Clark will enter the WNBA draft on April 15 and is expected to go first overall to the Indiana Fever

Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes jersey. PHOTO: CAITLIN CLARK/INSTAGRAM, BEN SOLOMON/NCAA PHOTOS VIA GETTY

Caitlin Clark said goodbye to her Iowa Hawkeyes jersey after playing her final collegiate game
After Iowa’s loss to South Carolina, Clark said she has no regrets about how her season ended
On April 15, the Indiana Fever are expected to select Clark first overall in the WNBA draft

It’s the end of an era and the start of a new chapter for Caitlin Clark

After the 22-year-old basketball star played the final game of her collegiate career on April 7, Clark posted a farewell tribute to her iconic Iowa Hawkeyes jersey on Instagram Stories.

The post shows her black and yellow no. 22 jersey laid out on the floor next to one of her matching sneakers.

“I’ll miss ya,” Clark wrote over the picture, adding seven yellow heart emojis.

The Hawkeyes fell to the South Carolina Gamecocks 87-75  in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game on Sunday. Clark, though, dominated the game as the leading scorer with 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the loss.

Caitlin Clark Says Goodbye to Her Iowa Uniform.CAITLIN CLARK/INSTAGRAM

Despite leaving the Hawkeyes without a championship win, Clark, who became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer this season, said she has no regrets as she prepares to join the WNBA this month.

“There’s not a regret in my mind of how things went,” Clark told reporters after the game. “I’ll be able to sleep every night even though I never won a national championship.”

Clark became a household name this season, bringing in millions of viewers to the women’s tournament. “People aren’t going to remember every single win or every single loss,” Clark said after the championship defeat.

Instead, Clark said they’ll remember “the moments that they shared at one of our games or watching on TV or how excited their young daughter or son got about watching women’s basketball.”

“I think that’s pretty cool.”

Clark went on to speak about the growing popularity of women’s basketball after Sunday’s game.

“When you’re given an opportunity, women’s sports just kind of thrives. I think that’s been the coolest thing for me on this journey,” she said.

“We started our season playing in front of 55,000 people in Kinnick Stadium. And now we’re ending it playing in front of probably 15 million people or more on TV. It just continues to get better and better and better. That’s never going to stop.”

Caitlin Clark.BEN SOLOMON/NCAA PHOTOS VIA GETTY

Speaking about the naysayers who continue to ignore the women’s teams, Clark said, “I don’t really get offended,” when people say they haven’t watched women’s basketball before.

“I think, one, you’re a little late to the party, yes. But, two, that’s cool. We’re changing the game. We’re attracting more people to it,” she explained.

And despite the loss, Clark is proud of her team’s effort and praised the Hawkeyes for supporting each other all season. “We truly have each other’s back,” she said.

“Maybe we weren’t always the most skilled. Maybe we weren’t always the tallest. Maybe we weren’t always the fastest, but we just believed. We knew we could be in these moments. We trusted one another. That took a couple of years to get to that point.”

The WNBA draft takes place on April 15 in New York. The Indiana Fever are expected to draft Clark first overall.