diggerfoot
Humanity Hiker
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- Oct 1, 2011
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I recently addressed this false narrative elsewhere, but worth doing repeatedly. One can fall short of being an elite talent, yet still be an elite shooter. A team as a whole can have the skills to be good offensively but not defensively. Clark was not playing with a bunch of poor, inefficient scrubs as teammates.I always find these Paige vs Caitlin debates silly. They play on two completely different teams and have two completely different roles. Look at the supporting cast on each team, it's no surprise why a player would be less efficient with that Iowa roster than the UConn's.
The freshman Bueckers had a higher shooting percentage than the UConn team as a whole and much higher than all the other guards. She also played with a changing line up as a first year player during a turbulent covid year, which contributes to reducing the efficiency of an offense.
In contrast, the junior Clark had a lower shooting percentage than the Iowa team as a whole. Several individuals shot a higher percentage, including other starters.. One reason is that, unlike UConn, that starting line up played together for three years, which of course will increase efficiency. Another reason is that they were good shooters, whatever effect their shortcomings may have manifested on the defensive end. Three players had a shooting percentage of 60% or above.
So if you are talking about assists, Clark had a better roster to work with for converting a pass into a score. If you are talking about the efficiency of shooting, Clark was less efficient than those inefficient scrubs she had as three year teammates. In either case, it was a better supporting offense for the junior Clark than what Bueckers had as a freshman.
Yes, they played different roles for different types of teams. If we assumed their roles to be the same, then Bueckers should have shot more to compensate for her less efficient teammates, while Clark should have shot less in comparison to her high percentage teammates. As it was, they both likely played the roles expected of them.