FiveThirtyEight Article on Boston & Clark

[cancontent]

Thought this was an enlightening article, especially with the debate going on about Boston or Clark being the NPOY this year. Doesn't try to say who is better. Some great stats on where they are both excelling and intangibles that can't be captured through data.

Aliyah Boston And Caitlin Clark Are Both Redefining Basketball Greatness

The level of passion toward the two front-runners of the women’s college basketball player of the year award — South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston and Iowa’s Caitlin…

fivethirtyeight.com

I liked this quote: "The delightful truth is that women’s basketball has a “yes-and” reality, not a “there must be only one” reality. " I think it's very true and could be a sign of the times going forward.

 

[TheFarmFan]

Totally agree. Indeed, sounds kind of familiar...

It's so hard to compare them, because they fulfill polar opposite roles on team with very different needs. Stats wise, it's pretty hard to make the case against Clark, esp. now that her 3PT shooting is up recently. And as a PG, she completely makes or breaks the Iowa offense in a way that's less true of Boston. But Boston is on a much more balanced team and so she's not needed to do it all, and what she is asked to do, I think she does even better than any given facet of Clark's game.

This is why I generally prefer All-American awards that award by position (and have some flexibility within that) than POY awards, because players like Clark and Boston, on teams like Iowa and SCAR, are just really, really hard to compare. But I wouldn't hesitate to put them both on the A-A first team.

 

[visitingcock]

Number one seed SCar SHOULD be matched up with numer 8 seed Iowa in the regionals IMHO

 

[cancontent]

Number one seed SCar SHOULD be matched up with numer 8 seed Iowa in the regionals IMHO

This would be a second round match up in this case, correct? Would the committee make that a possibility considering how many people would likely tune in to watch?

 

[visitingcock]

This would be a second round match up in this case, correct? Would the committee make that a possibility considering how many people would likely tune in to watch?

No. It would be an Elite 8 matchup (assuming both teams make it that far).

It would take place right before player of the year announcement at the Final Four. Does the committee care? I don't know.