Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark has taken the sports world by storm with her impressive play throughout her collegiate career. But it has also seemingly painted a target on her back. And one head coach in particular appears dead set on “taking out” Clark in the upcoming Women’s NCAA Tournament.
The Hawkeyes were seeded as a No. 1 seed in the upcoming tournament, where they will face the winner of a play-in game between No. 16 seeds UT Martin and Holy Cross.
Either opponent should be a walk-over game for Clark and Iowa. But the real competition for them may start in the second round, where they would play the winner of No. 8 seed West Virginia and No. 9 seed Princeton.
This potential matchup seems to have fired up West Virginia Women’s basketball head coach Mark Kellogg, who used the upcoming game against Iowa and Clark as a bit of fuel for his team.
In a message to his players, Kellogg told his team to “win one ” against Princeton first and then “send Caitlin Clark packing.”
@CoachKellogg12 with a message for the crowd after @WVUWBB’s seeding announcement:
“I told them, win one and let’s send Caitlin Clark packing.”
👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/VbqL5WlZOs
— Luke Blain (@LukeDBlain) March 18, 2024
Caitlin Clark isn’t a player who needs much bulletin board material to hype herself up for any game. But now that there is some from Kellogg, expect for her to be at her best if West Virginia does indeed go on to reach the Round of 32.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.