Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark took some time to get adjusted to the WNBA last season. But once Clark did, she showcased the game that made her a force as an All-American at Iowa that saw her became college basketball's all-time leading scorer.
Clark finished the WNBA season averaging 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists on 41.7% shooting from the floor and a 34.4% mark from three in 40 games. Her three-point percentage at the end of the year was respectable following a tough start to the season that saw her shooting less than 30% from deep. It was still plenty good enough for her to win rookie of the year.
A key reason why? How she's defended in the WNBA, which in her mind is a significant difference from how she was defended when she was at Iowa.
"Professional players and coaches—this is no disrespect to women's college basketball—are a lot smarter," Clark told TIME. "If you go back and watch the way people guarded me in college. It's almost like, concerning. They didn't double me, they didn't trap me, they weren't physical. And it's hard. It's college. A lot of those women will never go on to play another basketball game in their life. They don't have the IQ of understanding how the game works. So I completely understand it. And it's no disrespect at all. They don’t have the IQ. You have to simplify it for girls at that age.
The ball pressure was definitely ratcheted up once Clark turned pro, as she was frequently picked up full court defensively and guarded a lot more closely on the perimeter. But if Clark untaps her offensive potential, she can take her game to an entirely different level next season and beyond.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Caitlin Clark Names One Crucial Difference Between College Basketball, WNBA.
