Iowa's Caitlin Clark Needs No National Championship To Cement Her Legacy As Best Ever | Glenn Guilbeau
Caitlin Clark Cinema Paradiso continues Saturday in an afternoon matinee (3 p.m., ABC), but if it was on Pay-Per-View, it would likely make a killing.
The iconic Iowa star has not been seen on a court for nearly two whole weeks since the Hawkeyes won the Big Ten Conference Tournament as she put up 34 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds in a 94-89 win over Nebraska before a sold-out Target Center crowd of 18,534 in Minneapolis.
Let the games begin. The NCAA Tournament starts now, right? Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark play their NCAA Tournament opener against No. 16 seed Holy Cross at 3 p.m. today on ABC. (USA Today Sports Network)
My goodness, what have we all been doing for the last two weeks without the CC fix? Well, there's this men's NCAA Tournament happening from coast-to-coast with the usual dose of upsets.
But in many ways, the real show starts today. Caitlin's back, where her stardom really began. Many Americans did not know who Caitlin Clark was until she became the first player in NCAA Tournament history to put up 40 points or more in back-to-back games. She scored 41 apiece in wins over No. 5 Louisville and No. 1 and 32-0 South Carolina to reach the national championship game against LSU in Dallas. The Tigers put the wrap on her in a 102-85 win, holding her to a more-human mere 30.
READ: Caitlin Clark Takes Over College Basketball Like A Tsunami
And nothing has ever been the same for Clark, now a 22-year-old fourth-year senior who will be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft on April 15 by Indiana. After hovering around $1 million in Name, Image & Likeness money since last year, she is well into the seven figures now. And she doesn't do sliders or pizza endorsements. More like Bose, Nike and the first-ever college athlete - man or woman - with the State Farm behemoth.
She's everywhere. Even Wright Thompson is writing about her.
Clark leads the nation in scoring (31.9 points a game), assists (8.9), 3-pointers a game (5.2) and in triple-doubles (6). She can also rebound with 7.3 a game. She is also the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I men's and women's basketball with 3,771 points and counting. "Ponytail Pete" broke Pistol Pete Maravich's 54-year-old record of 3,667 points on March 3.
They started calling Caitlin Clark "Ponytail Pete" when she was a young kid after Pistol Pete Maravich, who played from 1967-70 at LSU. (Getty Images).
Yes, she did it in four years in her 130th game with the 3-pointer to Maravich doing it in three years and 83 games without the three. But remember this, Maravich took 38 shots a game to Clark's 20. And their field goal percentages are similar with Clark at .464 to Maravich's .438.
"I think that does equalize it a bit," ESPN's Michael Voepel, who has covered women's basketball since the 1980s, told Outkick. "I can’t imagine Pete wouldn’t think she is a really good basketball player. I just have a feeling he would like the way she plays basketball – the long passes. She’s such a fun player to watch. She’s a point guard who’s a phenomenal scorer and passer. So she has the ball in her hands most of the time. And when you tune into an Iowa game, your eyes are just on her all the time. And she’s been able to deliver in big moments time and time again."
Can Caitlin Clark Deliver A National Championship?
So can she deliver Iowa a national championship? ESPN's Jay Williams, who won a national championship as Duke's point guard in 2001, famously said on ESPN's College GameDay on Feb. 17 that she will not be among the greatest unless she does.
"OK, I think she is the Steph Curry of women’s college basketball," said Williams, who was the second pick of the 2002 NBA Draft. "I think she has changed the dynamics of the way the game is played. The way she plays, the pizzazz, she’s probably the most prolific scorer the game of basketball has ever seen."
But.
"I am unwilling to say that she is great yet," he said. "I hold great, or the levels of immortality, or the pantheon to when you win championships. It has to culminate with a chip. It has to. I’m not saying that she’s not at a high, high level. But for it to go to the states of immortality in my opinion, it has to culminate with your team winning a championship."
