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Message: [QUOTE="BigTenGuy, post: 5002060, member: 12979"] Don't think Clark fell into Bluder's lap. During and immediately after the build up of Bluder's first Elite 8 team, with Gustafson as national POY, Iowa recruited Clark harder and spent more money to recruit her than any other player they had ever recruited, including following her to Thailand to watch her play USA Basketball games. Clark's open gyms, mainly for out-of-state coaches who had flown in, were early in the morning, before school, and Jan Jensen would leave Iowa City every open gym day at 4:30 a.m. to attend every Clark open gym. After losing in the Elite 8 to Baylor in 2019, Bluder went to Des Moines to tell Clark that she was the missing piece, that she could take Iowa to the Final Four. And after all that work, Clark told Bluder that she was not coming to Iowa, that she was going to Notre Dame. A body blow to Bluder. Iowa had lost again on a nearby McDonald's All American recruit, the usual result for Big Ten schools (other than Ohio State and newcomer Maryland) that struggle to recruit McDonald's All American talent. But on Clark's official visit to Notre Dame, when she committed to Notre Dame, she said things didn't feel right. Her Catholic family wanted her to go to Notre Dame, but she wasn't feeling it, and she didn't announce her commitment to Notre Dame on social media. After a few more weeks, she decided to go to Iowa rather than even closer-to-home Iowa State, and committed to Bluder on the phone, even before telling her mom. Of course, if Clark wasn't from Iowa, she would never have gone to Iowa. But fell in Bluder's lap, I don't' think so. [/QUOTE]

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