Caitlin Clark

[CONN78SEJ]

Watched Clark and was absolutely stunned!!! She's the best shooter I've seen since Pistol Pete Maravich half a century ago. Astonishing!!! Not sure which is the better player- Paige or Clark. Paige has better coaching and probably a better supporting cast. Michigan survived with great free throw shooting down the stretch. But I've never seen anyone in the women's game, either in the pros or in college, do what Caitlin Clark just did. Not even Diana Taurasi.

Seriously.

Taurasi won a National Championship as a junior, and again as a senior leading some inexperienced freshman the first year and some learning sophmores the following year, beating Pat Summitt’s Tennessee Volunteers both times. Let’s see Caitlin Clark put two tough NC’s on her back then come talk to me. How quickly people forget. Geez

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Those were fun highlights of her taking very ill advised shots in a blowout loss during what has been a disappointing season for her and her team imo.

I enjoyed watching her with the national team but as someone that ranked Iowa higher than I should for quite awhile I'm a little blown away by the surge in appreciation for her based on this performance.

She was a more deserving center of attention last year when she was playing better, but there was only room for one and that one was in Stoors, media decreed.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

You are correct that not all 15 UCONN players were coveted by all 300+ programs in the country, but I think the you missed the main point that @Moogs was making, which is that UCONN has far and away more talent than Iowa does, so it isn't an apples to apples comparison. (Even though as pointed out above, both teams had similar balance last season despite your claim--worth noting, you chose not to reply to that post.)

Also, you claim Geno has "always recruited diamonds in the rough", who are some of these players you speak of?

Diamonds in the rough, lol. Ok.

 

[DefenseBB]

OMG, why can't anyone compliment and like another player without posters feel like another player is being disrespected?

Caitlin Clark is a phenomenal player. Nothing in her game screams selfish. Other than her current pedestrian 3 pt shooting percentage of 30.1%, all her other stats are awesome. To wit:

• She's averaging 27.4 pts per game
• Shoots 45.7 percent from the floor
• She averages 7.2 free throws per game
• She makes 89.4% of her FT
• She averages 8.2 rebounds a game AS A GUARD.
• She averages 1.3 steals per game
• And she leads the country at 8.2 assists per game. How is any of this selfish?

Liking Caitlin Clark does not diminish Paige Bueckers in the least. It does not mean Paige is less than Clark just because you say a positive comment about Clark. She is very exciting to watch and she operates within an up- tempo style of play, creating many more opportunities than most other teams. Lisa Bluder has done a very good job at Iowa and her recruiting is getting better. Iowa is challenged on the defensive side of the ball, including Ms. Clark who has room for improvement. But the same could be said for any other POY candidate who has some weakness.

All in all, I really like watching Caitlin play more than any other player on any other team other than UCONN. Anyone who doesn't see how good Caitlin is, is either just being a fanatic of their team or is not really understanding how her game and the system she operates within is structured. She is worthy of all the accolades and press she gets. Stop feeling other UConn players or past UConn greats are slighted by complimenting this fine young player.

Rant over, continue as you were.

 

[nwhoopfan]

All they need is a liquor store.

Yeah, there's that. Sometimes they get more creative though.

 

[TheFarmFan]

I think it's probably the case that Clark has the highest combination of motor, grit, and talent in D1 WCBB right now. I think there are players on some teams who have more of each (motor, grit, or talent), but she is kind of the nexus of all three.

I suspect a bit of the skepticism is that buffo states like that don't usually translate into a really effective team. In theory, the person with the most assists shouldn't also have the most rebounds, points, trips to the line, and steals. That's just not an effective allocation of playing time.

And I suspect what the homers are reacting to is that Bueckers has almost as much motor, about as much grit, and arguably more talent, and does that all while getting her teammates more involved. So when folks start saying "Cait the Great!," it's natural to hear an implicit (and unfavorable) comparison being drawn to Bueckers.

I think the counter to that is, well, Clark doesn't have a starting line-up of fellow top 5 recruits to play off of. And it's a fair point.

I guess in the end I'm coming to the same place I came to with Sabrina Ionescu, and, to a lesser degree, Kelsey Plum. Could be more effectively deployed, and probably has a ceiling on how far her game will go, but really fun to watch, and great for the women's game to generate more attention and respect.

 

[triaddukefan]

More evidence of how much attention that Clark is gathering. Part of the local sports news tonight had a segment about Clark.. and showed some highlights from the Michigan game. And this is the local news in Greensboro/High Point... not Cedar Rapids or Dubuque. The sportscaster was raving about her and her abilities and all around game. On the Dan Patrick Show last week.. they talked about her as well... they RARELY talk about women's basketball...

 

[DefenseBB]

More evidence of how much attention that Clark is gathering. Part of the local sports news tonight had a segment about Clark.. and showed some highlights from the Michigan game. And this is the local news in Greensboro/High Point... not Cedar Rapids or Dubuque. The sportscaster was raving about her and her abilities and all around game. On the Dan Patrick Show last week.. they talked about her as well... they RARELY talk about women's basketball...

I am afraid to "Like" your post out of fear that others might think I am slighting @Plebe because as we know, you can only "Like" one or the other...we can't possible like 2 forum posters!

 

[eebmg]

So where is her NIL deal? I am hoping Paige's popularity with the corporate world spreads to some other top performers ? Does she have a social media presence?

 

[mbr33ct]

You don’t know what you are talking about. UConn was a team and had very well balanced scoring last year. Paige averaged 20 ppg but CW was right behind her at 16.5 ppg, Ono averaged 12 ppg, and EW averaged 10 ppg IIRC. Iowa or even DePaul doesn’t come close to that kind of scoring spread, both are one player teams and their WL records reflect that, this year or last year.

Do your homework before making such claims:

Iowa last year had:
Clark: 26.6 PPG
Czinano: 19.3 PPG
Warnock: 12.0 PPG
Marshall: 9.1 PPG
Martin: 7.0 PPG

UCONN had:
Bueckers: 20.0 PPG
Williams: 16.3 PPG
ONO: 12.0 PPG
Edwards: 10.7 PPG
Westbrook: 9.4 PPG

I want to get in on this action as well. I'm here on behalf of DePaul.

Last year DePaul's top 5 players (scoring)

Morris: 19.3 PPG
Held: 16.6 PPG
Church: 13.3 PPG
Bekelja: 12.5 PPG
Rogers: 9.5 PPG

I'm not a math guy but I know when a number is higher than another. To these aged eyes seems like DePaul had better top 5 point scorers than UConn last year. Does @CONN78SEJ even look at the other teams stats before typing or was he looking in a mirror when he was practicing "You don't know what you are talking about".

 

[cancontent]

So where is her NIL deal? I am hoping Paige's popularity with the corporate world spreads to some other top performers ? Does she have a social media presence?

She signed one with a company called Hy-Vee. I'm not familiar with the name being from north of the border, but I'm assuming it's a popular business in the Iowa region. I'm sure more are in the works, especially with the increased attention she has been receiving.

Caitlin Clark inks NIL deal with Hy-vee

Iowa star basketball player Caitlin Clark is now the first collegiate athlete to sign a sponsorship deal with Hy-Vee. Clark and the grocery store chain announced the new NIL (Name, image, & likeness) deal Wednesday at the Crosspark Road Hy-Vee in Coralville. The West Des Moines native this week...

cbs2iowa.com

 

[cancontent]

It's interesting to see how polarizing this topic has gotten with respect to Clark. From my view, the attention she's getting (negative / positive) is no different than what happens to a great athlete who becomes popular.

We see it in every sport and with all the big names. For as many people who love Michael Jordan, there are those who will poke holes at his legacy. Tom Brady will be loved and hated depending on the NFL fan base forever. Being Bills fan, he's be the latter, but I don't begrudge his talent and success. The same can be said about Paige with a lot of the crud last year when there were those who thought she got way too much attention.

I think Clark is an amazing player, but there are things I like and don't like about her game. I'm sure there are others who look at it from a similar perspective.

 

[eebmg]

She signed one with a company called Hy-Vee. I'm not familiar with the name being from north of the border, but I'm assuming it's a popular business in the Iowa region. I'm sure more are in the works, especially with the increased attention she has been receiving.

Caitlin Clark inks NIL deal with Hy-vee

Iowa star basketball player Caitlin Clark is now the first collegiate athlete to sign a sponsorship deal with Hy-Vee. Clark and the grocery store chain announced the new NIL (Name, image, & likeness) deal Wednesday at the Crosspark Road Hy-Vee in Coralville. The West Des Moines native this week...

cbs2iowa.com

Good. I would hate for it to be a Paige / Azzi Phenomenon alone. Would stir up too much jealousy and worse.

 

[cancontent]

Good. I would hate for it to be a Paige / Azzi Phenomenon alone. Would stir up too much jealousy and worse.

It's not fortunately. There are quite a few players who have inked NIL deals throughout the NCAAW.

Just a few off the fop of my head:

1) Onu from UCLA has a NIL deal with a crypto company called FTX.
2) Angel Reese and Naz Hillmon have partnered with Outback Steakhouse.
3) Aliyah Boston has one with Bojangles (hope I have that right - going off of memory).
4) There were those twin sisters who also signed a deal with a mobile company once the NIL deal was made official.

