Geno Auriemma explains why he didn't recruit Caitlin Clark to her 'dream school' UConn
Caitlin Clark is facing UConn, in a battle between the top player in women's college basketball and the top team in the sport's history.
Apparently, they might have joined forces had both parties showed a little more interest. And it seems each is pointing to the other as the one who wasn't interested enough.
The possibility of Clark attending UConn came up earlier this week via a feature on the player by ESPN's Wright Thompson, in which UConn was reported to be her "dream school." Clark was reportedly hoping UConn would reach out, but never got a visit from legendary head coach Geno Auriemma.
Eventually, her recruitment was down to Iowa and Notre Dame, with UConn a conspicuous absence throughout the process:
The lack of interest from UConn stung. "Honestly," she said, "it was more I wanted them to recruit me to say I got recruited. I loved UConn. I think they're the coolest place on Earth, and I wanted to say I got recruited by them. They called my AAU coach a few times, but they never talked to my family and never talked to me."
It seems kind of curious UConn wouldn't be interested in a point guard who was ranked by ESPN as the No. 4 player in the Class of 2020. Of course, it's important to remember they already had the commitment of a point guard who was ranked as the No. 1 player in the Class of 2020, Paige Bueckers, whom Clark faces Friday.
Bueckers committed to UConn in April 2019, while Clark made her pledge to Iowa in Nov. 2019.
As Auriemma told it to CT Insider, they were happy with Bueckers leading the backcourt. He also indicated if Clark was so interested in UConn, she should have reached out to him and made her interest known:
"Well, there's a lot of kids we didn't recruit and there's a lot of kids who don't want to go to UConn," Auriemma said Tuesday. "I committed to Paige Bueckers very, very early and it would have been silly for me to say to Paige, 'Hey listen, we're going to put you in the backcourt and then I'm going to try really hard to recruit Caitlin Clark.' I don't do it that way.
"Caitlin is obviously a tremendous player, a generational player. But if Caitlin really wanted to come to UConn she would have called me and said, 'Coach I really want to come to UConn.' Neither of us lost out. She made the best decision for her and it's worked out great. We made the decision we thought we needed to make."
It's tempting to imagine UConn going on another legendary run with both Clark and Bueckers in their backcourt, but it's all hypothetical. It's hard to see Clark becoming the player that has drawn so much attention to women's basketball if she's splitting up ball-handling duties, and her success at the non-powerhouse of Iowa is an inextricable part of her legacy.
However, it's still wild to remember that Clark and Bueckers were in the same recruiting top five, and the two Wooden Award winners were joined by Angel Reese (former Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA tournament), Cameron Brink (another national champion and Naismith Defensive Player of the Year) and Kamilla Cardoso (the anchor of the undefeated team waiting on the other side of the bracket).
Getting just one of those five should be good enough.
