Caitlin Clark = The Fab Five
The parallels are striking. Players who totally transformed college basketball. Made it to the championship game twice without winning but are still destined to be the best-known college basketball players of all time.
Another parallel: both Caitlin Clark and the Fab Five lost their first championship game to a coach that a lot of people hated and a player considered by many to be the biggest villain in the sport (although Angel Reese is no Christian Laettner).
I see at least one significant difference: Ms. Clark seems to be getting mostly good PR, and lots of it. In contrast, the Fab Five was (and still is, if you read some of the comments here) viewed as subversive.
Yeah. That said, since I don't know anything about Clark's personal life (and to be clear, I don't care about her personal life), it isn't hard to see a scenario emerge that would turn her into a "controversial" figure.
She's dating Fran McCaffrey's son so not likely to become a Megan Rapinoe situation.
Situation?
She’s had to deal with a a smattering of racism, but nothing compared to what the Fab Five faced.
Caitlin Clark… had to deal with… racism? A smattering of it?!
WTF is racism anymore?
We actually know an inordinate amount of what racism is now, just not most people. But experts in neuroscience, education, sociology, history, etc. write some amazing breakdowns and hopefully are building a larger audience as time progresses.
Idk what this means, and probably never will. I’m gonna just lol and eat my downvotes bc of all the things coming Clark’s way, I feel confident saying that racism is the least of it. But ofc, we live in an age where some groups’ aspiration for liberty has become the source of other groups’ oppression… or so they say.
nm. double post.
I don't know what the smattering of racism is, but it felt like the entire world came to her defense last year after the whole Angel Reese situation.
Playing the comparison game on this one issue a no-win situation. All successful people have haters for a variety of unfortunate reasons.
@Rob F... please come to our rescue
IDK if I'd say that. She's getting plenty of bad PR from national media, the WNBA players commenting on her and many other folks, often with subliminal racism and misogony.
Clark is very talented, but let's be honest... the media hype machine took to her very easily, in a way that it didn't for Miller, Leslie, Swoopes, Holdsclaw, Parker, Griner, Moore, Augustus, Taurisi, etc... we all know why.
Yes, if you watch her play, it is obvious why. None of those players, or any other player in the history of the game, is routinely taking shots from 30 feet and making them. None of those players was the all-time leader in points and three-pointers made. None of those players led the country and points and assist in the same season. None of those players came close to producing the level of interest or TV ratings because none of them could do what Caitlin can do. It is quite obvious why.
People hate Dawn Staley? You and I live in different universes, friend. She just won an anonymous poll of players about the coach they'd most like to play for. Only haterz hate Dawn Staley.
EDIT: Sorry, I misread the original.
No, you misread it. Some people hate Kim Mulkey, who beat Clark and Iowa in their first championship game appearance.
I guess we immediately go to hate? I don't find her a pleasant or wonderful human. But don't hate
Words are just things, friend.
Thanks, yes I DID misread. Will amend.
Why can’t we celebrate the accomplishments of Caitlin Clark and all she has done for women’s basketball without bringing hate of another coach into it or without turning it into a fab five Michigan thing.
That is the truth, people in South Carolina for sure hate Kim Mulkey. I believe most of the SEC does as well.
This was Iowa's second straight championship game loss. They lost to awful Kim Mulkey last year, hence the "first" designation.
I do agree that Mulkey is insufferable
When she comes back and coaches and smacks a Wisconsin coach upside the head THEN we can start making comparisons. Way to early at this point.
Caitlin, to me, is more like what Arnold Palmer was to golf. When Palmer got out of the Coast Guard and started playing golf as a pro, the PGA was kind of a sideshow in the sporting world. Don’t get me wrong, it was respected by those who knew golf and they (obviously) had superbly talented athletes (Ben Hogan says ‘Hi’), but it lacked mass appeal. Along come this utterly American golfer (Palmer, that is) who is brash, swaggering and had a photogenic flair for drama on the new mass media of TV. If the interest in NCAA WBB is sustained, Caitlin will have accomplished what Arnold did, but we won’t know that for a while and those are some mighty big Foot Joys to fill.