The news about these deals is what's lacking. Unless you're paying attention to local reports, or fine this kind of stuff interesting like I do, you may not hear about it.

 

[JellyBean]

I just greatly appreciate Caitlin Clark and the level of excitement she brings to the game of basketball. She is a huge talent that is going to be a huge star at the next level. If she is playing a team in or near you, get there early and watch a shoot around. It is a joy. Sure, we see the long-range bombs that she knocks down with ease. But to me, watching her (against Michigan) she puts in the work.

 

[Argonaut]

NIL deals for WBB are more about a player's visibility on social media than they are about talent. Clark has just under 100k followers on IG and Paige has almost a million. If I'm a company and I want to use one of them to push my product, Paige gets me almost 10x more eyeballs than Caitlin does. And, fwiw, Clark gets twice as many eyeballs as Aliyah Boston (who clocks in at just under 48k followers).

As much as players want to make money, companies also want to make sure they're choosing the best advertising investment.

Paige built her brand and gathered a following long before it was going to be profitable, and as we can see, it's paying off for her. Other players just didn't.

 

[sun]

Besides basketball, I admire that she elected to stay close to her home, family and dog.
Even Hy-Vee is an Iowa based grocery chain with 280 stores that claims that all Hy-Vee beef comes from family farms in the midwest.
I imagine that someday she'll play in the Olympics and will become an international star.
She'll be an ambassador for the US & Iowa wherever she goes for a long time to come.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

I want to get in on this action as well. I'm here on behalf of DePaul.

Last year DePaul's top 5 players (scoring)

Morris: 19.3 PPG
Held: 16.6 PPG
Church: 13.3 PPG
Bekelja: 12.5 PPG
Rogers: 9.5 PPG

I'm not a math guy but I know when a number is higher than another. To these aged eyes seems like DePaul had better top 5 point scorers than UConn last year. Does @CONN78SEJ even look at the other teams stats before typing or was he looking in a mirror when he was practicing "You don't know what you are talking about".

Ok wise @. SS, just look at the box score in the loss to Michigan and tell me Iowa really spread the scoring out compared to Michigan’s scoring spread. Idiot

 

[mbr33ct]

Ok wise @. SS, just look at the box score in the loss to Michigan and tell me Iowa really spread the scoring out compared to Michigan’s scoring spread. Idiot

Wasn't your original post about "last year" stats? We're not talking about this years stats or individual games.

 

[letsgogirls]

Besides basketball, I admire that she elected to stay close to her home, family and dog.
Even Hy-Vee is an Iowa based grocery chain with 280 stores that claims that all Hy-Vee beef comes from family farms in the midwest.
I imagine that someday she'll play in the Olympics and will become an international star.
She'll be an ambassador for the US & Iowa wherever she goes for a long time to come.

Her merch is also through an Iowa company, The Vinyl Studio. And even did a meet and greet at an Iowa Cubs game over the summer. It's always great to see elite players stay in their home state and be loyal to it. A nice change of pace as we don't see it happen very often.

 

[eyeroll]

What a fricken thread this turned out to be. I'll just say this - NOTHING other than yourself, makes talking about Caitlin Clark a comparison to Paige. That only happens because people turn it into that, which is dumb. We have total control to just celebrate a great basketball talent rather than turning it into some sort of pissing match. Literally creating your own drama and then complaining about it.

Not to mention, how a person plays basketball is a reflection of the team they are on. I don't look at her or the way she plays and get a Chennedy Carter vibe at all. Not to mention, despite it being pointed out multiple times, they were playing 2 starters down against Michigan and yet folks just wanna ignore that, like when we had people out with injuries, other folks didn't have to step up their role. Some of the folks on Iowa probably can only step up so far, so Caitlin needs to just do more. That might look selfish to some people but just because you think that doesn't make it true. It also might look ugly sometimes but we're familiar with that too. There is zero doubt that she has a ton of talent and just like Paige, we should celebrate that because it's good for Women's Basketball. The irony in all of this is that many of these young women are friends, so if they aren't playing against each other, they are rooting for one another. We should be learning from them.

 

[UConn2SF]

Clark was incredible in the 4th quarter vs Michigan. In Iowa's other close games, not so much.

Clark's 4th quarter in single digit games:
3 wins: 35 mins, 14 pts, 3-16 fg (1-7 3fg), 7 rebs, 4 assts, 7 tos, 2 fouls
4 losses: 40 mins, 20 pts, 7-21 fg (3-12 3fg), 4 rebs, 5 assts, 10 tos, 8 fouls

 

[letsgogirls]

Clark was incredible in the 4th quarter vs Michigan. In Iowa's other close games, not so much.

