Caitlin Clark thinks she can beat Eagles draft pick Cooper Dejean in 1 on 1

endive wrote:

sparky polastry wrote:

So should he lie and say he'd lose or just refuse to answer the question? If you watch the clip that started this all it's pretty clear that he's not worried about anything and isn't bragging or thumping his chest. A bunch of people asked him about it and he thinks she'd score some on him but he would come out on top. If she was actually willing to do it he thinks it would be fun. A lot of elite athletes are supremely confident in themselves and love to compete. Start any question with "Do you think you could beat...?" and the answer is usually the same. "Yes, let's do it."

Yes, of course DeJean would say (correctly) that he could beat her. But by the same token, of course Clark would disagree! She's also a supremely confident elite athlete, and part of the mix for some elite athletes is unwavering belief in their own abilities. No need to get worked up about either claim.

As an aside, I watched that video of DeJean's high-school basketball highlights. What blew me away is how easily he elevated. He's jogging toward the hoop, takes a little hop... and what the heck, how did he get so far above the rim?! The guy clearly has remarkable springs for his size (and not a bad shot either, at least judging from the edited highlight clips).

rojo wrote:

Owner of AJ Feely wrote:

CC is probably right, tbh...

You want Real Talk: 15 years ago, my rec league put together an "All-Star" team that took on the Eagles in a charity basketball game at a suburb Philly high school. Was it their starters? For the most part, no. We are talking about Hank Baskett, Omar Gaither, Quintin Mikell, AJ Feely, etc. We, a group of 25-40-something weekend warriors, kicked their ass. They couldn't dribble, they couldn't pass, they surely couldn't shoot the ball. All they could do was dunk. Now, every single one of them could dunk, even the 350 lbs. linemen, but that is it.

So CC is probably right.

She's not playing some random football player who sucks at basketball. She's playing a guy who averaged over 20 a game in HS boys basketball who also is extremely athletic - athletic enough to be drafter as a corner as a white guy. You realize that no white guy has started at corner in the NFL in 20+ years and this guy is a 2nd round draft pick as a white dude.

He clearly can dribble and he out weighs her by 50 pounds. Unless they turn this into "touch basketball" where he's now allowed to push her into the block, she's screwed. Dribble down in the block and do a turnaround 3 footer over and over. He should score every time so she'd better hit a ton of threes which I don't think will happen as he should just get in her grill on the perimeter and dare her to try to take him to the hole. WIth his 38.5" vertical, he'll likely have time to get back and block her shot.

rojo wrote:

Owner of AJ Feely wrote:

CC is probably right, tbh...

You want Real Talk: 15 years ago, my rec league put together an "All-Star" team that took on the Eagles in a charity basketball game at a suburb Philly high school. Was it their starters? For the most part, no. We are talking about Hank Baskett, Omar Gaither, Quintin Mikell, AJ Feely, etc. We, a group of 25-40-something weekend warriors, kicked their ass. They couldn't dribble, they couldn't pass, they surely couldn't shoot the ball. All they could do was dunk. Now, every single one of them could dunk, even the 350 lbs. linemen, but that is it.

So CC is probably right.

She's not playing some random football player who sucks at basketball. She's playing a guy who averaged over 20 a game in HS boys basketball who also is extremely athletic - athletic enough to be drafter as a corner as a white guy. You realize that no white guy has started at corner in the NFL in 20+ years and this guy is a 2nd round draft pick as a white dude.

He clearly can dribble and he out weighs her by 50 pounds. Unless they turn this into "touch basketball" where he's now allowed to push her into the block, she's screwed. Dribble down in the block and do a turnaround 3 footer over and over. He should score every time so she'd better hit a ton of threes which I don't think will happen as he should just get in her grill on the perimeter and dare her to try to take him to the hole. WIth his 38.5" vertical, he'll likely have time to get back and block her shot.

blerblez wrote:

runnER/DR wrote:

She's got the right mindset to think she can take on anyone. That will serve her well as a professional athlete.

But anyone with half a brain knows Cooper Dejean would completely dominate her 1 on 1. He's an athletic freak. She wouldn't get a shot off. Exactly why men and women have separate divisions. But that shouldn't take anything away from her skills as a female athlete. She'd clobber any average Joe.

I didn't realize Cooper ran track on the side in high school(in addition to baseball, basketball, football). He would've beat any woman in the NCAA(and possibly world) in the 100 and 200 with his HS times.

Highlights how crazy talented these pro athletes are.

10.71 100m

21.92 200m

DeJean didn't run the 20 Shuttle nor the 3 cone, so that tells me he's not great at that. Sure, he's got straight line speed and a good vertical (38.5"), but shuffling side to side is a different skill. As someone who has been obsessed with the NFL draft for a long time, straight line speed can be soooo far off side to side / lateral speed, that it's very conceivable that a simple killer crossover could result in a wide open shot for CC. Imho, on a good day, CC could beat him, but it'd have to be a darn good day.

blerblez wrote:

runnER/DR wrote:

She's got the right mindset to think she can take on anyone. That will serve her well as a professional athlete.

But anyone with half a brain knows Cooper Dejean would completely dominate her 1 on 1. He's an athletic freak. She wouldn't get a shot off. Exactly why men and women have separate divisions. But that shouldn't take anything away from her skills as a female athlete. She'd clobber any average Joe.

I didn't realize Cooper ran track on the side in high school(in addition to baseball, basketball, football). He would've beat any woman in the NCAA(and possibly world) in the 100 and 200 with his HS times.

Highlights how crazy talented these pro athletes are.

10.71 100m

21.92 200m

DeJean didn't run the 20 Shuttle nor the 3 cone, so that tells me he's not great at that. Sure, he's got straight line speed and a good vertical (38.5"), but shuffling side to side is a different skill. As someone who has been obsessed with the NFL draft for a long time, straight line speed can be soooo far off side to side / lateral speed, that it's very conceivable that a simple killer crossover could result in a wide open shot for CC. Imho, on a good day, CC could beat him, but it'd have to be a darn good day.