Sue Bird said Caitlin is the most exciting basketball player?! | The Boneyard

Sue Bird said Caitlin is the most exciting basketball player?!

It’s a fair point. Clark has a constant green light and plays a freewheeling style - she’ll pull up from 25 feet on a semi break, or improvise on her own. That’s the way Iowa wants to play - she’s great in the half court too, but she has carte blanche to hunt her own shots at any moment. Paige and others tend to work more in the confines of an offensive system, and you get less of a sense of “what’s she going to do next?”.
 
Guess Sue missed those two clutch 3s that Paige hit to win games against top 15 competition on national TV. How many of those did Clark hit? They are both great players, but there's a far different weight on Paige's shoulders that Clark will never have to bear.
 
hoopsfan22 said:
Guess Sue missed those two clutch 3s that Paige hit to win games against top 15 competition on national TV. How many of those did Clark hit? They are both great players, but there's a far different weight on Paige's shoulders that Clark will never have to bear.
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She made one big one against Iowa State in the big local rivalry game in maybe her fourth college game. We think of UConn-SC and UConn-UT as big matchups, but Iowa-ISU is a big one for fans of both programs.
 
msf22b said:
It should be an momentous event.
Two young superstars that have the potential to bring the game to new heights.
In their first (of many) head-to-heads (not literally, perhaps).
No losers here.
I would be surprised if either backed down.
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We shall see. Sometimes the hype creates disappointment. Sadly, I have to see it on tape after the fact. Have to be on the road during most of game time.
 
Should take Sue's comment in context. She might have said that a month or two ago, when Clark was on fire.
 
Caitlin has single handedly brought her team to the Sweet Sixteen. You can debate how good her supporting cast may be but without her, they are not in Texas today. Is that exciting? Is that more valuable? Is that the best player? Don’t know and don’t care. It’s meaningless gibberish to me. I watch the games. I root for UCONN. But I will say that the last game Caitlin played against Kentucky was the most dominant individual performance I’ve seen in a long time.
 
Caitlin is allowed to play a more exciting game right now. She makes flashy passes, she takes crazy half court threes. Paige has to play in a system and plays under control, really picks her moments. Most exciting doesn’t mean best, as someone said above. And also Caitlin may be the better player, it’s hard to say when they have very similar story lines and are doing everything for their team. Nothing wrong with two superstar freshman.
 
Sue who? Bird? Do we know a Sue Bird? Must be some couch potato living and dreaming in some out of the way part of the country. Seattle probably, too water logged to think straight! Why do we care what she thinks?
 
It's not a matter of allowed. Geno wishes Paige would shoot more. Not which announcer said Paige seems to know what her teams needs. If she needs to pass, take a shot or rebound, she does what the team needs. Sue is right. In terms of the extremely long 3s Caitlin takes, it is exciting. However, whose team won today's game. Also, stop saying Iowa doesn't have a talented team.
 
You don't stop a shooter (typically) you just make her less efficient. For example, if she usually scores 1.5 points per shot, you try to keep her to 1.0 points per shot. Clark for the season scored 720 points on 506 shots or 1.423 points/shot. Today Uconn held her to 21 points on 21 shots - 1.0 p/s. Iowa as a team scored 1.41 p/s this season and today they scored 1.20 p/s.

Uconn's numbers 1.32 p/s for the season and today 1.26 p/s, but they also took 73 shots vs. Iowa's 60 because of rebounds TOs and blocked shots. (Iowa had more shooting fouls/foul shots.)
 
chrissaran said:
Andy Landers just said UConn didn't stop Caitlin. 7-21 is pretty good defense, I would say.
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Plus one of the makes banked in wildly and one was a layup with 35 seconds left and the game over.

She had a good five-minute spurt in the third quarter when she hit 3 straight threes, but other than that we did a really good job and had her on lockdown. She also didn’t really have many impactful assists where she broke us down and created things for others, like she usually does. Couldn’t have hoped for much better.
 
msf22b said:
It should be an momentous event.
Two young superstars that have the potential to bring the game to new heights.
In their first (of many) head-to-heads (not literally, perhaps).
No losers here.
I would be surprised if either backed down.
Expand ...
Two great players elevating the game at such a young age. We are getting the chance to watch the next chapter of women's basketball evolution.
 
Paige and Caitlin are both exciting players....Clark is more impressive with her deep, step back, 3 point shot. I would love to have both players on my team.
 
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