Caitlin Clark Called Defense Against Her at Iowa 'Concerning' Compared to WNBA Level
Anybody who watched Caitlin Clark perform during her four seasons at the University of Iowa could tell that each opposing team's defensive strategies posed little problem for her — hence why she set the NCAA all-time scoring record.
The same could be said for the WNBA; at least, by the time her rookie season ended. But there was no question WNBA defenses adopted more physical and strenuous means of slowing the 22-year-old down during her first professional season.
Clark was interviewed by Time Magazine for an article that was released on December 10, in tandem with her being named the 2024 Time Athlete of the Year. And with that one season now under her belt, Clark can now look back at her college tenure and wonder what defenses were doing.
“Professional players and professional coaches—this is no disrespect to college women's basketball—are a lot smarter,” she says in the article. “I love women's college basketball. But if you go back and watch the way people guarded me in college, it's almost, like, concerning. They didn’t double me, they didn't trap me, they weren't physical.
"And it’s hard. It’s college," she continued. "A lot of those women will never go on to play another basketball game in their life. They don't have the IQ of understanding how the game works. So I completely understand it. And it's no disrespect at all. They don’t have the IQ. You have to simplify it for girls at that age."
i’m crying she called the lack of good defense people played on her in college “concerning” 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/BVUM7BozCJ
— uh oh (@snoozingsnoopy) December 10, 2024
Later on in the article, Clark is portrayed watching a USC women's basketball game while eating lunch when she's quoted saying, "I feel like if I was out there, I would literally have 50. The college game is so much easier than professional.”
Clark's career high for points in a single game at Iowa was 49. However, given the massive strides she made in just one WNBA season, it's easy to imagine her consistently hitting 50 if she could return to the Hawkeyes.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.