Other ESPN analysts Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg and Andraya Carter disagreed.
"Dan Marino on line one, Jay," Greenberg said.
Williams just kept grimacing and frowning. It was almost like someone or some entity put him up to it.
"What’s happened, though, is the way everybody sells her all the time," Williams said in complain mode. "It almost feels like she’s already stamped as one of the greatest to ever do it."
"She is one of the greatest ever," Bilas said.
"She is," Carter said.
"Don't we measure greatness by championships, or no?," Williams asked. "It's still it’s about what’s on the resume at the end of the day, isn’t it?"
Caitlin Clark celebrates the Big Ten Tournament title two weeks ago with her teammates. (Getty Images).
No.
Clark and Iowa could fail to win a national championship this season, not make the Final Four or even lose today to Holy Cross, and her legacy is cemented. She is one of the greatest players in women's and men's basketball history, period.
The late Pete Maravich should be on line two if he could be. His legacy has continued to grow long after his playing career ended in 1981 because people got smarter about basketball and noticed Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan were playing the same way he did, which was criticized as a circus when Maravich played.
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Yes, Johnson and Jordan won collegiate titles and many NBA championships. Yeah, and quarterback Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl. Or, more accurately, he was on a Super Bowl team. Eli Manning won two Super Bowls, but he is not going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was a very good quarterback with some great moments. He was not a great quarterback."
Clark is arguably the greatest women's player of all time.
"I do think she'll be up there," said South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, a point guard who took Virginia to three Final Fours from 1989-92 without a national crown. "I do. Even the ones who are just starting to see her will be talking about her greatness. And that's something some of the other greats didn't have."
Jere Longman of the New York Times has covered the women's game since the late 1970s at the Jackson Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi and has been to 15 Final Fours this century.
"There have been a lot of great players. It’s hard to compare eras and different positions," he told OutKick. "But just the audacity of the way she plays sets Caitlin apart. Shooting from the logos and all that stuff. She’s great. And she’s just as good of a passer as she is a scorer. Her passing is beautiful - long and decisive. She has great vision. She passes in the interior as well. It's really fascinating."
Something else sets her apart.
NBA Players Watch Caitlin Clark TV, Too
"And I tell you, you know who loves her? The NBA does," Longman said. "Players like Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, they’re always talking about her. I think they just appreciate her - just the skill and the audacity with which she plays."
But Iowa lost 6-foot-3 center Monika Czinano (17.1 points, 6.5 rebounds a game) from last year as well as 6-1 forward McKenna Warnock (10.9 points, 5.9 rebounds).
"I don’t think they're as good as they were last year," Longman said. "I don’t know if they’ll win it this year."
But it won't matter. Clark could be done at Iowa tonight, and will still go down as one of the greatest women's players of all time and easily the most iconic.
ESPN's Jay Williams says Caitlin Clark needs to win a national title to be considered among the greatest. (Getty Images).
And before Jay Williams returns to his diatribe, he needs to note some of the greatest players of all time who have not won a "chip" and who are waiting on line 2.
In addition to Marino, try Jim Kelly, Tony Gonzalez, Dick "Night Train" Lane, Derrick Thomas, Gale Sayers, Dick Butkus, Randy Moss, Anthony Munoz and Bruce Smith and LaDainian Tomlinson and Barry Sanders from the NFL.
Or in addition to Maravich, how about Charles Barkley, James Harden, Allen Iverson, Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, George Gervin, Dominique Wilkins and Elgin Baylor from the NBA.
And Tony Gwynn, Barry Bonds, Ty Cobb, Rod Carew, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Ernie Banks, Ken Griffey Jr., Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn, Jim Rice and Ted Williams from Major League Baseball.
Or Pavel Bure, Marcel Dionne and Eric Lindros from the NHL.
Yeah, I'd say Ted Williams and Caitlin Clark will forever be in the "pantheon" of greatness.