Iowa can make life easier for Caitlin Clark
Iowa barely scraped by the hard-nosed West Virginia defense in the second round. There's more they can do to help their star.
Iowa needed a barrage of late free throws to slip past West Virginia in the second round of March Madness. It was an early scare for a team that, thanks to Caitlin Clark, has the attention of the nation.
WVU is a tough, physical team that handled Clark about as well as she can be handled. As most teams do, they face-guarded her everywhere, denying her the ball at every opportunity.
Two things stand out about WVU’s defensive success against Clark: 1) they were fully prepared for the off-ball screens that Iowa likes to set for her, and 2) they stunted hard at her whenever she had the ball inside the arc, contributing to Clark’s six turnovers.
The result was a relatively tame effort, by her impossible standards: 32 points on 8-for-22 from the field, three assists, six turnovers. (She scored half of Iowa’s points in a down game!) She hit five threes, four of which were extremely tough, deep shots.
Iowa went through stretches where they struggled to get going offensively, including a seven-minute fourth quarter run where they didn’t hit a field goal. Part of that was the struggles of their other best players, Gabbie Marshall and Kate Martin. But there was a disconnectedness to their offense throughout. Clark didn’t have the ball in the spots where she can best impact the game.
The low-hanging fruit for Iowa coach Lisa Bluder is high pick and rolls for Clark. Defenses are petrified of that, because Clark has such deep range that she forces opponents to guard her everywhere.
WVU defended Clark’s pick and rolls the way you’d expect: they put two on the ball, like defenses do against Steph Curry.
Clark responded by slipping perfect pocket passes in between the double team. The play above was a layup for center Hannah Stuelke.
Iowa can tee up 4-on-3 situations all game when teams put two on the ball. Clark has counters for everything. If you drop back, Clark will drive right at you and either score or spray passes to shooters. She’s seen every defense, all geared to stop her.
Take a look at this pass:
Clark rejects Stuelke’s screen, cleanly beating her defender. She notices that WVU’s Lauren Fields is ranging over to help, leaving Kylie Feuerbach open in the corner.
Clark, from a live dribble with a defender on her hip, launches a perfect cross-court pass right into Feuerbach’s shooting pocket. That’s an incredibly advanced read, and it’s why Clark is such a prodigious talent.
But as the game went on, Iowa neglected Clark pick-and-rolls. In fact, they rarely ran much of anything. Their offense sputtered under the weight of Clark isolations on the wing — too easy for the defense to load up help, and advantageous for WVU’s strong wing defenders — and going-nowhere off-ball actions to free Clark.
WVU was on top of everything. Clark would start from the corner and get two screens from teammates, sprinting toward the ball. Whoever guarded Clark (often Kyah Watson or Jordan Harrison) would top-lock her, hanging on her hip and never losing contact, chasing her through the screens.
(A counter to top-locking is back cutting toward the rim, playing the defense’s aggression against them. Iowa tried it once on an after-timeout play, but Clark got blocked at the rim.)
Other times, Clark would set off-ball screens herself, hoping to distract the defense before racing toward the ball. The goal is to use her gravity to free teammates. But Clark didn’t seem very bought into the idea of setting off-ball screens, and the plays weren’t run with much intensity or focus.
Instead, the shot clock would tick down and Iowa would have to scramble. Clark obviously can bail them out, but her teammates struggled to get going all night. Too often, they tried to run offense through Stuelke, who would stand at the elbow looking to distribute. Stuelke struggled to find passes and ended with zero assists and four turnovers.
Iowa’s offense growing lethargic ultimately didn’t hurt them too much. WVU was mostly punchless offensively — they had only one real scoring threat (JJ Quinerly, who battled through a knee injury and fouled out late) and zero three-point shooting. Iowa played a gimmicky triangle-and-two defense for the entire game(!), handing WVU open threes. The Mountaineers shot 9-for-34 (25%) from deep. Clark never had to work hard defensively.
But the tournament will only get tougher for Iowa. They face fifth-seeded Colorado next, and could encounter LSU in the Elite Eight. They have to find a way to score more efficiently in the half-court.
It would help to have Clark bring the ball up more often, making it more difficult for defenses to deny her. Leaning into the pick-and-roll can unlock Clark’s shooting and exceptional passing. Stuelke has to commit to setting good screens — not letting Clark’s defender wiggle around and blow up the play.
If Clark isolates on the wing, Iowa can have a better plan to provide passing outlets. Clark can bully most defenders, but it’s inevitable that she’ll draw multiple bodies at some point. Her teammates have to cut at the right time and set flare screens for shooters. Clark can make any pass.
Most of all, it feels like Clark should tilt a little more in the direction of Luka Doncic than Steph Curry. Clark is a great shooter, but Iowa’s offense isn’t creative enough to generate consistent looks for her running around off the ball. Her teammates aren’t making those passes, and defenses can game-plan for that. But Clark, like Doncic, can shoot from anywhere over any contest and can also get into the paint whenever she wants.
Lean into high ball-screens and let her attack. As amazing of a shooter as she is, her most impressive skill might be her passing. She can solve whatever a defense throws at her. Iowa can insert creativity into those ball-screens — perhaps by adding a back-screener behind Stuelke (i.e. Spain pick-and-roll) or by having one of Iowa’s guards screen for Clark.
They have the talent to score 80 any given night. Their shooters will knock down more of the open looks that Clark generates, and the support players (Martin and Marshall) will hit more than two field goals combined.
The pressure only goes up from here. They face Colorado on Saturday.