In reply to: Woods, Armstrong, Phelps, Jordan, Gretzky..probably Beckham. posted by NDMike2001
There may be no one player as electrifying as Clark, but the classes behind her are loaded with talent, particularly this year's freshman class. That class is full of players who are not only great, but very exciting to watch.
As I watched the draft the other night it was hard not to think about Hidalgo, Watkins, Fulwiley, Booker, Williams, et al., all of whom will have their day in the WNBA. There's no telling what they will accomplish before their draft day.
Clark brought a lot of eyes to Women's College Basketball, and now to the WNBA. She may be a "one-off" in some ways, but once people start paying attention to the sport there are a lot of players coming up that can keep them watching.
But seeing as how a good game plan and experienced/crafty defense by Nika Muhl nearly took down Clark, it's apparent that there will be a period of adjustment and the need to have some additional guard help as teams will hound her and move her off the ball. Imagine Uconn's game plan with Muhl getting help from Skyler and Jewell.
Anyway, my point is simply that CC will need help from her teammates to attain the kind of greatness that keeps America's attention. They will tune in expecting greatness.
- Yes, I can imagine Jewell or Sky helping out.
- But, in the Iowa game, CC only had Kate Martin helping to create her own shot.
With Indiana, she'll have Mitchell, Smith and Boston to take pressure off her.
- Lastly, I might be an outlier here, but as good as Nika Muhl was in the first half, she was getting tired and accumulating fouls in the second half. Plus Clark (and Martin) were figuring out ways around it.
Your point holds, of course, and Taurasi and Bird are bringing up that the vets will attack Clark with tricks she isn't ready for. Agreed. But she's good enough to learn and counter...with help from her teammates.
Late add: I just saw CC talking at her intro press conference. She doesn't expect to score 40 a game and wants to be part of the overall team. Smart. She'll get the lay of the land and then raise the game as needed and appropriate.
47 points. PSU was geared to stop Clark, double and triple teaming her, so she took what they gave her. Which was feeding a wide-open Stuelke all night long. i think Clark wouldn't mind doing that all season long with Boston if it brings a bunch of wins with it. And, btw, Clark still scored 27 with all the defensive pressure that night from PSU.