Catlin Clark Sets the mark in Basketball
Taken from MSN’s reprint of a Washington Post article. How can you not get excited about this? As a basketball small forward and guard, a thunker when trying to dunk the ball. I think this is exciting. How can you not like this?
Iowa’s senior guard entered the night with 3,520 points, seven shy of Plum’s record. Caitlin Clark wasted no time, making a right-handed layup on the Hawkeyes’ first possession and a three-pointer on their second position to get within reach of the milestone. After Iowa committed a pair of turnovers, Clark pushed the ball up the court in transition and pulled up from three steps inside the center court line near the left sideline to swish the record-setting three-pointer just 2:15 into the game.
Clark celebrated by flexing toward the court as she got back on defense, and Iowa called timeout shortly thereafter to acknowledge the record. The Hawkeyes cleared the bench to mob their star during the dead ball, and Hawkeyes Coach Lisa Bluder planted a kiss on Clark’s left cheek as she returned to the huddle to a raucous standing ovation.
Clearly riding the high from an emotional night, Clark made five three-pointers in the first quarter and single-handedly outscored Michigan, 23-22, in the period as Iowa built a 33-22 lead overall.
Tremendous shooter and passer. For the sake of her future WNBA career, would like to see her occasionally focus more on defense, and on setting picks for her teammates. When her team has a big lead, her coach could have her work on this stuff.
just:
I have not watched her play, just read, and saw snippets of her playing. For all we know, she may be doing what you want her to focus on in her time on the court. It makes perfect sense as she draws the opposing team attention, you move the ball to your teammates who are open if you become the block.
I am with you.
I also liked watching Loyola make a run in the NCAA tournament. It was fun. I was supposed to take a bunch of students out for pizza and then Loyola was making their big run. So the prof gave me a call and we cancelled.
Her pro career doesn’t hinge at all on defense. She may wish to improve because she is driven to be her best, but her big challenge I think will be on offense. The difference in overall skill level between the NBA and even the best men’s college play is enormous and the WNBA almost certainly has that same skill leverage. Her career is going to be determined by what she does when her team has the ball. If she has anything like the offensive impact she produces in college, her team probably will be more than okay if she gets a little rest on the other end. Just be in the right spot on court so the other 4 can play efficiently on defense. Tangent, but I find this new professional era of college sports fascinating. Guessing it will be good for sports like women’s basketball where the “prestige gap” to the true professional sport isn’t high, but will slowly erode sports where that prestige gap is high. Speculating that there is significant fan inertia, but as younger fans replace older ones I can imagine them sensing that their MSU Spartan team of 2035 is composed of players they never heard of with no even pretend attachment to their alma mater and would lose by 50 points to a poor NFL team. Guessing men’s basketball and then football will be the bests tests of this idea.