WHEN I was watching Caitlin Clark’s US NCAA tournament highlights, the Golden State Warriors’ Steph Curry and the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi came to mind.
Since she plays the 1, some of her assists, her passes reminded me of the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, Pistol Pete Maravich, though without the flashiness and French pastry.
She has unlimited range and what makes her a tough cover for anyone is she can drive either left or right and finish at the basket with either hand so if you’re defending her, you’re better off funneling her to drive down the middle into the heart of your defense where your bigs are waiting. But she’ll pass the ball to her wide open teammate at the very last minute as the defender commits as Clark sucks in the defense.
According to cbssports.com, “Clark was a scoring machine all season long, but she elevated her game in the past few weeks to get the Hawkeyes to their first-ever national title game. She dropped multiple 40-point games, and averaged 31.8 per game for the tournament. Her 191 total points set a new record for a player in a single NCAA Tournament—men’s or women’s.”
The previous women’s record was held by Sheryl Swoopes, who scored 177 total points for Texas Tech in 1993 as she led them to the school’s only national championship. In the men’s tournament, the record belongs to Glen Rice, who scored 184 points for Michigan to carry them to what was also their only national championship in 1989.
While Clark’s scoring received most of the attention, and for good reason, she’s also a dynamic playmaker. If you send multiple defenders to force the ball out of her hands, or fall asleep for a split-second on the weak side, she’s willing and able to find her teammates.
Clark’s eight assists in the title game on Sunday took her to 60 for the tournament and an even 10 per game average. The 60 total assists set a new record for a player in single women’s tournament. She fell just shy of Mark Wade’s 61 assists for UNLV in 1987, which is the men’s mark.”
It’s pick your poison for this future WNBA superstar which makes you ask why isn’t her name in the 2023 WNBA draft, we go back to cbssports.com, “The WNBA official rules require players to be 22 years old the year of the draft.”
The other option according to the rules is to have already graduated from a four-year college or university, or graduate during the three-month period following the draft.
For an international player—who the WNBA defines as a player who was born and resides outside of the United States—the rule is that she has had or will have her 20th birthday during the calendar year in which the draft is held.
That wasn’t always the case as the youngest WNBA player to ever get drafted was Australian Lauren Jackson at 17 years old as the No. 1 overall pick in 2001. She played with the Seattle Storm until 2012 and was a two-time WNBA champion as well as a three-time WNBA MVP.
Why aren’t the rules the same for the NBA and WNBA?
Anyway, Clark is a 6-foot point guard so she has good size for the position in the women’s game. Good size will allow her to see the floor better which will give opposing defenders nightmares.