Ever since she broke the NCAA women's scoring record last Thursday (amid a 49-point performance), Caitlin Clark has received a ton of praise from peers and other elite athletes; with many now considering her to be the greatest women's college basketball player of all time.
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Even Dawn Staley — iconic head coach of the (undefeated) South Carolina women's basketball team — has made it clear that Clark needs to be held in the highest esteem.
After Clark broke the record on Thursday, Staley — whose South Carolina team was busy beating Tennessee 66-55 while Clark's legendary game took place — interrupted her own postgame press conference to ask whether Clark broke the record.
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley reacts to Caitlin Clark becoming NCAA women’s basketball’s all-time leading scorer:
🎥 @RyanTSylvia pic.twitter.com/g5T0e8b8Sg
— Eliot Clough (@EliotClough) February 16, 2024
When a reporter responded that, not only did Clark break the record, but that she scored 23 points in the first quarter alone, Staley said, "God dog. No suspense, right?"
During a South Carolina practice the next day, Staley was once again asked about Clark — and her praise continued.
"She's going to go down in the history books as arguably the best player to grace our collegiate sports"
High praise from South Carolina HC Dawn Staley today talking about Iowa's Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) breaking the scoring record@GamecockWBB | @IowaWBB | @wachfox pic.twitter.com/2HK9snqRXs
— Matt Vereen (@MattVereen) February 16, 2024
"I don't think that record is ever gonna be broken again," Staley said. "The clip that [Clark] scores, and she's not done yet. She's probably got, I don't know, 15 more games left in the season. And to do it probably 30, 40 points a clip. What we're witnessing is something quite incredible.
"I think she's going to go down in the history books as probably, arguably the best player to grace our collegiate sports," Staley continued.
While Clark is more than deserving of being deemed the women's college basketball GOAT, hearing this take from Staley is surprising — if only because the two-time national championship coach has coached a lot of great players during her 24 year coaching career, including all of Team USA's gold medal-winning team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Yet, nobody can argue with statistics. Clark is unquestionably the best scorer in women's college basketball — and is just a few games away from securing the all-time NCAA scoring record regardless of gender.
Earlier this season, Staley had some criticism about a no-call that led to Clark draining a game-winning basket — although Staley certainly wasn't critiquing Clark specifically, and has shown nothing but love to the Iowa superstar.
If Staley remains head coach of Team USA, perhaps she'll get to coach Clark in the 2028 Olympics, which are taking place in Los Angeles.
Talk about a dream team.
