Caitlin Clark, meet Mia Castillo

Courtesy of Stockton Photo

The No. 1 scorer in all of women’s college basketball in 2023-24, the greatest sensation the sport has yet witnessed, has a new sneaker deal with Nike, is commercial pals with Jake of State Farm and is about to embark on a WNBA career with the Indiana Fever.

Her name is Caitlin Clark. Maybe you’ve heard of her.

The second leading scorer? She was the ECAC  Div. III Player of the Year, also led the nation in steals and is one of the best players to come out of the City University of New York Athletic Conference in years. She plans to embark on a career as a Certified Public Accountant.

Her name is Mia Castillo. She is a 5-foot, 8-inch guard for Baruch College in Manhattan, as slender as a drinking straw You have almost certainly not heard of her. She likes to channel her favorite players, Steph Curry and Clark, by launching a few logo threes at the close of every workout.

“Caitlin brought so much attention to the game this year,” Castillo says. “People are starting to realize how talented these women are. It was exciting to be in the college-sports space at the same time as her.”

Born and raised in the Bronx, Castillo is a junior with a 3.67 GPA, studying accounting, communications and data analytics at a school renowned for its business curriculum. There are no athletic scholarships in Div. III, but she has an academic one, so that’s not an issue. The distance from Clark’s Div. I competition, playing the likes of South Carolina and UConn, to Castillo’s Div. III, playing against York and Medgar Evers, is as far as Clark’s shooting range. Still, that takes nothing away from what Castillo has achieved at Baruch, which finished the year at 17-12, making it to the second round of the ECAC playoffs. Castillo averaged 27.4 points per game, and the NCAA-leading 5.4 steals per game. She also averaged 7.8 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.1 blocks – and still found the energy to guard the opposing team’s best player.

“Mia would always mention to me how amazing it is, what Caitlin is doing,” Baruch coach Michael Kotrozos says. “I’d tell her, ‘Well, at our level, you are doing the same thing.’

Courtesy of Stockton Photo

The daughter of Dominican and Puerto Rican parents, Castillo was smitten by dance as a little girl, but when her twin brother, Eric, started playing basketball, Mia wanted in, and never got out. The family moved north to Poughkeepsie when the twins started high school. Castillo was introduced to Kotrozos through one of her AAU coaches, but the recruiting period coincided with the peak of the pandemic, so coach and player communicated strictly via Zoom and text. Kotrozos loved Castillo’s long-limbed athleticism and her versatility, and knew Baruch would be a natural fit academically. Kotrozos never saw Castillo play in person – indeed, had never even met her - until she was already enrolled.

“I was very lucky to connect with coach Mike,” Castillo says. “He was very straightforward. I trusted him from the beginning. I got to play the game I love and go to school in a city I love, (so) it was a perfect alignment.”

With one more year of eligibility left, Castillo wants to keep working on her jump shot, improve her range. One of her favorite things to do is watch how hard Curry and Clark work off the ball to get themselves into dangerous shooting positions. Her plan is to get an advanced accounting degree, but she is also intrigued by the idea of playing professionally overseas. Kotrozos believes the combination of Castillo’s all-around skills, work ethic and cerebral approach to the game will attract a good amount of interest.

The more Castillo thinks about it, the more she thinks her CPA career can wait a bit. The world’s ledgers and spreadsheets aren’t going anywhere. Where would she want to play? She is open to most any option. The nation’s second-leading scorer knows that a multimillion-dollar shoe deal and State Farm spots with Jake are probably not in her future, and she’s good with that

“I just want to take basketball as far as I can,” she says.