friend Mudryk (Christof Koepsel / Getty Images)

As Mudryk’s career hangs in the balance, the Ukrainian football establishment appears to be rallying behind him. Multiple sources in Ukraine, who remain anonymous because they did not have permission to speak, have indicated to The Athletic that the player suspects he may have been sabotaged while he was away with his country’s national team this season — a claim we have seen no evidence to support — but which is being taken seriously in his own country.

On Instagram, the Shakhtar midfielder Sudakov posted a message of support, urging his friend to “stay strong”.

The Shakhtar CEO Palkin, meanwhile, wrote that Mudryk is a “high-profile professional athlete”, adding that he has complete trust that the player “did not use any banned substance”.

Palkin said: “I am confident that he will prove his innocence.” Time will tell whether their faith is warranted.

(Top photo: Etsuo Hara/Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)

Who will win the first 12-team College Football Playoff national championship? I believe there are six teams that have the personnel, savvy and leadership to make a run and win it all, handling top competition as the margin for error gets smaller and the spotlight gets so much brighter.

I love so many of these matchups as we game out the bracket. I’ve long been looking forward to this first expanded Playoff, and I’m now downright giddy about what we’re about to see over the next month and a half.

Here are my picks for the Playoff:

First round

(8) Ohio State over (9) Tennessee

8 p.m. ET | Saturday, Dec. 21 | Columbus, Ohio

I love this opening-round matchup. The Vols will have the best defense the Buckeyes have played, and young Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava has been impressive down the stretch, throwing 11 touchdowns and just one interception in five November games. But I think the Buckeyes’ defense will be the difference against a shaky Vols O-line in a very hostile environment.

(5) Texas over (12) Clemson

4 p.m. ET | Saturday, Dec. 21 | Austin, Texas

Clemson, the ACC champ, has won two national titles under Dabo Swinney. But the Tigers are just 2-3 against teams with winning records and 0-2 vs. the SEC, and now they head to Austin. It’s a very intriguing QB battle here. Clemson’s Cade Klubnik, born in Austin, has been terrific and gotten better as the season has gone on, while Quinn Ewers and the Texas offense have sputtered over the past month.

But I’m still going with the Longhorns here. I don’t think Clemson’s defense is stout enough — it ranks No. 14 in the 17-team ACC against the run — to win on the road against a team as talented as Texas.

(7) Notre Dame over (10) Indiana

8 p.m. ET | Friday, Dec. 20 | South Bend, Ind.

Indiana doesn’t get a home game, but it won’t have to travel far to visit Notre Dame for the first matchup between the in-state foes since 1991. The Hoosiers have been a great story this season, but Notre Dame’s defense will be too much for IU. And even though the Hoosiers have the top-ranked run defense in the Big Ten, the Irish run game is very dangerous and capable of causing problems.

(6) Penn State over (11) SMU

Noon ET | Saturday, Dec. 21 | State College, Pa.

SMU got into the Playoff with the last at-large bid despite losing to Clemson on Saturday and faces Penn State in Happy Valley, where there will be a raucous crowd. The Nittany Lions have an elite running back tandem in Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen and ran all over a good Oregon defense. The Mustangs have been superb at shutting down the run, with only Boston College averaging more than 4 yards per carry against them this year, and they yield an ACC-best 2.74 yards a rush. SMU also protects its quarterbacks well (only 15 sacks allowed in 13 games).

But I’m not picking against Penn State in Beaver Stadium. I feel like the Nittany Lions will build off an impressive showing by their offense in the Big Ten title game.

Quarterfinals

(1) Oregon over (8) Ohio State

5 p.m. ET | Wednesday, Jan. 1 | Rose Bowl | Pasadena, Calif.

This would be a fun rematch. The Buckeyes almost beat the Ducks in Autzen Stadium at midseason, and now they can play again in the Rose Bowl. I picked Ohio State to win it all in the preseason. I still think the Buckeyes are talented enough to win the title, even after their dud performance against Michigan two weeks ago, but it’s become apparent this squad is struggling under the pressure it seems to be putting on itself now.

