Legendary UConn head women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma remembers when Caitlin Clark was a relative unknown in the basketball world. Iowa knew her, of course. Diehard women's basketball fans were very much aware of the stat sheet-stuffing guard. And basketball junkies in general could wax poetic about her potential.
But she wasn't a household name during the 2020-21 season, when Paige Bueckers, also a freshman at the time, made history by sweeping all the National Player of the Year awards for which she was eligible while starring for Auriemma's Huskies.
Since then, however, Clark's popularity has soared, and so has that of women's hoops, with Auriemma partly attributing Clark's meteoric rise to her patented logo 3s and her rivalry with Angel Reese.
Auriemma expounded on those factors and a whole lot more during his early July appearance on Richard Deitsch's "Sports Media Podcast" after he was asked about the state of the never-ending conversation surrounding Clark, the NCAA's all-time leading scorer and now a three-time All-Star for the WNBA's Indiana Fever.
The 12-time national championship-winning head coach said Clark involuntarily became "a cause" and the fouls against her aren't "a referendum on America."