Molly Qerim believes Bueckers would have taken Clark’s spotlight.

With the NCAA women’s Tournament reaching the Final Four stage, all eyes are on Caitlin Clark. In her final season, she’s on a mission to win a championship before heading to the WNBA.

Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim question Caitlin Clark’s abilitiesTwitter

Standing in her way is UConn, with star guard Paige Bueckers ready to steal Clark’s spotlight. Bueckers has been incredible in the tournament, and her stellar performances have led to a shocking hot take from ESPN’s Molly Qerim.

Could Paige Bueckers have been bigger than Caitlin Clark?

While discussing the game with Stephen A. Smith on First Take, Qerim went so far as to say that Clark is “lucky this UConn team isn’t healthy”. Then she dropped a bold claim.

If Paige Bueckers didn’t basically miss two seasons, I don’t know if we’d be talking about Caitlin Clark the way we are right now, and that’s fact.

Smith actually seemed to agree with her, claiming he “said that the other day”.

Bueckers missed time during her sophomore year with a knee injury, but came back in time to play a key role in UConn reaching the National Championship. She missed the whole following season because of a torn ACL.

It’s true that the injuries slowed her down, but Clark is her own entity. Bueckers is an efficient three-point shooter and passer, but Clark has essentially been a one-woman offensive army for Iowa for the past four seasons.

Jason Whitlock has blunt take on South Carolina HC Dawn Staley.

Following South Carolina’s victory over Iowa in the NCAA championship game, head coach Dawn Staley found herself in the spotlight for her postgame comments from the podium.

She thanked God for her third championship and also acknowledged the $3.4 million NIL-valued (per On3) Caitlin Clark’s contribution to promoting women’s basketball.

These comments from Staley drew criticism from Jason Whitlock, who is known for his blunt takes on his show “Fearless.”

He called Staley’s tears “crocodile tears” and pointed out that Staley could’ve supported Clark earlier in the season but she chose to remain silent until after securing the championship.

“Dawn Staley run out here, pretend like, continue this gimmick that you love god and that you know Caitlin Clark is great,” Whitlock said.

“You know how long ago Dawn Stalye could’ve told everybody, “Hey, get up off Caitlin Clark’s back”.

Do you know how long ago she could’ve done that? But she waited until after she won the championship.”

“Caitlin Clark gets abused all season, everybody’s trying to diminish her, Dawn Staley is quiet.

Now that I got my championship, now god is good… and god answers all prayers and all,” Whitlock continued.

“You was favorite long before you won your first championship, and this is your third, and that you for all these crocodile tears on your third championship.

You’re more emotional about a third championship? You’ve lost one game in two years.

Now you’re like … this is the proof of how good god is. Had you lost, what would you have said?,” he added

Indeed, Caitlin Clark faced a lot of abuse throughout her college career. Despite all that, she never stopped and broke several records to etch her name in history.

She averaged 31.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 8.9 assists per game this season.

Moreover, she also became the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer and Naismith women’s player of the year 2024 twice.

Also Read: “Caitlin Clark was basically shut down rest of the game”: Mark Jackson lauds South Carolina’s Raven Johnson following national title win over Iowa

Caitlin Clark WNBA Draft Projection Updates

After an impressive college career, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Caitlin Clark, who declared for the WNBA Draft 2024, is expected to go first overall by the Indiana Fever.

At Fever, she would team up with last year’s top choice, Aliyah Boston, who formerly played for South Carolina. This will form an excellent duo in Indianapolis. The draft is slated for April 15 in New York City.

Also Read: Consensus 2024 WNBA No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark’s expected Fever debut see ticket prices soar up to $9148: Report

Just about every college basketball team would be ecstactic to have Caitlin Clark playing for them.

The Iowa Hawkeyes star is the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, but predicting that when she was in high school would have been pretty bold.

Three other players were ranked higher than her in her high school class — Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink.

Head coach Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies speaks with Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes after the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament at the Alamodome March 27, 2021, in San Antonio. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

Reese and Brink committed to Maryland and Stanford, respectively, and while Clark stayed home to play with the Hawkeyes, UConn landed Bueckers, the top player of the class.

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said he didn’t recruit Clark, and he had his reasons.

“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,” Auriemma said earlier this week, via CT Insider.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Bueckers missed a season with a torn ACL, while Clark’s resume speaks for itself. The two will face each other in the Final Four Friday night.

Despite Clark raving about UConn, saying it’s the “coolest place on earth,” Auriemma made it seem like Clark wasn’t seriously eyeing the Huskies.

Head coach Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies reacts during the first half against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at Climate Pledge Arena on March 25, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

“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,’” he said.

“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.

“There are a lot of great players we see coming through high school, thousands of them. You’re only going to recruit some. You’re not going to recruit all of them. Some people do recruit all of them, I don’t. I try to lock in on who fits us,” Auriemma added.

“We try to lock in on them early, and that’s what happened to us and Paige. We felt really, really comfortable with that, and we went with it. Those are decisions that are made every day, every year, by every coach.”

Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes cuts down the net after beating the LSU Tigers 94-87 in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament at MVP Arena April 1, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

The top-seeded Hawkeyes lost the national championship to LSU last year, but they got their revenge in the Elite Eight. UConn, meanwhile, is in its 23rd Final Four and its 15th in the last 16 tournaments and looking for its 13th national title.

The Huskies haven’t won since their fourpeat from 2013 to 2016.