Colorado looking to get in Caitlin Clark’s head, embracing “villains” role

The Buffaloes face top-seeded Iowa Saturday hoping to secure a trip to the Elite Eight

Iowa's Caitlin Clark (22) tries to get to the basket while guarded by Colorado's Tameiya Sadler (2) / Saul Young/News Sentinel/USA TODAY

For the second straight year, Colorado will face Iowa for the right to advance to the Elite Eight. And for the fifth-seeded Buffaloes, that means another opportunity to go against college basketball’s all-time leading scorer.

Last season, Caitlin Clark dropped 31 points to lead Iowa to an 87-77 victory over the Buffaloes in Seattle. The Hawkeyes star enters Saturday’s tilt in Albany, N.Y. averaging 31.8 points per game. “She’s a tremendous player. She’s the leading scorer in the history of our game for a reason.” Buffaloes head coach JR Payne said during Tuesday’s press conference. “We’ve played against great teams. We’ve played against great players. Game plan might look different, but we do feel prepared.”

Part of that game plan could mean throwing Clark off her game.

“It’d be hard to get into her head,” Colorado guard Tameiya Sadler told the Denver Post. “But we’re going to try it.” Sadler and the Buffaloes were able to contain Clark to 13 points in the first half of last year’s contest. In fact, Colorado led 40-39 at halftime before Clark and Iowa pulled ahead in the third quarter, outscoring the Buffaloes 25-13.

“Caitlin’s very emotional, so for us, it’s like, we can’t feed into her emotions that she’s going to play with,” Sadler continued. “Because she’s going to fall, she’s going to throw up her hands, she’s going to talk to the refs. But at the end of the day, we can’t focus on that. We have to focus on us.”

Millions are expected to tune in Saturday afternoon to catch a glimpse of one of the greatest shooters the game has ever witnessed. Colorado is looking to ruin the day by putting an end Clark’s season.

“For sure. I feel like, going into the Kansas State game, we were like, ‘We want to come in and ruin everyone’s day,’” Sadler told Keeler. “This is what we want to do. And so we like that underdog mentality because that’s when we play our best brand of basketball. So we were excited to be that villain.”

“Being the villain, being the underdogs, having our backs against the wall are all things that lead to success for the Buffaloes,” said senior Quay Miller. “It doesn’t matter who’s getting put in front of us. We’re just happy to keep playing basketball.”

A win over Iowa would put Colorado in the Elite Eight for the fourth time in program history and first since 2002. The Sweet 16 game from Albany, NY is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.