Three, that's the magic number...
March Madness offers athletes the grandest possible stage to showcase their talents, a gleaming ballroom of sorts where players capture the hearts and minds of even the most cynical fan.
It's a team game, after all; units are highly specialized. Versatility — a much-desired trait in the professional game — can take a backseat, spurned in favor of reliability in a set role.
Sometimes, though, supernovas burst through the confines arbitrarily imposed on their style of play. In those moments, magic happens. Seemingly one-dimensional talents become full-blooded contributors under the NCAA Tournament glow.
No feat exemplifies such development more than the triple-double. It's the most complete showcase of individual basketball wizardry in the game.
There have been precious few trifectas in the sport's history. Even fewer of those have come when the lights are at their brightest.
Without further ado, The Sporting News takes a look at March Madness triple-doubles, from Cassandra Lander and Anne Donovan to Sabrina Ionescu.
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NCAA Tournament triple-doubles
There have been 17 triple-doubles in March Madness history, with the first one occurring in 1982 and the latest one happening in 2019.
The players to have recorded such a feat make up some of the biggest names in the sport's history, including WNBA 25th-Anniversary Team member Ticha Penicheiro and four-time All-WNBA First Teamer Skylar Diggins-Smith.
Ionescu is the most recent addition to the exclusive collection, having recorded two triple-doubles during her Oregon career, one in 2018 and one in 2019.
Here's a closer look at those special 17 performances during the NCAA Tournament:
| Player | Opponent | Year | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Blocks | Steals |
| Cassandra Lander (Arizona State) | Georgia | 1982 | 17 | 11 | 10 | — | — |
| Anne Donovan (Old Dominion) | Penn State | 1983 | 20 | 13 | — | 12 | — |
| Joni Davis (Missouri) | LSU | 1984 | 14 | 11 | 10 | — | — |
| Katie Meier (Duke) | Manhattan | 1987 | 16 | 11 | 10 | — | — |
| Pauline Jordan (UNLV) | Colorado | 1989 | 22 | 17 | — | 11 | — |
| Sonja Henning (Stanford) | Cal State Fullerton | 1991 | 19 | 10 | 10 | — | — |
| Niesa Johnson (Alabama) | Duke | 1995 | 28 | 12 | 14 | — | — |
| Tracy Henderson (Georgia) | Louisville | 1995 | 14 | 13 | — | 10 | — |
| Ticha Penicheiro (Old Dominion) | Saint Francis (PA) | 1998 | 22 | — | 15 | — | 14 |
| Nicole Powell (Stanford) | Weber State | 2002 | 20 | 11 | 10 | — | — |
| Nicole Powell (Stanford) | Tulane | 2002 | 16 | 10 | 10 | — | — |
| Kristin Haynie (Michigan State) | Vanderbilt | 2005 | 13 | 10 | 10 | — | — |
| Skylar Diggins (Notre Dame) | Maryland | 2012 | 22 | 10 | 11 | — | — |
| Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (UConn) | St. Joseph's | 2014 | 20 | 10 | 10 | — | — |
| Samantha Logic (Iowa) | Baylor | 2015 | 13 | 10 | 14 | — | — |
| Sabrina Ionescu (Oregon) | Seattle | 2018 | 19 | 10 | 11 | — | — |
| Sabrina Ionescu (Oregon) | Indiana | 2019 | 29 | 10 | 12 | — | — |
Will Caitlin Clark record a triple-double during March Madness?
It's certainly anybody's guess whether Iowa's Caitlin Clark — the queen of the triple-double since making her debut back in 2020 — could record a famous trifecta during March. However, it seems plausible that Clark could join Ionescu, Diggins, Penicheiro and the countless other icons who have hit the mark in a tournament game.
MORE: What seed is Iowa in Women's March Madness 2024?
For starters, Clark is perhaps the sport's most all-around talent. Yes, her sharp shooting draws plaudits. But her playmaking is similarly fearsome: Clark finished the year as by far the most prolific passer in the country, totaling 294 assists in 33 regular-season games, an average of 8.9 per night.
Couple that with her impressive rebounding — Clark nabbed 7.3 boards per game — and it seems very realistic to believe that she could rack up the necessary stats needed to produce at least one tournament triple-double. She certainly has the pedigree, having led the country in triple-doubles during the regular season with six, three more than any other player.
For what it's worth, Clark is one of the college game's most notorious triple-double enthusiasts. She has 17 in her career, second-most in the history of the sport, men or women. The only person she's trailing? That would be Ionescu, who finished her Ducks career with 26 such performances.
| Rank | Player | School | Triple-doubles | Career |
| 1. | Sabrina Ionescu | Oregon | 26 | 2016-2020 |
| 2. | Caitlin Clark | Iowa | 17 | 2020-present |
| 3. | Kyle Collinsworth | BYU | 12 | 2010-16 |
| 4. | Chastadie Barrs | Lamar | 9 | 2015-19 |
| 5. | Suzie McConnell | Penn State | 7 | 1984-88 |
| 6. | Louella Tomlinson | Saint Mary's | 7 | 2007-11 |
Six players are tied with six career triple-doubles — three men's players (Michael Anderson, Shaquille O'Neal, LSU; Shawn James, Northeastern/Duquesne) and four women's players (Danielle Carson, Youngstown State; Samantha Logic, Iowa; Nicole Powell, Stanford; Alyssa Thomas, Maryland.)
It will take a lot of work for Clark to put together such a display. But given her proclivity for it in the past, she has as good a chance as any to join Ionescu and her fellow collegiate legends in the Pantheon of tournament play with an all-around showcase this season.