Clark's 4th quarter in single digit games:
3 wins: 35 mins, 14 pts, 3-16 fg (1-7 3fg), 7 rebs, 4 assts, 7 tos, 2 fouls
4 losses: 40 mins, 20 pts, 7-21 fg (3-12 3fg), 4 rebs, 5 assts, 10 tos, 8 fouls

No one said she was perfect

 

[ConwayGmck]

How is averaging 8+ assists not making your teammates better?

Averaging 8+ assists when you're not considered a top defensive target is a great accomplishment. John Stockton never averaged 20 ppg a single season in a 20+ year NBA career - his assist numbers may never be reached again - even with these manufactured "all-star" teams with multiple top players on them.

Averaging 8+ assists when YOU are the top defensive target every game is not that impressive. When opposing teams are doubling and tripling you to stop you from scoring, you'll find a ton of free teammates all alone near the basket. Wilt Chamberlain once led the NBA in assists one season in his career, but that doesn't make Wilt a great assist man, and it surely didn't make Wilt a player that helped to make his team better - in fact, one big thing against Wilt was he demanded the ball every time he was in the game, but he was also so unstoppable in his prime during his era that it pretty much made sense. But games with Wilt often turned into 1 man versus 5, and it wore him down in games against the better teams......

 

[CL82]

That's why UConn wouldn't win another NC with Paige throwing up

Agree. If Katie Lou couldn’t parlay that into a Natty, I doubt Paige could either.

(That was one heck of a performance though huh?)

 

[DefenseBB]

Ok wise @. SS, just look at the box score in the loss to Michigan and tell me Iowa really spread the scoring out compared to Michigan’s scoring spread. Idiot

Hey there, name calling is unnecessary! you have been on this forum long enough to know how to comport your answers if you disagree with another poster and your name calling raises questions to me about your own logic. Iowa does not have the depth that Michigan or even DePaul does. Iowa has to rely on Clark AND Cizano and while Michigan does lean on Naz a fair amount, but they have Brown, Kiser, Nolan and now Dill who was their starting point guard before the injuries is back and contributing.

 

[HuskyMJ]

Clark is POY candidate and the disparaging I see about her on Twitter, mostly from SCar fans is so disappointing. Hello, fans on Twitter have no say in POY so who cares if they like Clark?

 

[cancontent]

Clark is POY candidate and the disparaging I see about her on Twitter, mostly from SCar fans is so disappointing. Hello, fans on Twitter have no say in POY so who cares if they like Clark?

Fans are going to be fans unfortunately. Social media has amplified things beyond what we're used to seeing even a decade ago. And to your point about having no say, its likely these are casual fans who don't understand the voting process.

From the SC fans' perspective, I take it as they believe Boston is being slighted with all the recent attention on Clark after her last few games. I recall seeing similar comments last year when NPOY was being discussed and Paige was the frontrunner.

At the same time, some may be looking at it through a "bias" view because that comes up a lot too. Ranging from the "UConn bias" tripe to white players over black. It's sad that people do, but fans see what they want to see that fits their narrative.

 

[GCKSFN4L]

Fans are going to be fans unfortunately. Social media has amplified things beyond what we're used to seeing even a decade ago. And to your point about having no say, its likely these are casual fans who don't understand the voting process.

From the SC fans' perspective, I take it as they believe Boston is being slighted with all the recent attention on Clark after her last few games. I recall seeing similar comments last year when NPOY was being discussed and Paige was the frontrunner.

At the same time, some may be looking at it through a "bias" view because that comes up a lot too. Ranging from the "UConn bias" tripe to white players over black. It's sad that people do, but fans see what they want to see that fits their narrative.

I have seen a lot of the SC reactions on Twitter and a overwhelming (95%) aren't talking bad about Clark. Actually a good bit of the SC fanbase are Caitlin Clark fans and many thought she was overlooked last year despite an amazing freshman season. Which is part of the bigger problem about the lack of coverage on WBB outside of a select fee programs

You're right that there was some defensive people trying to take up for Boston but even then it wasn't really in a rude way. What I have seen is most people making the some points that were mentioned here.

• She doesn't shoot with a great efficiency,
• She has to player bigger part of their offense, which leads more points

-She hasn't won any of the big games this season

 

[Majic Hands]

Agree. If Katie Lou couldn’t parlay that into a Natty, I doubt Paige could either.

(That was one heck of a performance though huh?)

Wow. I see what you did there. For some weird reason you thought it would be fun to make it appear that I said something I didn't say.

For other BYers I said:
That's why UConn wouldn't win another NC. Paige throwing up big numbers and 4 teammates watching while they lose the game.

CL82 as soon as I compleat this post I will completely block you.