McAfee puts Caitlin Clark on pedestal amongst all-time sporting greats (1:46)
Pat McAfee calls Caitlin Clark’s Iowa profession an “abnormality” and discusses why she’s one of the best professional athletes of perpetuity. (1:46)
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Michael Voepel, ESPN.comMar 22, 2024, 04:50 PM ET
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- Michael Voepel covers the WNBA, ladies’s college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel started covering ladies’s basketball in 1984, and has actually been with ESPN given that 1996.
IOWA CITY, Iowa– West Virginia ladies’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg was attempting to fire up his fan base upon Selection Sunday, however if he had another possibility, he may select a various method to do it.
After the No. 8 seed Mountaineers learnt they remained in the NCAA females’s competition early round video games at Iowa, Kellogg informed the group and its fans, “Let’s win one and after that send out Caitlin Clark packaging.”
The Mountaineers will deal with No. 9 seed Princeton in the preliminary Saturday (5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That video game follows Clark and the No. 1-seeded Hawkeyes satisfying 16-seed Holy Cross (3 p.m. ET, ABC).
Chatter about Clark, the face of her sport this season, has actually been consistent. Still, Kellogg stated he got some online sorrow from Iowa fans. He was inquired about his remark once again Friday.
“I’m not a [trash-talker]. I wasn’t out to get Caitlin Clark. It’s not Mark Kellogg versus Caitlin Clark,” stated Kellogg, who mentioned that the Mountaineers need to concentrate on Ivy League champ Princeton before he can even think of how to decrease Clark if Iowa wins too.
“With our seed is truthfully where it began. That wasn’t actually the seed possibly that some individuals in the space were anticipating, not even from me always. It turned into, ‘OK, well, let’s get past that. Now let’s speak about Princeton.’ Of course, everyone in the space understands Caitlin Clark.”
Kellogg’s quip. Holy Cross coach Maureen Magarity stated her young children are Clark fans and joked that her earliest may assist with the searching report.
“They’ve viewed more Caitlin Clark video games than I have,” Magarity stated. “It’s tough not to be in wonder of whatever she does. I most likely should not state this, however we did go to the [Iowa] book shop the other day. … There was one t-shirt we were actually searching for that will be offered out, so we may have needed to purchase that.”
When it comes to Clark, like a great deal of professional athletes, she can be fired up by viewed slights or unfavorable remarks however didn’t appear worried about what Kellogg stated. This is the last NCAA competition for the senior guard, who leads Division I in scoring, helps and 3-pointers. Clark has actually experienced substantial highs (leading Iowa to the 2023 Final Four) and lows (being distressed by Creighton in the 2022 2nd round in Iowa City) and stated she and the Hawkeyes ought to be all set for anything.
