Caitlin Clark reminded everybody why she is one of the all-time great by cooking Angel Reese, Hailey Van Lith, and LSU in the Elite Eight of March Madness on Monday night. Iowa’s sharpshooter shot the lights out.
Both of Kim Mulkey’s biggest on-paper stars were baffled by her greatness.
Van Lith had an especially tough night, which raised significant questions about her head coach’s game plan. She was a defensive liability like Ryan Gosling in Remember the Titans.
In her defense, nobody could guard Clark. The Hawkeyes scored 55 points and the NCAA’s all-time greatest scorer had 41 of them on 13-of-29 shooting (9-of-20 from three) with 12 assists.
OptaSTATS put those numbers in perspective.
NCAA Tournament games with 40+ points & 10+ assists (since assists became an official stat in the mid-1980s): Caitlin Clark: 2 All other men’s & women’s players combined: 0
Van Lith literally did not know what to do when Clark hit a deep triple in the second half.
In the words of my friends at And The Valley Shook, “Hailey Van Lith got a big ole bag to come to LSU and ended up defrauding the university. She really is a Louisianan.”
The Louisville transfer was a liability. The soon-to-be No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft was unconscious. Both of those things can be true.
Reese couldn’t figure it out either and gave the same reverse Jordan shrug as her teammate. As if to say, “what can do I?”
Caitlin Clark is that good. They were amazed. Everybody was amazed!
It was another amazing performance from an amazing player. She’s different.
A national championship rematch that came with so much hype mostly lived up to it. Certainly the first half. And then Clark pulled away— which was a joy to watch.
It didn’t click for LSU. It happens.
Iowa ultimately proved to be too much to Kim Mulkey, Angel Reese, Hailey Van Lith, and the Bayou Bengals. The latter went cold when it mattered most. Flau’jae Johnson getting in foul trouble didn’t help.
They’ll be back!