How do Bueckers, Clark stack up?
STORRS — No one quite knew how UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers would perform on the court this season.
She missed all last year recovering from an ACL injury and missed 19 games of 36 the year prior due to a separate knee injury. Two years of constant rehab and recovery.
But then again, a player like this doesn’t just lose her spark.
Nineteen games into the 2023-24 season and Bueckers is carrying UConn. She sets the tone on offense and is the first to make a move, keeping up the Huskies’ attack throughout the full 40 minutes. Her defensive game has reached new heights (quite literally) as the 6-foot guard leads the team with 20 blocks and is second with 44 steals.
This year’s campaign for National Player of the Year will likely come down to Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. The two have rewritten nearly every record book in college women’s basketball and are similar yet so different in how they impact their teams.
“Had this thing (the battle between Clark and Bueckers) been running as a two-horse race from the get-go, it really would have been cool to watch and that’s just me as a fan,” DePaul head coach Doug Bruno said after UConn’s 88-51 win Saturday.
Bueckers was the No. 1-ranked recruit in the Class of 2020 while Clark was No. 4. The two shared the court representing Team USA at the youth level and also faced off against each other on the AAU circuit before coming to college.
And both had standout seasons as freshmen, each the starting point guard for their respective teams.
Bueckers led UConn in points, assists, steals and 3-point field goal percentage. She set UConn’s singlegame assist record with 14 against Butler that February (the record now owned by Nika Mühl with 15) and became the program’s freshman season record holder with 168 assists on the year.
As often as she scored and had stunning drives to the basket, Bueckers’ game was highlighted by how often she got her teammates involved. She wasn’t a flashy, vocal leader but she didn’t need to be. She ended the year making history by becoming the first freshman to ever sweep the National Player of the
Year awards.
“For her, her impact is just in so many different ways. The way she plays the game, how much she's grown as a defensive player. She just has a knack, she has a sense of where to be and when to be there. Where's the ball? You know, you got a kid that could probably get 35 (points) every night if she wanted to. And is just as happy sitting there, watching her teammates play,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said. “… There's just no part of the game that takes her by surprise. She's remarkable in that way.”
In Iowa, Clark wasted no time etching her name into the program's history books. She recorded her first triple double six games into her collegiate career and broke Nebraska's home venue singlegame scoring record with 39 points just 11 games later. Clark broke the Big Ten Tournament's assist record with 37 and was
named the unanimous Big Ten Freshman of the Year. While Clark led the nation with 26.6 points per game, her and Bueckers shared the Tamika Catchings Award and the WBCA Freshman of the Year Award.
But not even a month into their sophomore years, Bueckers suffered a tibial plateau fracture in her left knee and was sidelined for about two months after surgery. Even when Bueckers returned for the last weeks of the regular season and the postseason, she wasn't playing anywhere near her normal dominant level.
And things only got worse. Five months after the 2021-22 season ended, Bueckers tore her ACL in a pickup game on campus — sidelining her for the entire 2022-23 season.
Clark meanwhile continued to dominate. She set Iowa's single-game record in points (44) and assists (18), became the fastest Big Ten player to surpass 1,000 career points, became the first Division I men's or women's player to record back-to-back triple
doubles with at least 30 points. Yet, South Carolina's Aaliyah Boston won Player of the Year in 2022 after leading the Gamecocks to their second national championship in six years.
Last year, though, Clark got her flowers and was named National Player of the Year after continuing her dominance with 11 triple doubles and becoming the first D-I player to record 900-plus points and 300-plus assists in a single season. Clark also tied Elena Delle Donne in becoming the fastest player to score 2,000 career points in just 75 games.
“Caitlin Clark is doing something that in 50 years of coaching I've never seen a person make that many shots from that range,” Bruno said. DePaul and Iowa met in a preseason exhibition game and set the record for the largest attendance for a women's basketball game with 55,646 people.
This year, though, with Bueckers back and healthy, the two have again been among the top names for national player of the year.
Bueckers is currently ranked inside the top 40 in points per game (19.8), assist-to-turnover ratio, field goal percentage, steals, field goals, points and 3point field goal percentage. Clark leads the country in points (31.0 a game), assists (147), field goals attempted, 3-pointers attempted and triple doubles (4).
Bueckers has led UConn to a 16-3 overall record and Clark and Iowa are ranked No. 2 in the nation at 17-1.
“I would like to see some kind of snapshot of who in the country impacts the game more than she does in so many different ways,” Auriemma said. “So, does that mean she's the best player in the country? I mean, I wouldn't trade her for anybody. And I think if she was coming off two or three National Player of the Year things, we probably wouldn't even been having this discussion. It would be like automatic, right? But she spent all that time away and I think she's reminding everybody, little by little.”