Uconn’s Auriemma back as Bueckers faces Iowa’s Clark
The University of Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma will be coaching in his 27th straight Sweet 16 on Saturday, but his first game in this women’s NCAA Tournament.
Auriemma spent the first two rounds back home in Connecticut, selfisolating after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
“Sitting at home and knowing that you’re not part of it, but you’re trying to be a part of it, yeah, it’s a most unusual feeling,” he said.
The Hall of Famer returns just in time to get a close-up view of Saturday’s game at the Alamodome between the nation’s most heralded freshmen, Uconn’s Paige Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. The winner of the River Walk Regional semifinal faces the winner of Baylormichigan.
“It’s been a while since you have two kids that have had this kind of an impact, both on their teams and on the game itself nationally,” Auriemma said. “To have one is kind of cool. To have two and to be so alike in so many ways? And yet unfortunately, they’re going to be put in a situation where it’s like a big football game, where they say it’s Brady versus Aaron Rogers. It couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Clark, the nation’s leading scorer at almost 27 points per game, has put up a total of 58 points in the fifth-seeded Hawkeyes victories over Central Michigan and Kentucky.
“I’ve known Caitlin since really young middle school ages and she’s been doing this her whole life,” Bueckers said. “I mean, scoring 30 points in one half. It’s surprising to a lot of people, but that’s just the high standard she’s been living up to her whole life.”
Bueckers, a national player of the year candidate, has had a pretty good tournament herself, scoring 44 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists in the Huskies’ blowout wins in San Antonio.
“We’ll try to run a lot of different things at her, but Uconn has more than just Paige and that’s the biggest thing,” Clark said. “You’ve got to control the rest of the team, too. Obviously that’s one of our main focuses is on her, but they have so many talented players, so its going to be a whole team effort on every single person they have.”
In a Mercado Regional semifinal, No. 4 Indiana is in the Sweet 16 for the first time since the field was expanded to 64 teams and will face top-seed North Carolina State. The winner faces the Texas A&m-arizona winner.
The Hoosiers have relied on stellar defense in the first two rounds, limiting Belmont to 48 points in the second round after holding VCU to just 32 in their first tournament game.
N.C. State, which earned a No. 1 seed for the first time, is in the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive season. The Wolfpack’s leading scorer is 6-foot-5 Elissa Cunane, but she has cooled off in this tournament after scoring a combined 70 points in three games to earn MVP honors in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
She scored just 12 points in an opening round win over NC A&T and was 3 of 15 from the field in another 12point performance in the Wolfpack’s second-round win over South Florida.
Despite the struggles she remains confident in her abilities and talked about the difference from her first Sweet 16 as a freshman in 2019 to now.
“Expectations are a little bit higher this year,” she said. “We know that we can perform a lot more and go deeper than we did.”