Nika Guarding Caitlin - Thoughts?

[browns]

Clark has Paige's NBA range with the 3 and the ego/nerve to fire it off more often than Paige. Nika's defense was very good. You can contain Clark, not shut her down. Seems to me that Clark doesn't have Paige's ball handling skills, so a lot of her inside moves are easy reads.

Not yesterday but in the games I've seen of Clark the last 2 years she definitely drove to the basket easier and more often than Paige

 

[The deacon]

Not yesterday but in the games I've seen of Clark the last 2 years she definitely drove to the basket easier and more often than Paige

Tougher D by the Huskies prevented some of that, Browns... good point.

 

[The deacon]

Volume shooting is my retort- 24 shots to get those points. Caitlin hurt her team by not distributing to the hot hand more-Kate Martin for example. Clark is a unique example unlike anyone else in WCBB so a point guard to point guard comparison for any point guard is skewed against that opponent. The other aspect is Clark did not always guard Nika, so Nika worked on both ends of the floor.

Clark surely is a volume shooter, but she shoots at 47 percent so that's pretty handy, right? That she shot at a lower percentage against the best D she'll face all year was predictable, and understandable. I'd think we'd agree about that.

Regarding Kate Martin, there might have a time or two more when Cailtin could have gotten her the ball but, as we all saw, she wasn't often in the position to distribute as she might have liked. Plus, as I'd guess Coach Bluder would say (similarly to Geno re either Paige or Azzi), she'd always prefer Caitlin taking a shot or going to the hoop. That Clark gets as many assists as she does is a tribute to her team play. Watch Iowa play often and you'd likely agree.

Oh, yeah, by the way, did you think Clark was loafing on D? She has had a bad rap for her defense in the past but is working harder at it now and actually was effective, I thought, vs. the Huskies. It wasn't just on offense that she was expending energy.

All this said, repeating myself, I was impressed by Nika's D on Caitlin and the Huskies' defense in total.

 

[DefenseBB]

Actually, I thought the whole Iowa team, including Caitlin accorded themselves quite nicely on defense especially with the 2-3 zone. The real issue is, like UConn, Iowa really only goes 7 deep in quality games but unlike UConn their starting 5 seems to run out of gas in the 4th quarter-shots coming up short, fouls occurring due to limited footwork movement as examples.

The 2-3 zone is less taxing than Man to Man so I would not say Caitlin was loafing but she certainly did not expend the energy that NIka did. Again, I like Clark but I think you are short changing Nika a bit by comparing Clark's points vs. Nika's points as a quality comparison, it is not is my only retort. But hey, we can agree to disagree.

 

[The deacon]

Wow, small world, yes it was; averaged about 11 or so at WF; an off the charts great HS player who is best remembered at Roselle Park HS in NJ (home of Rick Barry) for scoring 40 in a state championship losing effort in Atlantic City against Burlington. Me, I remember him best for making two foul shots after the buzzer vs. our arch-rivals Roselle. He was fouled at the buzzer and fans from both schools rushed the court thinking the game over. Finally the police formed a human wall around the foul line area and Neil dropped in both with fans pretty much literally screaming in his ears. I was a sophomore, Neil a senior but basketball in Roselle Park had a great playground feeder system out of Sherman School, an elementary school playground that at one time attracted HS and college players from the wider Union County area. In addition to Barry, frequently John Morrison, who lived in Roselle Park but went to Seton Hall Prep, played at Canisius and got a cup of coffee with Denver in the ABA, was there. Great memories, great games…………

Small world, for sure, Littlemin, and perhaps what I like best about the Boneyard.

I'm not surprised about Neil's high school deeds and remember well that when his class arrived on campus it was thought to be a rival for those of Duke, North Carolina and South Carolina (which was also an ACC power at that point). Neil had a really nice touch and his resume speaks well of his Deacon career. I hope he has had a good life since Wake.

As I mentioned, Neil and everyone else were overshadowed by the brilliant Charlie Davis from Brooklyn Tech in NYC, who at one point was the ACC's all-time leading scorer and might have been the best shooter I'd seen at that time. Sadly, he didn't opt to play defense and didn't last in the pros.

 

[HuskyNan]

Looks like Aaliyah helped frustrate Clark, too. Check out Swin leading the cheers in the bottom left of this video

 

[Littlemin]

Small world, for sure, Littlemin, and perhaps what I like best about the Boneyard.

I'm not surprised about Neil's high school deeds and remember well that when his class arrived on campus it was thought to be a rival for those of Duke, North Carolina and South Carolina (which was also an ACC power at that point). Neil had a really nice touch and his resume speaks well of his Deacon career. I hope he has had a good life since Wake.

As I mentioned, Neil and everyone else were overshadowed by the brilliant Charlie Davis from Brooklyn Tech in NYC, who at one point was the ACC's all-time leading scorer and might have been the best shooter I'd seen at that time. Sadly, he didn't opt to play defense and didn't last in the pros.

I never made “The deacon“ connection to Wake Forest. As far as I know, Neil never left NC after going to college there. I do remember him turning down an invite to return to Roselle Park for a Rick Barry Day fest. Pretty common knowledge that Barry was not a very likable fellow to say the least, and the HS had a fair amount of problems getting any of Barry‘s contemporaries to participate.