In the end Paige won every single award she was eligible for (did not win Wade trophy as freshmen are not eligible) . I do believe she was the best and most valuable player in the nation and the records show she did things in the UConn system that not only has no freshmen ever done at Uconn. (She is only Uconn player ever with 3 -30pt games in a row and holds the record for assists in a game regardless of classification.) She has the most points "per game" by a freshmen, most assists per game in a season by a freshman, (5th best season by a freshman in steals in 9 less games than most due to CVD cancellations), broke Uconn's freshman record for assists( with 168) by 45 (the older record of 123 was held by Pam Webber and Renee Montgomery who also played in 7 and 9 games more than Paige again due to cvid) But don't hate on Clark, if Paige was not playing and Iowa had made it to the elite 8, then there would be serious talk about Clark possibly being player of the year along with Smith of Baylor, and Boston of SC. And lets get real Paige may be surrounded by other underclassmen but most of them are 4 and 5 star players, Uconn has more talent than most teams.
Jared is correct, and you ignored offensive and defensive player ratings, which favor Bueckers hugely. Both win shares and PER factor in total stats, which skews towards volume. Clark was #1 in usages, #1 in % of touches and time with ball, and #1 in 3pt attempts and #2 in overall attempts. Given that she also shot way more FT than Bueckers( which are not factored into shot attempts), Clark was wildly ( by over 50%) more prolific in shot attempts and creating offense. When you are handling and shooting the ball 50-60% more than Bueckers, you HAVE to put up better box score numbers. That’s not talent, that’s math. Every single knowledgable person understands that Bueckers would have put up significantly better box score numbers if she was as ball dominant, which is why no one seriously uses box score numbers and discounts all advanced metrics that don’t adjust for volume, so that gunners are not confused with greatness. Now factor in defense, clutch performing, leadership and court IQ and there is no serious comparison. Paige wins EVERYWHERE, Clark NEVER does....not a single state final, a bench sitter on team USA, and awful performances in her 2 biggest games in college, the B1G final and the NCAA Sweet 16.
lol what? Their defense is equal (the advanced defensive stats yall UConn folks like to trot out have Paige about two points above Caitlin, not nearly enough to outweigh Caitlin’s offensive contributions), “clutch performing” is Caitlin’s bread and butter (or did you not see the Indiana game?) and I’d say a player who led her team, nowhere near the caliber of UConn’s, to two back to back B1G championships and as far as Paige has ever gotten in the NCAA tourney, might have some leadership skills and Court IQ.
As far as the argument that her numbers are only so high because of shot attempts and not having the team Paige does, by that logic, shouldn’t Paige’s assist numbers be way higher than hers? I feel like this argument doesn’t apply when Caitlin is leading the country in assists, and when many games she’s playing in are into the 80–90s. And they’re winning. It’s not like she’s the only one scoring on her team, and if she were, it would be pretty impressive she singlehandedly got them to the national championship, no?
And she didn’t choose to come off the bench for Team USA…and when she didn’t, in 2021, she won MVP and overall the team did much better than they did in 2019. It’s clear that she was a much better starting guard option than Van Lith
PER in the NBA is normalized by calculation of the average player each year, who is assigned a value of 15. Every player is calculated from that. It's how you can compare different years and eras. That works in a league where everyone plays each other.
It does not when there are 351 schools of varying talent and competition. It's a number without reference. In college, it's a number, but because there is no consistency, it's relatively meaningless.
It's also meant as a number independent of minutes played, above a chosen minimum. It's NOT meant to be multiplied by minutes played to get a gross PER.
The way you've done it leads me to believe it was intended to put Clark in first, to fit your article's premise, that Clark and Bueckers are the top POY candidates.
In the end Paige won every single award she was eligible for (did not win Wade trophy as freshmen are not eligible) . I do believe she was the best and most valuable player in the nation and the records show she did things in the UConn system that not only has no freshmen ever done at Uconn. (She is only Uconn player ever with 3 -30pt games in a row and holds the record for assists in a game regardless of classification.) She has the most points "per game" by a freshmen, most assists per game in a season by a freshman, (5th best season by a freshman in steals in 9 less games than most due to CVD cancellations), broke Uconn's freshman record for assists( with 168) by 45 (the older record of 123 was held by Pam Webber and Renee Montgomery who also played in 7 and 9 games more than Paige again due to cvid) But don't hate on Clark, if Paige was not playing and Iowa had made it to the elite 8, then there would be serious talk about Clark possibly being player of the year along with Smith of Baylor, and Boston of SC. And lets get real Paige may be surrounded by other underclassmen but most of them are 4 and 5 star players, Uconn has more talent than most teams.
“There would be serious talk about Clark possibly being player of the year” is so funny in hindsight
Jared is correct, and you ignored offensive and defensive player ratings, which favor Bueckers hugely. Both win shares and PER factor in total stats, which skews towards volume. Clark was #1 in usages, #1 in % of touches and time with ball, and #1 in 3pt attempts and #2 in overall attempts. Given that she also shot way more FT than Bueckers( which are not factored into shot attempts), Clark was wildly ( by over 50%) more prolific in shot attempts and creating offense. When you are handling and shooting the ball 50-60% more than Bueckers, you HAVE to put up better box score numbers. That’s not talent, that’s math. Every single knowledgable person understands that Bueckers would have put up significantly better box score numbers if she was as ball dominant, which is why no one seriously uses box score numbers and discounts all advanced metrics that don’t adjust for volume, so that gunners are not confused with greatness. Now factor in defense, clutch performing, leadership and court IQ and there is no serious comparison. Paige wins EVERYWHERE, Clark NEVER does....not a single state final, a bench sitter on team USA, and awful performances in her 2 biggest games in college, the B1G final and the NCAA Sweet 16.
lol what? Their defense is equal (the advanced defensive stats yall UConn folks like to trot out have Paige about two points above Caitlin, not nearly enough to outweigh Caitlin’s offensive contributions), “clutch performing” is Caitlin’s bread and butter (or did you not see the Indiana game?) and I’d say a player who led her team, nowhere near the caliber of UConn’s, to two back to back B1G championships and as far as Paige has ever gotten in the NCAA tourney, might have some leadership skills and Court IQ.
As far as the argument that her numbers are only so high because of shot attempts and not having the team Paige does, by that logic, shouldn’t Paige’s assist numbers be way higher than hers? I feel like this argument doesn’t apply when Caitlin is leading the country in assists, and when many games she’s playing in are into the 80–90s. And they’re winning. It’s not like she’s the only one scoring on her team, and if she were, it would be pretty impressive she singlehandedly got them to the national championship, no?
And she didn’t choose to come off the bench for Team USA…and when she didn’t, in 2021, she won MVP and overall the team did much better than they did in 2019. It’s clear that she was a much better starting guard option than Van Lith
PER in the NBA is normalized by calculation of the average player each year, who is assigned a value of 15. Every player is calculated from that. It's how you can compare different years and eras. That works in a league where everyone plays each other.
It does not when there are 351 schools of varying talent and competition. It's a number without reference. In college, it's a number, but because there is no consistency, it's relatively meaningless.
It's also meant as a number independent of minutes played, above a chosen minimum. It's NOT meant to be multiplied by minutes played to get a gross PER.
The way you've done it leads me to believe it was intended to put Clark in first, to fit your article's premise, that Clark and Bueckers are the top POY candidates.
I knew Bueckers was important to UCONN but didn't realize that she was THIS important.