"She's special." Kim Mulkey discusses Caitlin Clark's talent entering title game
By the time Kim Mulkey finished her press conference, it was already halftime of the Iowa vs. South Carolina game on Friday. Mulkey had a few calls to take right after speaking with the media, but it wasn’t long before she made her way back out to the court.
Still in her bright pink jacket, she made her way through the crowd, hugging several former players from Louisiana Tech and Baylor and eventually settling in to watch the last quarter and a half. Just like everyone else who watched, it was impossible to take her eyes off of Caitlin Clark.
The National Player of the Year put on a show, scoring 41 points to lead Iowa in its upset win over South Carolina on Friday night.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a player that can do what Caitlin does,” Mulkey said on Saturday morning. “She’s going to get her points. That girl is phenomenal at shooting the ball. But the most impressive thing to me, now that you’re talking to an old point guard, is that she makes everybody around her better. You have great players that can get numbers, but she makes others on her team better.”
Clark averages 27.7 points, 8.6 assists, and 7.2 rebounds on the season on impressive efficiency from the field. The junior guard is the engine for everything Iowa does on offense and now, the Hawkeyes are set to face Mulkey’s team in the national title game on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. CT in Dallas, Texas.
For Mulkey, a coach with a long pedigree of great defensive teams, it’s a challenge unlike any other. Assistant coach Bob Starkey is in charge of scouting reports and the two have been hard at work trying to find anything to slow Clark down.
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“One minute you think you’re going to guard her a certain way, then you watch the film and change your mind and go, oh, that’s not going to work,” Mulkeu said. “Hopefully by the end of the day, we’ll come to some conclusion as a staff that we’re going to try this first, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll try this.
“That’s my first time seeing her play in person, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Gosh, she’s special. She’s special.”
While Clark has captured the attention of the country, Angel Reese is an all-american in her own right. There’s plenty of star power in this championship game, and Reese has seen up-close the last two years in the Big 10 what Clark is capable of and how her teammates feed off of her.
“Caitlin Clark is a great player,” Reese said. “It’s going to be tough to stop her from getting her points, but being able to just contain her and not letting the supporting cast, her other teammates go off. That’s going to be just as important.”
