Geno Auriemma doesn’t want Caitlin Clark to have a personal agenda against his team.
After Clark dropped 41 points in Iowa’s win over LSU, Auriemma joked with the media about her upcoming performance against his UConn Huskies in the Final Four.
UConn and Iowa are set to match up for the third time in four seasons. The Huskies have won their previous two meetings against a Caitlin Clark-led Iowa team.
“I hope Caitlin Clark had a personal agenda against LSU, and I know there’s nothing personal between me and her,” Auriemma said.
“I know there’s nothing personal between me and her. I don’t need to be seeing her drop 50 on us next weekend,” Auriemma continued. “I love her. I think she’s the best player. Forget I ever said Paige [Bueckers] is the best player in the country. I think [Caitlin’s] the best player of all time. I don’t know whoever said Paige is the best player.”
Even with Geno’s jokes, it might already be personal for Clark, who revealed last month that Auriemma didn’t recruit her to UConn when she was a star in high school.
The Iowa star was heavily recruited by Iowa, Notre Dame, Texas and Oregon before initially committing to Notre Dame. But Clark, a massive fan of Maya Moore – who starred at UConn – called UConn her “dream school.”
“Honestly, it was more I wanted them to recruit me to say I got recruited,” Clark told ESPN in a feature published ahead of the NCAA Tournament. “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.”
As for UConn’s plan regarding Clark, Auriemma said that the team doesn’t have any plans to stop her.
“We don’t. We don’t plan on stopping her,” he said. “Because I tried calling all the other coaches that have stopped her, and none of them answer the phone. So we’re going to have to find a different way to win than stopping Caitlin Clark.”
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