Leading OFF
Hall of Famer says LSU’s Clark missed ‘moment’ against Reese
A week had nearly passed since LSU beat Iowa in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game, and Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller joined the sometimes-heated, public conversation.
In an interview with USA TODAY Sports, Miller said Iowa’s Caitlin Clark should have acknowledged LSU’s Angel Reese in the final minutes of the game when Reese tapped her ring finger and made the John Cena “You Can’t See Me” gesture.
Clark did not address the matter until the day after LSU’s 102-85 victory on April 2, when she told ESPN, “I don’t think Angel should be criticized at all.”
Said Miller, “You talk about missing a moment. Her opponent got the best of her that night. And all she had to do is acknowledge, ‘All right, all right, you’re working my nerves, you need to put it down now. But I see you. I see you.’
“That would have been the end of it.”
After the game, Clark, Iowa’s All-American guard, said she hadn’t seen Reese’s antics.
“Oh, she saw it,” Miller said. “Trust me, she saw it. You can’t be a great passer and have that peripheral vision and not see Angel.”
But Miller, 59, also said of Clark, “That young lady is going to get another opportunity to see that, own it, recognize it . ... That’s just her being young.”
Did anyone see that?
Miller, a three-time Naismith Player of the Year who in 1983 and 1984 won NCAA championships at Southern Cal, blew kisses at the fans of opposing teams and pointed at scoreboards during victories.
Her brother, Reggie, was a notorious trash-talker, too.
“(What) I understood is if I’m blowing kisses and steamrolling and I’m throwing up 20, 30 (points) and the team’s successful, there’s going to come a time when my game’s not on and I’m not playing well and we don’t win the big game,” she said. “Now it’s going to be reversed; now I’ve got it coming. How am I going to accept that?”
It was Clark who earlier in the NCAA Tournament used the same John Cena “You Can’t See Me” gesture and talked trash while leading Iowa to the title game. Whereupon Clark was subject to some of her own antics, courtesy of Reese.
Miller said watching the game at American Airlines Center in Dallas rather than on TV gave her an important perspective. “I’m dang near courtside and I see it and I’m like OK, all right, that’s funny to me,” Miller said. “But in the first half, when Caitlin got into foul trouble, I watched Caitlin pick up her fourth (foul), walk all the way past the scorer’s table, all the way down, eyeballing the official that blew that fourth call.
“Standing up on the sideline, a coach trying to go down there and calm her down. Her finally going back where she looks like she’s going to sit down, come back down and then I’m watching the official tell her, ‘Knock it off. I’ve had enough.’
“Did anyone see that?”
Black and white issues
Race was “absolutely” a factor in record-breaking TV ratings for the women’s national championship game, said Miller.
She also said the matchup between Reese and Clark was reminiscent of Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson.
“It’s very much like that,” Miller said. “That’s an age-old tale and always will be.
“It’s not even something the players have to embrace. It’s there; it’s whatever. But at the end of the day, they may end up teammates in the WNBA. So that’s why it’s great. Hey, there’s always going to be black-andwhite issues. But it’s about the game, and the players know that.”
‘Any different than the men’s game?’
Miller lauded Clark and Reese.
“First of all, Caitlin is a very talented young lady,” she said. “And you could say whatever about (her) pushing off. Reggie used to leg kick everybody, so they made a rule and that was an offensive foul. Michael Jordan used to push off until he got caught and he had to tighten up and do different things. We all do things on the floor to gain an advantage.
“But her shot is her shot, her depth is depth and the fact that she has no conscience, you can’t teach that.”
And Reese?
“Angel is a competitor,” Miller said. “And I got a strong suspicion to get a rebound, that she would knock her mom’s block off. And would tell her mom, kiss her on the forehead, ‘It’s nothing personal, mom.’ ”
Yet Miller knows not everybody is celebrating that fact that two of the best players in women’s college basketball also are two of its most prolific trashtalkers.
“I guess I want to ask you a question,” Miller said. “Is it any different than the men’s game? I find it interesting that all the sudden this is something, I mean, this has been going on forever. Because it was on the national stage, now it’s like a big deal, and I don’t see why.”