Caitlin Clark‘s Iowa Hawkeyes are playing Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies in the Final Four on April 5.
While Auriemma already has one of college basketball’s best guards in Paige Bueckers, it’s surprising that Auriemma — who is a renowned recruiting master — didn’t make more of an attempt to recruit Clark, as well.
Especially because Clark and Bueckers played on USA Basketball’s 2017 U-16 national team together.
CT Insider spoke with Auriemma on April 2, and asked him why he wasn’t more interested in recruiting Clark.
“Well, there’s a lot of kids we didn’t recruit and there’s a lot of kids who don’t want to go to UConn,” Auriemma said. “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 might regret that choice once he faces Clark in the Final Four.
Caitlin Clark Wanted to Attend UConn
In an ESPN profile by Wright Thompson from March 20, Clark noted that committing to Iowa wasn’t an obvious choice.
The article discusses how Clark received countless recruiting letters from college coaches, many of whom would attend Clark’s high school practices.
Auriemma, however, was nowhere to be found — which caught Clark’s attention.
“Honestly,” Clark said to Thompson, “it was more I wanted [UConn] to recruit me to say I got recruited. I loved UConn. I think they’re the coolest place on Earth, and I wanted to say I got recruited by them. They called my AAU coach a few times, but they never talked to my family and never talked to me.”
With UConn out of the picture, Clark’s final decision came down to two schools: Iowa and Notre Dame.
Clark’s family made it clear which school they wanted her to choose.
“My family wanted me to go to Notre Dame,” Clark said. “At the end of the day they were like, you make the decision for yourself. But it’s NOTRE DAME! ‘Rudy’ was one of my favorite movies. How could you not pick Notre Dame?”
Obviously, Clark elected to go in a different direction. And the rest is history.
While Auriemma said, “I know there’s nothing personal between me and [Clark],” during an April 1 press conference, perhaps Clark still intends to show Auriemma that he recruited the wrong player.
Who’s Better: Clark or Bueckers?
There’s no question that both Clark and Bueckers are two of college basketball‘s top players.
Yet their respective 2023-24 season stats make it clear who had the better season.
Clark leads the nation with 32 points per game. Bueckers, on the other hand, is 11th in the country, with 22 points per game.
Clark also has the advantage in assists per game (9 vs 3.9 for Bueckers) and rebounds per game (7.3 vs 5.2).
Although Bueckers’ field goal percentage (53.4%) has been better than Clark’s (46%).
But stats don’t tell entire story.
We’ll have to see whether Clark or Bueckers gets the last laugh during their Final Four game on April 5.
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