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Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of sports prep live, prep live where we unbox the mic and talk excellence in athletics

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Welcome back to sports prep live. I'm your host Graydon Prescott and incredible conclusion to the NCAA tournament both on the men's and the women's side. There is a lot to talk about some drama going on, and history made

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on both the men's and women's side so you know what we're doing today. Grantham, Prescott, K, be ready to talk about it. You ready to go?

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We're gonna start with the men's side. National Championship game was between UConn and Purdue UConn was the favorite to win the championship and they did all year long. Yep. 7560. They defeated Purdue very balanced team effort. UConn had four players in double figures and another with nine points, so almost double figures. And they made six threes, nine of their 11 free throws, they out rebounded Purdue, they had 10 more assists, and they had seven less turnovers. So pretty dominant effort by UConn. They led almost wire to wire in the Head Coach Hurley and they had coach DAN HURLEY so back to back championships with the UConn Huskies. Although Zack at valiant effort, 37 points 10 rebounds, didn't get much help the ball on his team. They only had 23 points. The rest of the team won three point or 18 or excuse me, 15

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personal fouls, nine turnovers and only eight assists. Only one player on their whole team got an assist. So UConn wins the national championship despite Zack eat his best effort, right. Your takeaways.

Unknown Speaker 2:17
I think everyone kind of knew this was going to be the conclusion that we reached at the end of the season. I did believe that it was going to be a little bit more competitive with Purdue. Zach just did not get the help that I thought he would get. So

Unknown Speaker 2:37
I he will get Player of the Year awards, all that good stuff. He's the outstanding athlete. Well, I think they're still Naismith. I know we got AP but I think they smell he got Naismith and now it's their first okay. So and then wouldn't award. Yeah, he won all three. Okay, so he's definitely going anything that he hasn't won, he's going to win. He's a phenomenal player. He just didn't have the help. Although I did think it was going to be a closer score than it ended up being well, I was surprised by that. It would have been a closer score if his supporting cast scored more than 23 points. He scored 62% of their points for the tournament. Or not for the tournament, but for this game, right. He averaged 30 points and 16 rebounds throughout the tournament. He was absolutely sensational.

Unknown Speaker 3:21
One of the more dominant individual runs that we've seen in a long time. The men on the men's side. Yes, it was. But UConn. They were the most dominant team throughout the tournament. I saw some stats, UConn trailed for a total of five minutes and 22 seconds. These entire tournament no just the tournament.

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They never trailed in the tournament more than five points.

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They won every game by double digits. Most of their games they won by more than 25

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four out of six I think they won by 25 or more. They became the first team to ever win back to back national championships by more than 15 points last year they beat

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San Diego State 59 to 7617 and then this year 60 to 75 So we'll be having this conversation next year this this team is primed for three P Okay. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Duke is gonna have something to say about that. They may Duke Scott Cooper flag

Unknown Speaker 4:23
and then Duke has another top three recruits but do not expect UConn to be intimidated by Oh no no no absolutely not Cooper can ball he can Hooper can ball he can't do because I'm gonna be expected him to have a little bit better showing in the McDonald's all American All Star game doesn't matter that Ronnie had 15 in the in the McDonald's all American game. What's he doing now? brawny is not on the level of a cooper flag and I don't I don't feel like 15 is outstanding. To be quite honest. It was it's third Industrial. Yeah. You get so so for him. That was a good showing. Okay, that was a good show.

Unknown Speaker 5:00
Cooper flag I expected him to do a little bit. What did you expect? 40 points? No, of course not. But I expected him to hit 2020 Yes. What did he end up with? Maybe 12. Okay, well, it's an all star game. Everybody but he got competitive. You didn't watch it. It got competitive. No and your high school coach was there he was. He was okay. But it got really competitive down the stretch. I expected a little bit more. Okay, Roland Cooper's an outstanding player, but I do not think UConn is concerned that Cooper flag is going to be they're not. They went 37 and three, they were number one basically the whole season in the AP rank, and we know how this one power player things tends to work out. We saw that in both the women's and men's game. It doesn't always okay, Duke is gonna have a good team though. Not so as UConn. I I'm not saying that UConn isn't going to three peat. They are sensational. They're very, very well coached. DAN HURLEY is actually the younger brother of Bobby Hurley Correct. Duke Blue Devil related. Yeah.

