Post by bulkey on Apr 4, 2024 8:04:46 GMT -5
Long article by Dan Connolly behind his paywall, so have to be judicious, summarizing Dan's 3 points, although Dan himself takes most of it from ESPN interviews publicly available. here: www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39740282/caitlin-clark-iowa-2024-ncaa-women-basketball-tournament-ready-march?utm_source=www.uconnwbbweekly.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=why-didn-t-uconn-recruit-caitlin-clark-it-s-simple
Summarizing Dan:
First, and what I've suspected in all this fuss, is that Clark didn't necessarily want to go to UConn, she just wanted to be recruited by UConn. I believe she always intended to stay in Iowa, breaking Notre Dame's heart. Here:
“I loved UConn,” she told ESPN. “I think they're the coolest place on Earth, and I wanted to say I got recruited by them."
Second, Geno had committed early to Paige and felt it would be awkward to try to recruit Clark as well:
“I committed to Paige Bueckers very, very early,” he said. “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.”
“We made the decision we thought we needed to make,” he continued. “I try to lock into who fits with us, try to lock in on them early. That's what happened with us and Paige. We felt really, really comfortable with that, and we went with it.”
Third--and this is the most interesting--was Clark's body language:
Clark struggled to contain her emotions to the point that “she'd have tantrums,” to quote the [ESPN] story. Body language is also a persistent issue. From the story:
“(High school coach Kristin) Meyer started showing her film of her body language, something the Iowa coaches still do. They'd sit down and watch in silence as Caitlin stomped and gestured…A lot of college coaches watched the same body language sequences Meyer did. Most didn't mind.”
Hard to imagine the same could be said about UConn. During the 2016 Final Four, Auriemma revealed how the program values positive body language.
“Me, my coaching staff — we put a huge premium on body language. If your body language is bad, you will never get in the game. Ever. I don’t care how good you are,” he said.
Dan goes on to describe how Geno even benched freshman Stewie for her body language.
Summarizing Dan:
First, and what I've suspected in all this fuss, is that Clark didn't necessarily want to go to UConn, she just wanted to be recruited by UConn. I believe she always intended to stay in Iowa, breaking Notre Dame's heart. Here:
“I loved UConn,” she told ESPN. “I think they're the coolest place on Earth, and I wanted to say I got recruited by them."
Second, Geno had committed early to Paige and felt it would be awkward to try to recruit Clark as well:
“I committed to Paige Bueckers very, very early,” he said. “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.”
“We made the decision we thought we needed to make,” he continued. “I try to lock into who fits with us, try to lock in on them early. That's what happened with us and Paige. We felt really, really comfortable with that, and we went with it.”
Third--and this is the most interesting--was Clark's body language:
Clark struggled to contain her emotions to the point that “she'd have tantrums,” to quote the [ESPN] story. Body language is also a persistent issue. From the story:
“(High school coach Kristin) Meyer started showing her film of her body language, something the Iowa coaches still do. They'd sit down and watch in silence as Caitlin stomped and gestured…A lot of college coaches watched the same body language sequences Meyer did. Most didn't mind.”
Hard to imagine the same could be said about UConn. During the 2016 Final Four, Auriemma revealed how the program values positive body language.
“Me, my coaching staff — we put a huge premium on body language. If your body language is bad, you will never get in the game. Ever. I don’t care how good you are,” he said.
Dan goes on to describe how Geno even benched freshman Stewie for her body language.
