Since high school, Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark’s basketball stories have been intertwined.
The two top guards in the 2020 recruiting class — Bueckers the No. 1 overall player, Clark the No. 4 — both hailed from the Midwest, playing on rival EYBL teams and then together in Team USA’s youth program. Both were excellent 3-point shooters, lethal from the wings and left baseline, with the ability to hit the free-throw pullups and finish at the hoop. But they also had their unique flairs — for Clark, it was her range; for Bueckers, it was off-balance runners perfectly kissed off the glass.
For college, they chose alternate paths. Clark opted to stay home and play for Iowa, a program that had been to the Elite Eight four times in program history, but just once in Clark’s lifetime. Bueckers, a Minnesota native, signed with UConn, a dynasty that had not only made the Elite Eight almost every year of Bueckers’ life but also won nine national titles during that span.
Even as freshmen, while they played in mostly empty arenas (many, only sparsely filled with cardboard cutouts during the COVID-19 season), it was evident that they were the types of players who could dominate the college conversation until their careers almost certainly led to the WNBA.
That season, they met…