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Bobby Hurley wonder who he's going to be that if that matchup ends up how's Coach K's not there anymore. So no, no some divided loyalty that could be going on. It's still still your alma mater. But it's still your brother. Yeah, that's what

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I'd probably cheer for my brother. Probably.

Unknown Speaker 6:19
Not sure, though. Personally. I would. I'm 80%. Sure. Just depends on you know, how the game is going. Or what happened? Yeah, but those warrior brothers. That's a strong relationship to right when you go to battle with someone. Yeah, that builds a really strong bond. Yeah. And sometimes it can't supersede all familial bonds. Bobby Hurley in 1992 actually beat DAN HURLEY in the tournament. DAN HURLEY played at Seton Hall. And they went up against Duke who ended up becoming the champions back to back and down early. He got beat by Duke that year. Well, he's he's DAN HURLEY is doing his thing now. Yeah. And then so yeah, he is. So shout out to DAN HURLEY. But yes, I do expect UConn is going to be in the hunt again next year, obviously. And this may be the first collegiate team and decades. I don't know if it's ever happened to 3d. I think UCLA did it. I was gonna say if there's anybody that has done UCLA wouldn't did. UCLA. Yeah. John Wooden Kareem, Kareem. Yeah. So expect big things from UConn next year. Zack Ed is going to the draft. So I don't know what's going to happen with Purdue might fall off a little bit probably going to fall off. They're consistently a good program though. They are there, you know, for the big 10 But I don't know nationally, if they're consistently a powerhouse, okay. Iowa State. They're, they're returning a lot of guys. Iowa State is great. Yeah, I would say it is not UConn. They're not Iowa State is a really good basketball team. They are UConn is on another level. So we will see. We will see. It'll be it'll be interesting. All right. It's great in Prescott here on Sports prep live, and I'm here with kB discussing both the men's and women's NCAA Tournament finale. Here we go. So on the women's side, yes, we'll start with the Final Fours because these were a little bit more memorable. We're going to do a quick recap of South Carolina's game please do. NC State kept it close for the duration of the first half. It was a close game for the entire first half. And then the third quarter happened SolidEdge South Carolina with scores from 29 to six for the quarter. And that's pretty much all she wrote. They ended up winning the game by 17. And that was that so NC State went out. Much more quiet than we expected. But you know, this is a undefeated 37 No, at the time South Carolina team. Then on the other side of the bracket UConn and Iowa controversy. This This was a big one. This, this game became surpassing Iowa's previous game against LSU viewership the most viewed game of all time in women's collegiate basketball.

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Caitlin Clark had 21 points nine rebounds seven assists, not exactly an efficient shooting night three for a Lebanon threes seven for 18. Overall Nika mule did her job very well. She was in Caitlin's short. She was Holgate Nico mule was outstanding. She had nine points five rebounds and seven assists herself she was spectacular. The whole game. Alia Edwards had 17 points and eight rebounds. She kind of got outplayed by Hannah Stokey who had 23 on 75% shooting and here's the crazy part for Hannah stocky five of seven on free throws and who did herself a lot of good for potential WNBA career she did. She showed up she's done. She's done herself quite well. During the season in this tournament. She showed up and I doubted her a little bit too much throughout the season. I wasn't I did last year as well. I wasn't as confident in her but she showed us a long way. She showed me some

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And then Paige Becker's 17 points again not super efficient, not super efficient. Almost the same as Caitlyn. She shot seven for 17 Caitlyn was seven for 18 Page made three threes as well. four rebounds three assists, four turnovers.

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Same as Caitlin but you know, page isn't the primary ball handler on that team. That's Nika

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and a two point victory for the hawk guys 6971. Literature Titans slugging it out. Yeah, this was a great game, you can lead by six at the break, Iowa had a good third quarter of tie it up, and then they jumped out to a huge start to the fourth quarter. Correct. Got it up to 10.

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And then, as we talked about with that West Virginia game, they kind of let the lead slip

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back. So good turnovers. They're never good. But I mean, really unfortunate. It turned out there was

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the play that stood out most to me, it kind of swung the game.

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Iowa was up by five with about 50 Something second flat, right? And they brought the ball up the court and then Alia Edwards tipped it to the back court, almost to the back court. And instead of letting it go back court because it was deflected. And the rule is if a player tip if a defensive player tips it you can go get it in the back court. Kate Martin, I don't think knew the rule. So she tried to save it from going in from going into the back court and she trapped herself because once she had grabbed it now toward the back, exactly. So she threw it away nikam y'all got it came down and I think they hit three. Yep. And that made it a two point game. Iowa made free throws, and then UConn came down and hit another three. Mica hit another one. So it was 7269 when after that sequence, right? And Paige hit the first three in the Nika hit the second one correct.