On the other side, Dan Lanning’s guys always seem primed for whatever challenge they get, and I think the Ducks have a significant edge at QB with Dillon Gabriel.

(5) Texas over (4) Arizona State

1 p.m. ET | Wednesday, Jan. 1 | Peach Bowl | Atlanta

This matchup would be fascinating for a variety of reasons, but start with this: The Longhorns came within a play of being in the national title game last year, while the Sun Devils were picked to finish last in the Big 12 in the preseason after going 3-9 in Kenny Dillingham’s first season. The Sun Devils are arguably the hottest team in the country right now, winning six in a row. Running back Cam Skattebo has been a beast, and this ASU team looks like it’s really feeding off his energy and his attitude.

I think ASU gives Texas a game … for a half, before the Longhorns’ talent takes over.

(2) Georgia over (7) Notre Dame

8:45 p.m. ET | Wednesday, Jan. 1 | Sugar Bowl | New Orleans

Notre Dame’s O-line, which was such a question mark early in the season, has held up very well, allowing just 15 sacks in 12 games. But Georgia’s front seven is scary — just ask Ewers and Texas, whose solid O-line the Dawgs have overwhelmed twice. I do think the Irish’s defense is good enough to keep this one close, but the Georgia athleticism comes at you in waves. The Bulldogs will force a big turnover or two in the second half to pull away.

(6) Penn State over (3) Boise State

7:30 p.m. ET | Tuesday, Dec. 31 | Fiesta Bowl | Glendale, Ariz.

Penn State lost to Ohio State at home and Oregon in the Big Ten title game, yet it got a more favorable draw than either of them.  In SMU and now Boise State, the Nittany Lions face two teams that were both G5 programs last year.

While this isn’t a great Penn State run defense — USC averaged almost 8 yards a carry on PSU and Oregon just ran for 183 yards on it — and Ashton Jeanty is a much better back than either of those teams have, the Nittany Lions have enough athletes to not let the Boise State superstar run wild. Expect this one to be close. Jeanty probably goes for around 200 yards, but the Nittany Lions’ combination of tight end Tyler Warren and two elite running backs in a very good system comes up big down the stretch.

GO DEEPER

Penn State has the most favorable path through the College Football Playoff

Semifinals

(1) Oregon over (5) Texas

7:30 p.m. ET | Friday, Jan. 10 | Cotton Bowl | Arlington, Texas

Gabriel has seen plenty of Texas from his Oklahoma days. He beat a really good UT team last year with the Sooners and didn’t play in the 2022 game when the Horns blew out the Sooners. His legs will be a key here; he ran for 113 yards on Texas last year.

(2) Georgia over (6) Penn State

7:30 p.m. ET | Thursday, Jan. 9 | Orange Bowl | Miami Gardens, Fla.

Georgia’s offense has been really inconsistent, but as long as its front seven is healthy, the Bulldogs present big problems. Winning two Playoff games is a step in the right direction for James Franklin’s Nittany Lions. But I don’t see them handling the Dawgs, who are just bigger and more physical than the first two CFP opponents Penn State got.

National championship

(1) Oregon over (2) Georgia

7:30 p.m. ET | Monday, Jan. 20 | Atlanta

Dan Lanning against his old boss Kirby Smart in the title game is a sweet subplot. The Ducks are built a lot like Smart’s squad. They have a lot of those same elite big players — maybe not quite as many of them in the front seven — and they also have better skill talent and the edge at quarterback, especially given Carson Beck’s injury questions.

To me, Oregon has the top QB in this entire field in Gabriel. He’s very experienced and accurate and has a quick release and A-plus leadership skills. Consider this: Gabriel has a 22-to-3 TD-to-INT ratio against ranked opponents over the past three seasons. The guy seems to be at his best when the spotlight gets hotter and the competition gets better, and this game is as big as it can get. Nike founder and Oregon booster Phil Knight, at 86, finally gets his college football national title.

GO DEEPER

Oregon goes unbeaten (with swagger) in first Big Ten season. And the Ducks aren’t finished

(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: James Black, Aaron J. Thornton, James Gilbert / Getty Images)