Shannon Sharpe praises Dawn Staley gameplan vs. Caitlin Clark, jabs Kim Mulkey
Iowa star Caitlin Clark got off to a quick start in Sunday’s national title against South Carolina. The National Player of the Year scored 18 points in the first quarter as the Hawkeyes jumped out to an early double-digit lead. However, eventually Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks made adjustments and held Clark to only 12 points on 5 of 20 shooting over the final three quarters.
South Carolina point guard Raven Johnson was the primary defender on Caitlin Clark for most of that time, finishing with four steals in the victory.
ESPN’s Shannon Sharpe praised the gameplan Dawn Staley used against Clark Monday morning on First Take, detailing how it was better than the one LSU coach Kim Mulkey used against the superstar. Clark scored 41 points against LSU while being guarded by Hailey Van Lith for much of the game.
“You see the difference between what LSU did and what South Carolina did,” Sharpe said on First Take. “South Carolina put their most athletic player on Caitlin Clark. What did LSU do? Put their least athletic player on Caitlin Clark. And you see the difference. They wore her down.”
Caitlin Clark drained nine 3-pointers in the win over LSU, finishing with 41 points, 7 rebounds and 12 assists. Against the Gamecocks, she finished with 30 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and five 3-pointers made.
South Carolina did a solid job of not only slowing down Clark’s scoring but also her facilitating.
“We’ve never seen a player in the women’s game bear more responsibility than Caitlin Clark. She has to score damn near all their points. And she has to facilitate,” Sharpe said. “And you saw at the end, Raven Johnson was picking her pockets, something we did not see all year long. They wore her down, and as the game got going, she got more and more frustrated because she knew she didn’t have the horses running alongside her that South Carolina did.”
In addition to praising Dawn Staley for her gameplan against Caitlin Clark, Sharpe was also a fan of another coaching move Staley made.
Iowa opened the game on a 10-0 run and led 20-9 at one point, but Dawn Staley never panicked. She didn’t call timeout, let her team play through some early mistakes and by the midway point of the second quarter, the Gamecocks took the lead.
Sharpe liked Staley’s approach to letting her team play through tough moments.
“I loved the way Dawn Staley did. [Iowa] raced out to a 10-point lead and everybody said, ‘Dawn, are you going to call timeout?’ Dawn sat there with her Gucci on, ‘Y’all got us in this mess, get us out of it.’ I love the way she coaches and her team came ready to play,” Sharpe said. “They came ready to avenge what happened last year, and they left no doubt the Lady Gamecocks are the best women’s basketball team in the country.”