The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
It’s Huskies vs. Hawkeyes
While the Bueckers-Clark matchup draws the attention, both sides stress the importance of team
SAN ANTONIO — From a pure entertainment standpoint, Paige BueckersCaitlin Clark in the Sweet 16 has the makings of terrific theater. Both freshmen are electrifying talents and engaging personalities, and both have plenty to prove.
“Muhammad Ali and (Joe) Frazier, when I was a kid that was the heavyweight matchup,” said Carol Stiff, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions. “I guess we would call this the featherweight.”
One of the most anticipated one-on-one matchups of the NCAA Tournament — if not the season — will get prime exposure Saturday on national television, with a 1 p.m. tipoff between top-seeded UConn and fifth-seeded Iowa on ABC. Eyes are sure to be glued to the screen. Bueckers knows this. Clark knows this.
But Bueckers and Clark — both point guards who also happen to be good friends — don’t want it to be about just them.
“It’s more than just me and Paige,” Clark said Thursday on Zoom. “UConn’s super talented.”
Bueckers is a Naismith Trophy finalist and perhaps the favorite to win this year’s award — something no freshman has ever done. Clark leads the nation in scoring at 26.7 points per game. UConn legend Sue Bird called her the “most exciting player in college basketball right now.”
“It’s been a while since you have two kids that’ve had this kind of an impact both on their teams and on the game itself nationally,” said UConn coach Geno Auriemma, now in his 36th season. “To have one is kind of cool, but to have two, and to be so alike in so many ways and yet, now unfortunately they’re going to be put in a situation where it’s like a big football game and they say it’s (Tom) Brady versus Aaron Rodgers.”
Auriemma thinks that narrative is too narrowminded.
“Couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said.
“It’s two really, really young kids, really good players that do a lot for their teams, but like it always is in these games, they’re just a part of it. I think they would tell you, ‘Hey, we appreciate the attention, but I think it’s better if it’s left to Iowa versus UConn.’”
UConn and Iowa live on different ends of the basketball spectrum. The Huskies, the No. 1 seed in the River Walk region, have been to 12 consecutive Final Fours. The Hawkeyes, seeded fifth, have been to just one (1993).
Clark, a Second Team AP All-American who poured in 35 points in a second-round win over Kentucky, is trying to change that, trying to put the Hawkeyes (20-9) more on the map, so to speak.
“That’s what you want in women’s basketball,” she said. “I think you’re starting to see more and more upsets. I don’t know if that was because of the neutral court this year (many schools played in empty arenas because of the pandemic) or because teams are just getting better and better where it’s not just the blue bloods all the time. Obviously those blue bloods are always going to be there … but you want those upsets, you want that excitement.”
Clark, a local product from Des Moines, Iowa, burst onto the national consciousness this season, with 12 30-point games. Auriemma, though, had already known about her from stops on the recruiting trail. Clark, who had won gold medals with USA Basketball at the 2017 U16 FIBA Americas and 2019 U19 FIBA World Cup Tournament, was ranked fifth in her class by ESPN coming out of Dowling Catholic High School.
“Everybody saw Caitlin Clark play,” he said. “If you didn’t, then it’s because you were recruiting someplace else where, you know, that type of player wasn’t on your radar because you don’t recruit at that level. But every Division I coach that’s been out there certainly knows about her and has seen her play. I don’t think any of them are surprised at what she’s doing. It’s the same thing that she was doing during the summer and a lot of the same things she did for USA Basketball.
“You’re always a little bit kind of, ‘Wow,’ when they do it this quickly and they do it this week, but you knew it was going to happen. You just didn’t quite know how long it would take. Obviously it didn’t take very long at all.”
Bueckers, a native of Hopkins, Minn., was an even bigger star — the national high school player of the year and consensus No. 1 overall prospect, who graced magazine covers and rubbed shoulders with NBA stars like Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Both will have a large profile this week at a time when attention has been brought to the disparity between the men’s and women’s tournaments. On Thursday, the NCAA announced it planned to hold an independent review to “evaluate practices and policies and provide recommendations on steps to get better” on gender equity.
Bueckers or Clark will win USBWA Freshman of the Year. One may even capture a national championship.
Both will help grow the sport immensely.
“Obviously we both had great respective seasons,” Clark said. “I think that’s just so great for the women’s game. I think more and more people are noticing, more and more people are watching. I think a lot of people will tune in and watch this game (Saturday), and that’s exactly what you want for women’s basketball. I think that’s the whole goal that all women’s athletes are trying to get across right now.
“There can be multiple superstars, there can be multiple good players. It doesn’t have to be one endall-be-all. And that’s what we need to keep growing.”