75 game minutes vs 18. Of course they’d score more points.
That’s my point.
South Carolina graduated everyone from last year's team that only made it to the final 4 and was eliminated by Iowa. They brought in a STACKED transfer class.
Iowa made it further than South Carolina and was returning the top scorer, yet they couldn't land any good transfers...WHY? Because nobody wants to be teammates with Clark. She is a ball hog with a negative attitude who doesn't play defense.
South Carolina’s bench players got more minutes and shot attempts than Iowa’s because they’re better players. Usage is proportional to quality.
The other big difference in the game was rebounding. South Carolina killed Iowa on the boards, 51-29. South Carolina had 30 second chance points compared to Iowa’s 16. That’s a huge advantage. It’s not Clark’s fault Iowa couldn’t stop Cardoso inside.
Yes, she’s very good, but her game is incomplete and inconsistent. Too many times I’ve seen where she just keeps jacking up long range attempts, hoping that they start falling. That’s not the was a complete player goes about winning a championship.
What would a “complete” player have to do, like lead the NCAA in assists too? As in, on top of being the all time scorer?
A complete player wins when it counts. She’s never won the big one. Not in high school. Not in college.
She doesn't have nearly as much usage (if that means a ball hog) as Juju Watkins (49%) and a few other players, but she is a great passer who led the nation in assists as well as scoring and gave her teammates a lot of great shots, which is how they beat the defending national champs in the semis. Threads like this about how someone is overrated always pop up after a loss. She lifted Iowa to two straight national championship games and beat the current champion last year in the Final Four and last year's champ in the Final Four this year. She also scored more than any other NCAA player ever. That is a great player. Bueckers is a better defender and wins at some of the national stats while Clark wins at others.
Yes, she’s very good, but her game is incomplete and inconsistent. Too many times I’ve seen where she just keeps jacking up long range attempts, hoping that they start falling. That’s not the was a complete player goes about winning a championship.
What would a “complete” player have to do, like lead the NCAA in assists too? As in, on top of being the all time scorer?
Like Magic Johnson. He could score 42 points one game and 14 the next and be equally effective. Whatever it took to win.
Iowa as a program is .674 in 43 seasons, so it is a good program in women's basketball, but it has been to three Final Fours total, two with Clark in the last two seasons. Vivian Stringer, who was better known at Rutgers perhaps, built the program to a high level in the 1980s and the 1990s, and then Bluder took over and has coached this entire millennium with success reaching the early NCAA rounds but nothing close to Stringer until Clark came along. So, Clark has really elevated the program and women's basketball in general, to by far the biggest crowds and tv ratings in its history.
But, you know, if it was a local pick-up game and I was picking players, I think I would pick Bueckers and Juju before Clark. Clark gets lazy, and it shows. And like someone else said, her defense is really lacking.
Having said that, yeah she failed to take care of the ball when she had it, BUT had some of her teammates been better able to finish close to the basket, the game would have been different. She is a wicked good passer when she wants to be.
Just sayin'. I like Bueckers and Juju better, I think they're better all-around players. If otoh I just wanted someone to shoot 3's, then it's Clark.
Iowa as a program is .674 in 43 seasons, so it is a good program in women's basketball, but it has been to three Final Fours total, two with Clark in the last two seasons. Vivian Stringer, who was better known at Rutgers perhaps, built the program to a high level in the 1980s and the 1990s, and then Bluder took over and has coached this entire millennium with success reaching the early NCAA rounds but nothing close to Stringer until Clark came along. So, Clark has really elevated the program and women's basketball in general, to by far the biggest crowds and tv ratings in its history.
Just as Magic and Bird elevated the NBA, then MJ elevated it to an even higher level.
She’s certainly not perfect, but she led Iowa to the national championship game two years in a row. They never made it that far in the tournament before she got there.
Here’s what South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had to say after the game: "I wanna personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport, she carried a heavy load for our sport, and it’s not gonna stop on the collegiate tour. When she's the number 1 pick in the WNBA draft, she's gonna lift that league up as well. So Caitlin Clark, if you're out there, you are one of the GOATs of our game.”
It’s insane to call her one of the GOATs when basically every NBA, NCAA, and probably 2,000 HS players are better than her every year. She is maybe in the top 150,000 basketball players of all time, but that’s it.
its like calling Parker Valby “one of the GOATs” when she would get lapped by 100s of NCAA guys in a 5K.
But, you know, if it was a local pick-up game and I was picking players, I think I would pick Bueckers and Juju before Clark. Clark gets lazy, and it shows. And like someone else said, her defense is really lacking.
Having said that, yeah she failed to take care of the ball when she had it, BUT had some of her teammates been better able to finish close to the basket, the game would have been different. She is a wicked good passer when she wants to be.
Just sayin'. I like Bueckers and Juju better, I think they're better all-around players. If otoh I just wanted someone to shoot 3's, then it's Clark.
Good point about her teammates failing to convert some shots near the basket after Clark had set them up.
Clark vs Bueckers is a good debate. ESPN’s Kevin Pelton did a thorough analysis on it, and he concluded that Bueckers is a more complete player but Clark has more value.
Curious why you think JuJu is better. I can see liking Bueckers better, but I’m not seeing the case for JuJu. Her shooting percentages are low, and she’s not nearly as good a playmaker as Clark.
Seriously she takes shots from behind the arc too often, doesn’t follow her shots, whines for fouls, turns the ball over too much, sure she can shoot well sometimes but she has way too many glaring weaknesses that can’t be ignored.
Clark is not overrated per se, but Coach Staley was smart enough to notice the one Kryptonite that Clark had...a B-/C+ dribble drive. By putting Raven Johnson on her, Coach Staley tested how good Clark's instinct was and her handling skills on the dribble drive... and Staley was right.
It's what Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Nykeisha Sales, Chamique Holdsclaw and both Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike had which made them dangerous.
