Caitlin Clark recalls when Sabrina Ionescu tried to recruit her to Oregon

If you look at the current sporting landscape, there are few bigger names right now than Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu.

While the two are squaring off right now for the first time in their WNBA careers, it’s fun to imagine a world where one followed the other playing for the Oregon Ducks at the college level instead of going their separate ways.

While Ionescu lit the college basketball world on fire at the end of last decade with her barrage of triple-doubles and record-breaking performances in Eugene, it wasn’t until a few years later that Clark did a similar thing, breaking the all-time scoring record in college basketball at Iowa.

Before the meeting between Clark’s Indiana Fever and Ionescu’s New York Liberty on Thursday, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft recalls when the No. 1 pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft recruited her.

“She was definitely somebody I enjoyed watching,” Clark said of Ionescu. “Obviously, Oregon recruited me so when I went out there Sabrina was around the whole time and you got to see how genuine of a person she was, on top of being the best basketball player in America.”

While Clark ended up going to the Hawkeyes instead and carving out a historic career, it was the path Ionescu created in Eugene that inspired her.

“The way she took Oregon to become a powerhouse, that’s something that I loved and something that I wanted to do at Iowa,” Clark said. “She continued to support me throughout my college career, was always reaching out and congratulating me and being really supportive.”

Now the two face each other at the professional level, where they could absolutely develop a rivalry of sorts for years to come. Despite that, Clark will always have something nice to say about Ionescu, even if it’s just about the gear she brings to the game.

“And her shoe is pretty comfortable.”

Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire