Caitlin Clark was on one during the First Round of March Madness on Saturday. She did not get called for a single foul as result of her eccentric behavior and Ohio State star Cotie McMahon pointed out the double standard.
The darling of college basketball gets special treatment.
Iowa hosted Holy Cross as a top-four seed. It was an extremely chippy game that began with a pretty violent (and likely unintentional?) elbow to the face in the first quarter.
They called this an intentional foul, 2 free throws and possession. A 2-year-old could see this wasn’t intentional. pic.twitter.com/2ilNMRhnkf
— Andrew Perloff (@andrewperloff) March 23, 2024
Outside of the second quarter, when the Hawkeyes outscored the Crusaders 25-9, the 1/16 matchup was also much closer than expected. Clark and company only won by 26. Yes, only 26.
There was a lot of back-and-forth physicality between the two sides all afternoon, which led to frustrations. Clark felt like more fouls should have been called.
She made that abundantly clear on multiple instances and did not mask her emotions.
Caitlin Clark…🤦♀️ Her dad needs to jack her up after this game. She can hold every record and continues to embarrass herself on a national stage. The epitome of attitude overshadowing talent #NCAAWBB #Iowa #HolyCross pic.twitter.com/3ekzH0odoH
— Beth (@whatmatters432) March 23, 2024
Clark’s complaining reached a point that even her own father told her to shut up. He wanted Lisa Bluder to take his daughter out of the game because of the repeated conduct.
Caitlin Clark was yapping!
One particular moment stood out. Clark got in an official’s face as the buzzer sounded for halftime. It was not a nice exchange and one of her teammates had to push her back to the locker room.
Caitlin Clark nearly gets into it with an official at the horn. Didn’t like back to back whistles. pic.twitter.com/20JEu0DWu9
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) March 23, 2024
McMahon could not believe how the whole thing went down. The No. 2-seed Buckeyes’ leading rebounder and second-leading scorer was shocked that Clark did not get called for a technical foul.
She believes that a technical foul was not only warranted, but would have been issued to anyone else.
I’d have a tech in a heart beat 😭 actually ejected … 🤣
— @cotiemcmahon23 on X
McMahon is right. In very few situations are players allowed to yell at an official within spitting distance. Clark got away with a tantrum that would not be given a pass if it was anyone else.
Ohio State lost its Second Round matchup to Duke less than 24 hours later…