Expectations were high for Caitlin Clark even before she declared for the WNBA Draft. Over the next few months, they only grew for the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, who was tasked with bringing the Indiana Fever back to prominence. And she delivered.

Despite a rough start that Clark joked about during the playoffs that she doesn’t like to think about, she delivered one of the best freshman seasons in league history to lead Indiana back to the playoffs and earn Rookie honors of the Year 2024. according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Clark averaged 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game in the regular season. She ranked seventh in scoring, shooting 41.7% overall, 24.4% from 3 and 90.6% from the free throw line. She led the league in assists and earned the top performer award while adding 1.3 steals and nearly a block per game. As the year progressed, she became a clear MVP candidate, finishing fourth in the MVP voting won by A’ja Wilson. Clark will likely be a first-team All-WNBA selection. The Fever were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday.

“Caitlin is special,” Indiana head coach Christie Sides said before Game 1 of the playoffs, shortly after the MVP results were announced. “Everyone knows that. She has been special. She ended up in the best league in the world, the best women’s basketball league in the world. She found her footing. She kept getting better. She has put herself in a position to be called one of the best players in this league. That’s incredible for a rookie.”

Clark broke numerous records in her first season. She broke the single-season rookie assists record set by Ticha Penicheiro in 1998 and the overall single-season assists record set by Alyssa Thomas last year. In the Fever’s final home game of the regular season, she passed Seimone Augustus for the rookie scoring record with a career-high 35 points. Her 12 point-assist double-doubles bested veteran WNBA champion Courtney Vandersloot’s 11 set in 2017. That puts her at ninth on the career list and she recorded a triple-double in two of them.

Indiana started the season 2-9 while facing the league’s best in an abbreviated schedule. Losing an entire collegiate season and the NCAA Tournament to the title game also took a toll on the star as she transitioned to the professional game.

She scored 30 points for the first time in late May and began racking up double-digit assists in June. The Fever made it clear they would be a second-half force with a win over the Liberty in July. It was Clark’s first career triple-double and the first by a rookie in league history. In the first-half finale against Dallas, she dished out a record 19 assists in one game.

The month-long All-Star/Olympic break gave the rookie the gift of time and a second training camp environment to build chemistry with her new teammates. The Fever took off, finishing 9-5. Clark won Eastern Conference Player of the Month for August, becoming the first rookie in league history to receive the honor. The WNBA started monthly awards in 2010.

Clark averaged 24 points, 5.2 rebounds and 8.5 assists in the stretch with a shooting line of 46.9/37.3/93.8. She led all players in assists and three-pointers in August and ranked third in scoring. She opened September with a second triple-double and became the first rookie and sixth player overall to reach 200 assists and 100 3-pointers in a single season.