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I was I was I was on pins and needles watching that game.

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And I just I kind of realized that in there. And that's how I was gonna play down the stretch of games. There's no way that they're going to be able to be South Carolina, right?

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That was concerning. It was sloppy. It was really sloppy even you know, in the waning seconds that Hannah Stokey turnover. You know, trying to pass it to the corner when there was someone in the wing right wide open and and I think it was allele at Edwards. Maybe they got her hand on the ball. Camille, was it really it was Nico Oh no, no, it would have been I thought it was Alia because Nico was on Caitlin. So I think it was Alia, but it's born out of bounds. Yeah, but Hannah Stokey tried to pass it to Gabby Marshall in the corner when she had Kate Murray more wide or was open on the wing. And the worst part about it was Iowa had two timeouts. So she couldn't just call the timeout and have a pass. Yeah, but she did have a pass but either way you had two timeouts. Yeah. So I would did not do a good job of being aware of time and situation

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at the end of that game, but they still ended up pulling it out. So props to them. UConn made a huge push at the end. The last play

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what are your thoughts? Okay, so here's what I saw.

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I was running an action to get Kaitlyn or UConn was running an action to get paid the ball the ball on the right wing and Alia Edwards comes up to set a screen near the free throw line extended right side and Gabby on Gabby Marshall who was guarding page and the screen it was a good screen

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page comes off to curl and then the rest blow their whistle nobody knows what's happening they call any illegal screen on Alia Edward. Correct. A lot of people have had a lot to say about this call. Here's what I think.

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Alia was set

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it I did her left arm I think her left elbow moved slightly. Yes. ever so slightly out towards Gabby. That's what I saw. I saw it move and I thought it was the right call. I think the argument that people are making is you don't make that call in the situation. I vehemently disagree with that. But here's the thing, if it's the right call, and it's the call you would make in the first 36 minutes of the game and it's the right call the call you should make in the last four correct so it was almost a perfect screen. And if she could would have just kept her arm still. It would have been perfectly legal. she extended her left elbow ever so slightly which caused the ref to and that was like about this you know that play. The outcome of that sequence was not in Gabby Marshalls hand.

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The ref made that call. Yeah. Gabby made the play and you can disagree or agree

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With whatever perceived flailing there may have been, or maybe it was just a good solid hit. But she has received death threats, she had to remove herself from social media, because people were saying the nastiest things to her about a basketball game, and a play in which she could not control the reaction of the ref. If it's a good screen

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that play doesn't get called.

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But she did extend her elbow in her arm just a tad enough for the ref to make the call. And I agreed, whether it's a screen a moving screen or illegal screen or traveled three seconds. If it's an illegal play, in minute two, it's an illegal play with two minutes or two seconds left. And I do get the idea of you want to allow the players to decide the game. But in that moment, Alia took it out of the player's hands and put it in the referees hands. So if anything, not that Alia would deserve any condemnation, and she hasn't gotten any and nor should she. But if anything, the mistake was on a Leah's part, because had she not done that that still would have been a really solid screen gotten paged the look that she needs and who knows what would have happened. So I just really disagree with the fact that people have been coming at Gabby Marshall for trying to make a basketball play coming off the screen, she gets popped.

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I'm not sure that she was flailing on that there was a Leah's a big girl. She got stuck and she got stuck pretty good. And the referee called it and that's that. Look, here's the way I see it. Okay.

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Gabby did what she could for the play a Lea it again, it's basketball things happened. Leah tried to set a screen or elbow move just a little bit. There's pressure, you're gonna move just a tad illegal screen, whatever. Cool. It's a basketball game at the end of the day. And we've talked about this on the show a little bit before with Utah.