Caitlin is a generational player, much like Curry, but we’ll see. Watching them head to head, I might prefer to build a franchise around Cardoso (ignoring the PR/Marketing that Clark brings to a gypsy business like the WNBA).
I once met and shook hands with Arnold Palmer. This was around 2006 or so. He was a class gentleman in the few moments I had with him.
I'd agree...I thought Iowa's loss today was likely because I felt that SC was a better team with better athletes who could make it tough on Clark and they did.. Connecticut figured out how to guard Clark as did SC and she was not the same player as she was against lesser teams. Obviously she is incredibly talented but your competition matters.
Nobody on Iowa figured out how to stop Cardoso.
No one at Iowa was big enough to stop her.
What is the PGA Tour?
Clark will fade imo. I don’t see her being a star in the WNBA. I think Bueckers is better as a pure PG.
Also, Clark isn’t even the best woman in college basketball. That easily goes to Juju Watkins
Pure point guard being what? Caitlin Clark's passing + vision is also off the charts. Now overall as a player I think it's not far off, since Paige is a really nice defender.
"Easily goes to JuJu" unsure about that, true shooting percentage is Caitlin by a good amount. Combine that with her vision, it's getting tough for me to see, especially the easily part.
https://twitter.com/LevAkabas/status/1774813711556841526/photo/1
Yeah, Clark can slash and dish in addition to shooting from anywhere. I'd think any WNBA team would be happy to have her.
Tell me how much you have ever watched Clark. Greatest scorer ever, 2nd in all time assist. All time in3 pointers made, assist, points and most points in a quarter (18) in playoff history. Easily the largest draw ever in women’s college basketball. I can tell you you don’t like her, but as far as her fading that’s pretty funny
Juju Watkins? Hahahahahahaha this has to be bait with a take that absurd.
Yeah cuz Juju Watkins is making half court 3s at a decent clip while averaging 30 points and 10 assists a game. Also Juju is totally going to be the number 1 scorer in college basketball history, men or women. Your case is rock solid.
In fairness, JuJu did score more than Caitlin her freshman year.
She is on pace…..you obviously don’t actually watch or haven’t seen her play. Clark’s game is not as compete as plum or Ionesco.
Juju is the most complete player to ever play the women’s game. no player has her height and her fluidity. She plays almost textbook. Has a handle and great elite footwork and change of pace. also a great defender. She will be the scoring leader barring injury. She is already on pace.
She is also a three level scorer unlike Clark who is es pretty limited in actuality.
This makes me wonder if you have actually watched her? In addition to being a great dribble-- having an incredible arsenal of shots (that step aside?), going left or fight--she can get to the hoop (and will get better at it), and is a brilliant, I mean brilliant passer. With better players to pass it TO yesterday, we're not discussing the limitations of someone who broke the all-time tourney point record, who scored a boring thirty-plus points, who had already scored more points than any woman or man in NCAA history. No, she's gonna be good in the WNBA. Yes, she'll be with a lot of other great players. But she's gonna be good.
Couldn't disagree more.
Of course no one really knows, but I'd say Clark will do really well in the WNBA because she'll have a full roster of good teammates. This will let her elite skill--passing--really shine and the teammates will be much better finishers. She also won't have to dominate the ball as much and play 40 minutes a game. If she plays 20-30 minutes and doesn't have to shoot every other time down the floor, she might actually be able to play a little defense too.
Caitlin Clark = Dan Marino. All time great (edit: not greatest) player who never won it all.
Sometimes I still can't fathom that he threw for 5000 yards in 1984, that's like throwing for 7000 yards these days
I see her more as Larry Bird in giving women’s ball it’s 1979 moment over the last two years.
Magic Johnson says ‘Hi!’
Magic aint white so the original post applies.
She hustles, gym rat, scrappy, sneakily athletic, gritty, tons of heart, outhustles everyone... only missing coaches daughter but maybe she is.
Also missing mention of a lunch pail.