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Just about every college basketball team would be ecstactic to have Caitlin Clark playing for them.
The Iowa Hawkeyes star is the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, but predicting that when she was in high school would have been pretty bold.
Three other players were ranked higher than her in her high school class — Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink.
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Head coach Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies speaks with Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes after the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament at the Alamodome March 27, 2021, in San Antonio. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Reese and Brink committed to Maryland and Stanford, respectively, and while Clark stayed home to play with the Hawkeyes, UConn landed Bueckers, the top player of the class.
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said he didn’t recruit Clark, and he had his reasons.
“I committed to Paige Bueckers very, very early, and it would have been silly for me to say to Paige, ‘Hey listen, we’re going to put you in the backcourt, and then I’m going to try really hard to recruit Caitlin Clark.’ I don’t do it that way,” Auriemma said earlier this week, via CT Insider.
Hindsight is 20/20.
Bueckers missed a season with a torn ACL, while Clark’s resume speaks for itself. The two will face each other in the Final Four Friday night.
Despite Clark raving about UConn, saying it’s the “coolest place on earth,” Auriemma made it seem like Clark wasn’t seriously eyeing the Huskies.
Head coach Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies reacts during the first half against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at Climate Pledge Arena on March 25, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
“Caitlin is obviously a tremendous player, a generational player. But if Caitlin really wanted to come to UConn, she would have called me and said, ‘Coach, I really want to come to UConn,'” he said.
“Neither of us lost out. She made the best decision for her, and it’s worked out great. We made the decision we thought we needed to make.
“There are a lot of great players we see coming through high school, thousands of them. You’re only going to recruit some. You’re not going to recruit all of them. Some people do recruit all of them, I don’t. I try to lock in on who fits us,” Auriemma added.
“We try to lock in on them early, and that’s what happened to us and Paige. We felt really, really comfortable with that, and we went with it. Those are decisions that are made every day, every year, by every coach.”
Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes cuts down the net after beating the LSU Tigers 94-87 in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament at MVP Arena April 1, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
The top-seeded Hawkeyes lost the national championship to LSU last year, but they got their revenge in the Elite Eight. UConn, meanwhile, is in its 23rd Final Four and its 15th in the last 16 tournaments and looking for its 13th national title.
The Huskies haven’t won since their fourpeat from 2013 to 2016.
Iowa and UConn tip off at 9:30 p.m. ET Friday.
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