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And with other situations in the past, at the end of the day, it's just a game and you want to win a championship you want to be in a position to win a championship but it's just a game all the one important one but but it is important games, but it's a game. Yes. It's a sport. Like it's not the end of the world, right? These people are specially for spectators and people watching like you don't know them. You're not invested in it. Right? They don't care about your parlays they don't care about what you think of the game. The officials don't care about what you think of their car. Right? They don't care. So to the death threats are are just too far in the harsh comments and having to remove herself from social media. It's too far. Yeah. And to say, you know, I've heard arguments even from some WNBA NBA players that it was the right call at the wrong time. Like I don't understand that logic. If it's the right call, it's the right call. So I just don't agree with these. It's the right call at the wrong the wrong time ethos. The official made the call that was there to be made because an illegal screen was set. And Alia is a big girl. Gabby, Gabby's not so big. And so even the flailing or the reaction that Gabby Marshall had in that play, I think was just trying to stay on her feet. Yeah, at the end. I mean, Alia was moving and Gabby was moving in the other direction he is bigger It's physics. Gabby is going to take the brunt of the force right

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so that's that's what we have to say on that. Um, there was also some outside controversy from this game, Diana Taurasi former UConn Husky

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Sue bird people were talking a little bit

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some not so accurate things to say. And I'm gonna let you lead this one off really unfortunate because I am a huge Diana Taurasi fan. She is a baller she has been since her college days.

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You know, she is generally she knows more about basketball than most people will know she's forgotten more about basketball than most people will ever learn.

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She's a savant and a wonderful individual. But here, I think she was woefully wrong.

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You know, kind of going at him she would probably say that she wasn't necessarily going at Caitlyn.

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I don't know if it's her allegiance to UConn, which led to these remarks. But suggesting intimating because now we're kind of moving on a little bit to the Caitlyn side of this intimating that there are levels to this in basketball and Caitlin is going to find out when she

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enters the WNBA that she's not playing against, I believe she said 18 year old girls anymore that she's playing

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against grown women who have mortgages and who have kids and so on and so forth. And the My only pushback to that, or my fervent pushback to that would be everybody that came into that league went through that process. Everybody that has played in the WNBA has gone through, quote, unquote, the transition. And they're not all great players. There are people in the WNBA that sit on the bench, there are people in the WNBA, they get cut, as well. It should be happens in the NBA as well, or any sport for that matter.

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There are people in the WNBA, who don't get a lot of playing time. There are people in the WNBA, who were not all star caliber players.

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And for a woman who, at the time, a young lady who was on a team, a college team that was stacked, and I mean stacked yet to cast aspersions on Caitlin Clark because she feels like halen is

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either abusing or taking advantage of or not appreciating the fact that she's playing 18 year old girls. And not in some of them are 19 some are 20. Some are 21 or 22.

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That she's playing younger women and not these these older women that are in the WNBA and that somehow that's going to be this demonstrable difference between Caitlyn Clark's college career and her effectiveness in college and then Caitlin's potential WNBA it's not in fact, you know, for those who are uninitiated, although her scoring is prolific, it has been legendary and has captured the attention of a lot of folks out there a lot of fans, young girls and boys who want to shoot like Caitlin who wanted to shoot like staph.

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Although that is a part of her kung fu as I would call it.

Unknown Speaker 22:02
Caitlyn is most dangerous as a playmaker. Caitlyn doesn't play with any five star players in college the way that Diana Taurasi did. In fact, I don't know if Diana Taurasi looking at her college game as I have I don't know if she could have taken a team of three and one four star players to two back to back NCAA championship nobody else in the history of women's I do not believe so. I know Diana couldn't have done it. No, I don't think Sue bird could have done it could have done a shout out to super love her too. But in Super didn't say this. So I don't want to conflate you know, the the the comments of these two women, these two outstanding women and legends in their own right.

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But I'm a little bit and I think LeBron referenced this as well. I'm a little bit taken aback by people coming at Kaitlyn for something that she cannot control. She played the game that was in front of her she played it well. She played it at a high level. She played it at a level that most people can only dream up including most of the WNBA currently. Yep.

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And she is a tremendous playmaker. And when she's got if she goes to the Indiana Fever when she's got Kelty Mitchell to pass the ball to when she's got Aliyah Boston to pass the ball to. I mean, Alia has been in the league one year. She Alia made the transition. She made it just fine. Yep, a former player of the year all star what makes Diana think Caitlin's not going to make that transition. She's not going to need to go for 32 points a game when she's in the WNBA playing with, you know another player who's on the top five in scoring in the history of women's NCAA, NCAA division one college so I just again I take umbrage at you know, the the comments expressed by Diana and others go into Caitlin's head Caitlyn is a phenomenal basketball player, and you ain't seen nothing yet. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 23:57
I'll keep this short and simple about the so called transition to the WNBA. This is not the NBA we are talking about. Now. These women are great at basketball. But the men in the basketball transitioning from college to the NBA. It's almost a completely different sport, right men take a lot more time to adjust. You don't see rookies making all star teams, Aliyah Boston was an all star last year Asia Wilson won the MVP in her second year in the WNBA Candice Parker won the MVP in her first year in the WNBA. People do not take a lot of time to transition in the WNBA. Now you can get better as a player over your time in the WNBA. But the transition is not something that people have historically had a lot of trouble with Diana Taurasi herself did not have that much trouble with the WNBA. In fact, her scoring went up after she left, right and right into the Phoenix Mercury here scoring up. Lauren Jackson won the MVP in her second year in the WNBA. Sue bird was the assists champion and a champion in the WNBA four times in her career. Early in her career, she was a champion, Lauren Jackson.

