Caitlin Clark dating Conner Macaffery
- Thread starter intrepid27
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Czinano was the perfect compliment to Clark. Tough inside, good rebounder and great rim finisher. If a team started committing too much effort on Caitlin she was damn near impossible to stop 1:1 in the post and you can't double both of them. She also had such great touch around the rim that when Caitlin found her on drives it was basically an automatic 2 points.
Knowing what they have for role players I'm sure it's tempting for Caitlin to jack up shots but it's going to be hard for anyone to emerge as a second or third option if they aren't getting consistent touches
Knowing what they have for role players I'm sure it's tempting for Caitlin to jack up shots but it's going to be hard for anyone to emerge as a second or third option if they aren't getting consistent touches
Iowa fans are starting to post whether there’s a lot of resentment among players of the NIL going to one person. They are just starting to figure that out?
While she is a high volume shooter she still averaged 8.6 APG last season which led the nation and has career average of 7.9. It is odd how a runner up for the national title was not able to bring in any post talent from the portal. Even ISU with their recruiting class with several post players was still able to land Natabou in the portal. Swore I have heard on KXNO before that Iowa did go after some players in the portal an there was SWARM NIL money offered so it is strange how they came up empty handed.
I don't think NIL money will be the reason if Clark comes back for another season, the off court financial opportunities will be there with the WNBA. Probably will depend on how Iowa's season goes but also have to realize there is going to be some roster turnover coming with Martin and Marshall done after this season. Don't know what they have coming in for the next freshman class but they'd have to go hard in the portal if she does come back so I have a feeling the odds of her coming back are less than 50/50.
I agree entirely with your first paragraph. Unfathomable when you really think about it.
In paragraph 2, I think it just depends how self serving she is. I have no clue on women's statistical records, but would wager a guess that she'll be breaking most of them this year, or next if she does in fact use her final year. Might need that extra year to either break the records or make them so unattainable that she'll hold them forever. If she's into that kind of ego boost, which I could see, then I think she comes back. At that point, team success is pretty much just gravy as I don't see how they'll be even as good next year as this year, and this year I don't see how they're as good as they were last year. Last year was as close as Caitlin will ever get to team glory IMO.
I wonder if Bluder ever went after Boffeli from UNI. Same class as Clark, but she actually won state championships. Averaging 22 points for the Panthers. Guess Clark’s high school coach was ticked when Boffeli was nominated for player of the year by a sports writer the year Clark did.
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I went on Twitter after portal season and was told that Iowa trusted they had enough talent on the bench and coming in that they didn’t need portal help. What a gross disservice to Clark and fans that actually have a brain
If you're constantly not looking to improve your roster via the portal, you're going to fall behind in today's game.
This. She is a great passer and facilitator and that's what makes her so good. Two things could be at play:
1. The rest of the team around her isn't very good.
2. She's been told how great she is for an entire offseason and her trying to do too much and is operating outside of what made her super successful in the first place.
It's probably a combination but I'd learn towards more to #2 since any college kid is going to have trouble managing and handling what she's been through in the last 12 months.
I mentioned this earlier, but assists do not mean a player is unselfish. Ball dominant players always have great assist numbers (see Harden, Doncic, Westbrook, Trae Young, etc) because their usage rate is so high.
Clark’s usage rate is 40% which is crazy high. For comparison the league leader in usage rate last year for the NBA was 36.7%. The highest usage rate ever in the NBA was 41.65% (Westbrook in 2016). When so many of the possessions are flowing through you, you’d better have a high number of assists.
I would also say teams with ball dominant players don’t typically have success. Iowa last year, I would definitely say had success, but that is an anomaly. If Clark keeps up this usage rate, I’d agree with everyone that the Hawks will under achieve compared to team expectations.
I didn't watch a lot of the game last night, but to me, it looked like K State put size and length on Clark and denied her the ball off screens until her defender could recover. Iowa stopped looking for anyone else, which made them extremely easy to defend.
They run the risk of falling for their own mythbuilding. Believing that CC can get them out of anything and watching her chuck instead of running an offense. It's November. They will win a ton of games and Clark will go off more often than not, but it's not a good omen for March when things get more difficult.
They run the risk of falling for their own mythbuilding. Believing that CC can get them out of anything and watching her chuck instead of running an offense. It's November. They will win a ton of games and Clark will go off more often than not, but it's not a good omen for March when things get more difficult.
And throw in, she didn't want the spotlight, so it allowed CC to be the "star."
The rumors were they went after:
Lauren Betts (Stanford to UCLA)
Aneesah Morrrow (DePaul to LSU)
Heard they couldn't match what these two were offered elsewhere.
See and I think it probably has more to do with #1, but agree it is a combination of the elements. By now I think she has been in the spotlight long enough so that it would not phase her much. I think she is just finding out how much more work she needs to do herself now that Czinano isn't there to catch all her passes. And maybe it is because she isn't trusting her teammates enough yet.
Clark has mentioned in multiple interviews that Martin is her best friend. So, does she go out with Martin and Marshall or stick around another year?
From a scholarship perspective:
They signed five for 2024. They currently have 14 on the roster this year and have three who will have exhausted their eligibility (Davis, Martin, Marshall), so that takes them to 11 (if Clark stays) + 5 (incoming freshman) is 16. If she stays, someone has to go or go off scholarship.
Bluder Signs 5 Newcomers on NSD
hawkeyesports.com
Also is next year a summer Olympics? There’s a ton of money to be made there and if I were advising her I would be trying to put her in the best position to be on that team and be the focal point from a media and endorsement standpoint. Is that more CBB? Is that going to WNBA? Is that going overseas? Idk, but I would definitely be taking that in to account.
Olympics takes things to another level with the possible endorsements. (McDonald’s, J&J, etc)
“Assists by default”
She has said in the past, if she was in the running for the Olympic team, she would forego her final season in college to concentrate on the national team.
