Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers’ paths to an Elite Eight run through each other

Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers downplay any rivalry, but the interest in the two freshmen sensations is good for women’s college basketball.

For much of the 2020-21 women’s college basketball season, observers have pitted Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and UConn’s Paige Bueckers against each other as the top freshmen and two of the top players in the sport. That discussion crescendoed when the NCAA Tournament selection committee placed 1-seed UConn and 5-seed Iowa together in the River Walk region.

“I kind of had [an] inkling that they were going to do that, to be quite honest,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said on Selection Monday. … “I think everybody would like to have a Caitlin-Paige matchup.”

Both teams delivered in the first two rounds, setting up a showdown of freshman All-Americans. On Saturday at 1 p.m.ET, Bueckers and Clark will face off for the first time in college with a spot in the Elite Eight on the line.

Their accomplishments this season resemble a game of “Anything you can do, I can do better.” For example, Bueckers hit a late 3-pointer to beat then-No. 1 South Carolina on Feb. 8, her shot going straight up off the rim before dropping through the net. Clark hit a nearly identical shot from a similar spot early in Tuesday’s second-round game against Kentucky en route to an Iowa NCAA Tournament-record 35 points.

Or look at their scoring outbursts in the month of February, when both players got red hot. Bueckers started things off with 32 points against St. John’s on Feb. 3, and the next day, Clark had 30 against Ohio State. Then Bueckers had 30 on Feb. 5 and 31 three days later. Clark countered with 30-plus points in her next four games, including 39 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists on Feb. 11. Bueckers capped the month with 20 points, 14 assists and 7 rebounds on Feb. 27.

For the season, Clark is averaging 26.8 points and 7.1 assists per game, which rank first and third nationally. She is shooting 47.7 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from behind the arc, and her 9.7 offensive win shares also lead the nation. She was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a second-team AP All-American, becoming the first freshman All-American in program history.

“To me, she’s the most exciting player in college basketball right now,” WNBA legend and former UConn Husky Sue Bird recently said on ESPN. “I’m always like, ‘Oh, Iowa’s on? Let me turn this on.’”

Bueckers, meanwhile, was named both Big East Freshman and Player of the Year and is averaging 19.9 points and 6.0 assists per game on 53.9 percent shooting from the field. She is shooting 46.7 percent from 3-point range and 85.7 percent from the free-throw line, putting her well within reach of the 50-40-90 barometer that is often considered the gold standard of efficiency. (Just one player has achieved the feat in the WNBA, Washington Mystics star Elena Delle Donne in 2019.) She was the first freshman to be a first-team All-American since UConn’s Maya Moore in 2008.

“[Bueckers] puts herself in position to be better, but she also puts her teammates in position to be their best selves,” said former UConn star Katie Lou Samuelson. “Players that can make other players around them better, those are the one [sic] that become great.”

Bueckers and Clark are similar in several ways, from their outstanding shooting to their desire and ability to get teammates involved. Both show grit, fearlessness, and confidence beyond their years, such as Bueckers returning from an ankle injury against Tennessee to hit a late 3-pointer or Clark sinking a deep, game-winning 3 against rival Iowa State. They also stuff the stats sheet beyond points and assists, combining for 10.7 rebounds and 3.6 steals per game.

“it’s been a while since you have two kids that have had this kind of an impact, both on their teams and on the game itself, nationally,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said on Thursday. “To have one is … kind of cool, but to have two, and to be so alike in so many ways?”

Yet there are also clear differences in how Clark and Bueckers get their points that add another layer to Saturday’s matchup.

Clark thrives from distance: 49.9 percent of her shot attempts this season have been 3-pointers, and one in three of those shots have been from 25 to 30 feet. She is making 40.2 percent of her shots from the latter distance, well above the national average of 29.0 percent.

Bueckers can hit deep shots, too — she is shooting 44.0 percent from 25-30 feet in limited attempts—but her specialty is the midrange.

Nearly one-third of her shot attempts (32.3 percent) are 2-pointers taken outside the paint, compared to the national average of 15.7 percent and Clark’s 14.4 percent.

She takes fewer shots overall than Clark but is uniquely efficient, ranking in the 88th percentile or better in shooting percentage at every spot on the court and in the 99th percentile in points per play.

We likely won’t see Clark nail a 3-pointer over Bueckers’ outstretched arm or Bueckers pull up over Clark for a midrange two, as both players have room to grow defensively and will likely not guard one another.

But that doesn’t make the game any less compelling, with two of the country’s best players squaring off for what feels like the first of many times, whether in college or the WNBA.

NBA star Kevin Durant recently opined Clark is already WNBA-caliber, and Connecticut Sun head coach and general manager Curt Miller mused about whether Bueckers, Clark, and their classmates around the country are good enough to convince the WNBA to allow players to enter the league at a younger age.

Even as others hype up Saturday’s game — you can call it the Fabulous Freshman Faceoff or the Clarkbueckoning — and the supposed “rivalry” between the stars, Clark and Bueckers are good friends and former USA Basketball teammates who have watched and cheered each other on from afar this season. Clark downplayed the individual matchup after Tuesday’s win, saying, “I think me and Paige would give you the same answer: It’s not Caitlin Clark vs. Paige Bueckers; it’s Iowa vs. UConn.”

The irony of this game is that the moment when these two players are actually pitted against each other should also demonstrate there is room for multiple stars in the women’s game.

It’s not either-or; you can support and appreciate both on their own merits. There is room for both, that is, everywhere except the 2021 Elite Eight.

Let the “Clarkbueckoning” begin.