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Most people do not take a lot of time to adjust to the WNBA game because quite frankly, there's not that much of a difference. You don't see people you don't see women growing from, okay. 511, six foot to six, five, right between the ages of 18 and 22 Girls finished growing earlier than men than boys do. You can see an NBA player come into the league as six, six and end up six, nine. We saw it with Andrew Wiggins, we saw it with Paul George Gordon Hayward. It happens people grow in the NBA. There are grown men, they're physical, a lot more physical than college players. What

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WNBA players it's a very similar game, same quarterly, same type of bodies that you will see there are some bigger people because they're the best players of the best right? And not all of the college players are the best of the best. But Caitlyn was the best of the best of the best of the best yes for years. For years. She led the nation in scoring and assists in her first year when she was one of those 18 year old girls playing against girls who were older than her and probably should have been the Player of the Year in her freshman year exactly her sophomore year, she probably should have won it but you can make the argument for Alia.

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That year, Caitlin had an outstanding year but she kind of got bounced in the second round. So we'll take that one. Junior year national championship game carried the Iowa team all the way won all three awards senior year, same thing, National Championship game one all of the awards led the nation in scoring Anicet first player to ever lead the nation in scoring, and make the national championship. And here's the thing, you know, going back to this and you're you're referencing the same point, Diana played alongside women who are currently or were in the NBA WNBA when she was in college, like that whole starting lineup and a couple of the bench players right up in the WNBA. That is not the case with Caitlin Clark. Maybe Maybe Hannah Stokey will make it maybe. But other than that Caitlyn hasn't really played with anyone who is going to end up in the WNBA. These women are going off to be doctors and lawyers and engineers and they have this wonderful college experience. But they're not WNBA caliber players to take that group of individuals to two back to back, NCAA championships is unheard of. And I would like Dan and Diana Taurasi to point out another basketball player coming out of college who did something similar in you know, I just want them on this. This issue, I think I think it was one that Wallace Woodard, who had a had a scoring record prior to Caitlin's and came out and said, Well, you know, she doesn't think that Caitlin really broke her record because

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there were no three point baskets when she did it. And because of that, you know, Caitlin, Caitlin's record is somehow diminished. And I know we've got to go here, but I will just say this. There were also no players across from you on that basketball, like Caitlin is facing today know the amount of the level of competition that Lynette Woodard and shout out to Lynette Woodard in her record the level of competition that she had to face pales in comparison to what Caitlin Clark had to face in her pursuit of this record. And if you take that Lynette Woodard and put her in present day basketball situations with these young ladies. She's a better player. There's no way in in Hades that she gets anywhere close to the record, nobody said and you know, as she said, No three point line, whatever you play the game you play. You play the game you played correct. And Pete Maravich had the record without a three point line. And, you know, Kareem Abdul Jabbar broke the NBA scoring record and he made one one or two threes in his entire career. There are people who break scoring records without shooting three pointers. So to not have a three point line doesn't make that much of a difference. I mean, yes, Caitlin was able to utilize the three pointer to her benefit, but the game changed. I promise you Lynette Woodard would not have shot 1516 threes in a game back then, in an era where the three point line was not thought of as a super high value very not even made some of the super elite teams in college division in Division One NCAA Women's I mean, it's a different game, different generation. It's completely different. All right. Well, that's all the time we have for today. Thank you, everybody, for tuning for tuning in. You can catch last week's episode on Apple podcast Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. Same with this one. And we hope to see you all next week. Here on sports prep live. I'm grading Prescott and as always have a fantastic day everyone.

Unknown Speaker 29:43
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of sports prep live. I'm grading Prescott and don't forget to catch all of our episodes on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast and be sure to follow us on Instagram or Twitter at sports rep law. Thank you

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