DC86 makes good points. My impressions of Bueckers were influenced by the fact that she wilted a bit in the tournament, and that McDonald outplayed her head-to-head--most especially on defense. Taken as a season, though, Bueckers did have better offensive stats than McDonald--perhaps because Stanford played Arizona three times and never played UConn! That helps to illustrate the point that McDonald played in a MUCH more challenging conference than Bueckers, which (as DC indirectly alludes to) means that statistics are probably not a great way to make comparisons.
Despite Bueckers running the gamut of awards, I will remain a slight skeptic. I guess I could say that about all awards, which seem to be based in part on hype and visibility, as Stanford has discovered painfully all too often--usually in football. Fans, journalists, and even coaches will vote for the great player they know well over the great player they know less well. And being at UConn means you will be known well. Iowa or Arizona, not so much.
And I also thought of that other freshman, Caitlin Clark. She led the nation in scoring and was 2nd in assists per game--both significantly better than Bueckers. I think we will eventually have to play against each of them. Would be fun to see how Tara would defend them.
By the way, were there no memorable seasons for women athletes in all the other sports that were comparable to Bueckers' in basketball? If Macario and Plummer had not left I could have cited either of them, of course--but surely there must be comparable players out there in non-revenue sports who had similarly phenomenal seasons.
https://www.espn.com/womens-college-bask...layer-year
Despite Bueckers running the gamut of awards, I will remain a slight skeptic. I guess I could say that about all awards, which seem to be based in part on hype and visibility, as Stanford has discovered painfully all too often--usually in football. Fans, journalists, and even coaches will vote for the great player they know well over the great player they know less well. And being at UConn means you will be known well. Iowa or Arizona, not so much.
And I also thought of that other freshman, Caitlin Clark. She led the nation in scoring and was 2nd in assists per game--both significantly better than Bueckers. I think we will eventually have to play against each of them. Would be fun to see how Tara would defend them.
By the way, were there no memorable seasons for women athletes in all the other sports that were comparable to Bueckers' in basketball? If Macario and Plummer had not left I could have cited either of them, of course--but surely there must be comparable players out there in non-revenue sports who had similarly phenomenal seasons.
https://www.espn.com/womens-college-bask...layer-year