On Sunday, Paige Bueckers capped her college career by leading UConn to a long-awaited national championship. What does that have to do with Caitlin Clark? Everything, for some people at least.
Bueckers and company cut down the nets following an 82-59 dismantling of South Carolina. Then the gloating started. It wasn't from Bueckers or the UConn camp either. It was social media accounts trolling Clark for her lack of a championship ring.
One tweet highlighting the spectacular recruiting class of 2020 — which featured Bueckers, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, Clark and Kamilla Cardoso — got turned into an opportunity to diminish Clark's standing among them.
Social media predictably used Paige Bueckers' ring to beat Caitlin Clark over the head
BANG! 💍 BANG! 💍 BANG! 💍 THUD! 🪨 BANG! 💍 https://t.co/sDPOaZaL0F
— . (@mradornyou) April 6, 2025
Let me get this straight:
— 🦇 (@IDKWHYSNOW) April 6, 2025
Angel Reese won a ring
Cameron Brink won a ring
Paige won a ring
Aliyah Boston won a ring
Aja Wilson won a ring
All these players won a ring but “GOAT” Caitlin Clark couldn’t??? LMFAOOOOOOOO 😭😭 https://t.co/O7UfKqZLu2
It was awesome to see Bueckers finally reach the mountain top after a long battle to return from a torn ACL. It was awesome to see Clark set women's college basketball on fire before producing a historic rookie season in the WNBA. It's awesome to see women's basketball thriving. It's not awesome for every single thing that happens in women's college basketball to be turned into a negative going in one direction or another.
Meanwhile, Clark only had good things to say about Bueckers during the national title game broadcast.
Caitlin praises Paige during the game
— correlation (@nosyone4) April 7, 2025
“Her poise and her maturity and nothing ever seems to faze her…but also she can score on all 3 levels. She finishes well around the rim, her midrange game is honestly some of the best I’ve ever seen…we all know she’s going number 1.” pic.twitter.com/ihA6sOowBg
I've been around men's sports long enough to know that this is just part of the game. LeBron stans have to belittle Michael Jordan. Jordan stans have to undercut James. It's all part of the game. It's also very silly to let your love of one player morph into full-time hatred of another.
Personally, I look forward to Bueckers, Clark and the rest of the class of 2020 being the future of the WNBA. It's not just those five mentioned in that class either, so were Haley Van Lith and Aaliyah Edwards. They have all set the stage for more great women's basketball at both levels.
And for the college game there are more stars to come. Lauren Betts is already here and her sister Sienna, a highly touted class of 2025 recruit, is on the way. JuJu Watkins will look to follow in Bueckers' footsteps as she recovers from her own devastating knee injury. Jazzy Davidson will join her at USC to form a formidable partnership.