The opponent isn’t very good. She’ll play, cause wouldn’t want to win without her.
Time for a Real Discussion About Caitlin Clark
- Thread starter wenkeej
- Start date
Pretty nice individual game for Cc. Her +/- was + for the first time ever as a pro. Career high 7 rebounds. I think she is on the cusp of taking over the league.
Define "deserves". If she can get it, she should get it. It's not your money.
I normally would have watched this game for Jewel Lloyd and Skylar Diggins, but between riveting NBA playoff game and CC, that was a no way.
I watched the box a bit. Diggins played most of her minutes early and still is shooting like garbage coming back from baby #2. However, that is also part of the game where CC wasn’t doing much stat wise. Jewel Lloyd would match up better size wise on CC. Who defended CC in first half? Just wondering if Diggins is playing decent defense again and just shooting terrible. I think she’s only 5’9”
I watched the box a bit. Diggins played most of her minutes early and still is shooting like garbage coming back from baby #2. However, that is also part of the game where CC wasn’t doing much stat wise. Jewel Lloyd would match up better size wise on CC. Who defended CC in first half? Just wondering if Diggins is playing decent defense again and just shooting terrible. I think she’s only 5’9”
I am not a CC fan, but some of the no calls going against her are just ridiculous. At this point I'm kinda cheering for the WNBA to fail just out of their own stupidity and arrogance. I don't think they need to tell the refs to call things in her favor, but at least call a clean game.
A short video of the last few seconds just popped up, she lost the ball again,….. and right on cue after the buzzer she starts whining and screaming and bitchin to the referee
She is offense in a bottle. If the refs care about the WNBA's success, they need to lean into the CC stuff and let her cook. WNBA execs should be influencing the refs if they aren't (and apparently they are not so far).
Not sure about those, but the kicked ball that wasn't called a kicked ball by the ref who was looking right at it at the opening of the Fever v. Sun game was something else, lol.
Caitlin, and to a lesser degree her rookie counterparts Reese, Brink, Cardoso etc. are the WNBA's meal ticket to build around. They need to lean fully into that, the current stars of the league already haven't gotten the job done and are damaged good in the minds of the casual fan. The casual fans that the WNBA could inherit from the women's college game know Clark, Reese, Brink, and Cardoso etc.
Kicked or threw off her foot? I didn't really see a kick there.
I'm OK with either call. Defender is sliding to her right in legal guarding position. Her leg is extended outside the shoulder width which could justify a kick, BUT she didn't make any extra movement of that leg to impede or contact the ball, thus could be considered a throw into the foot. Personally, I would have called it a kick due to the position of the foot at time of contact.
If that is the rule (leg extended outside the shoulder width) then I agree it should have been called a kick. Again, the league and the refs need to lean into CC. It is the only way forward for them. And I don't love that that's the case, as a guy who is anti-Iowa and not a big fan of CC for various reasons, but it's a fact. I mean, they could continue to treat her like she's just another player and not a g.o.a.t. level prospect the likes of which the WNBA has never seen (she isn't) but it will be at their own detriment. They can try again in a few years when Juju Watkins comes out.
Agreed. This class that just came out could be their Bird/Magic moment that saves the league but the league itself has to get out of it's own way and let it happen.
They've got a chance to go more mainstream but that takes stars and you can't make stars the way they're going about it.
No, the location of the foot is not part of the rule, just a perception that NORMALLY a leg/foot is not sticking out that wide unless deliberately extended. In this case, it was extended to facilitate sliding defensive position so the no call is more correct, but again, personally (since you only have split second to judge, decide and act) I probably would have blown the whistle and called a kick. Guess that is why I don't work college level games (that and I don't want to).
It's also going to take a lot of stars to even make it watchable. I don't see this being anything more than a flash in the pan for the WNBA.
I have always wanted to get into officiating basketball, but then I really look at some of these rules under a microscope and I think to myself nah, who am I kidding.
It's hard to think otherwise honestly. The league has had stars before. Growing up I read a lot about Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson, Chamique Holdsclaw, Rebecca Lobo etc in SI for Kids. But whenever I tried to watch them play it was dull compared to the men's game. That is just how my natural 10 year old boy brain viewed it back then and I'm not sure I find it to be any different now, nor if the rest of the country does.
It is more interesting to watch them play collegiately because of things like being passionate for the school you attended or root for honestly. There is no tie like that in the WNBA, at least not for me. I don't even have a favorite NBA team for that matter.
To expand on this, I maintain that the WNBA shoots itself in the foot with when their season is. I know they probably think they couldn't compete for eye balls if they lined it up with the NBA season, but that is when basketball is being played around the world and when people want to watch it. They should start it right on Christmas Day as the NFL regular season is wrapping up and most of college football is done and over with.
