It’s Caitlin Clark vs. Paige Bueckers, and it’s as big as a women’s Final Four game can be

CLEVELAND — Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder had a polite request for the horde of media assembled to meet with her and college basketball’s biggest star.

“I do not want this to be a game that’s promoted as Caitlin versus Paige, and I know it already has been, but I don’t want that,” Bluder said. “I want it to be Iowa versus UConn, and let these two women do what they do best.”

But for all Bluder’s Midwestern politeness at a podium, she knows it’s a hopeless request. It’s Caitlin Clark vs. Paige Bueckers, as marquee a matchup of individuals as there’s ever been in women’s college hoops. And there’s no stopping the hype.

“People should have been talking about women’s basketball for a long time now, and they finally are,” Bluder said ahead of Friday night’s showdown (9:30 p.m., ESPN). “And maybe it just took some superstars — like Paige and Angel [Reese of LSU] and Caitlin — in order for everybody else to understand how good our game was.”

UConn coach Geno Auriemma had even less hesitation.

“It’s a star-driven society that we live in,” said Auriemma, who was born in Italy and raised in Norristown. “It’s a celebrity driven, star-driven, influencer-driven world that’s been created.”

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If the point needed any further making, it happened during Iowa’s news conference on Thursday. It’s long been NCAA tradition to have “questions for the student-athletes first.” They’re then excused, and the coach stays.

When Clark and Kate Martin departed, a huge swath of that media horde left the room. For a sport where coaches have long been the biggest personalities, it felt symbolic that now the players command the spotlight.

“I think that’s the way it should be,” Bluder said. “I mean, they’re the ones out there doing the hard work. They’re the ones out there trying to be mentally focused and doing unbelievable things.”

And Martin, before she headed off, showed she appreciated the moment.

“It’s just super cool to be a part of,” she said. “We’re not taking anything for granted when it comes to that. I think it’s hard, when you’re in the moment, to really recognize and realize what is happening. But it shows with our viewership versus LSU: 12.3 million.”

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Auriemma is no stranger to big games or to women’s basketball stars. UConn’s games against Tennessee back in the day were appointment viewing, even for casual fans. But the rest of the sport wasn’t yet.

“We would get 16,000 people for every one of our games, because we had Diana [Taurasi],” he said. “And everybody said, ‘Yeah, you know, she’s the only player I like to watch because she plays like a guy.’ Like that was the validation that you needed to have, in order for anyone to appreciate who you are, what your talents are, what you bring as an athlete — forget as a woman, or as a man.”

The last few years have shattered the old norms, headlined by that Iowa-LSU game.

“Now, because of what some of these kids have done, they’ve created a fan base of women’s basketball,” Auriemma said. “They’ll watch a great women’s game, regardless of whether they have a rooting interest or not in the game. They will go to the game not just because it’s their team playing.”

It is, he added, “a moment, like people are saying, but it’s more than a moment. Sometimes moments become minutes, and minutes become hours, and hours become days, and it becomes part of the national pastime.”

The Clark-Bueckers dynamic is further fortified by how long they’ve known each other: since middle school, when the Iowa-born Clark and the Minnesota-born Bueckers crossed paths in AAU ball.

“The way she carries herself on and off the court, the way she works hard, none of that has changed since I’ve known her,” Clark said. “She’s always had that fire. She’s always been a great leader.”

They’ve played against each other once before as collegians, in the Sweet 16 of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. It was a totally different time, and not just because Clark wasn’t a star yet as a freshman. The game was played during the pandemic, which meant a totally different vibe at San Antonio’s Alamodome.

“Honestly that game is super blurry — it feels like forever ago,” Clark said. “I was looking back, and I saw some old footage of that game, and we both look really, really young. So it’s cool to see kind of how our careers have evolved and a lot of different players on both teams.”

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She did her part, too, to try to play down the one-on-one matchup. But she was as unsuccessful as Bluder and as unsurprised.

“I really, honestly, couldn’t be happier for her and the year that she’s had and the way she’s led this team back to the Final Four, when they’ve kind of been dealt a tough hand as a program,” Clark said, referring to UConn missing five players because of major injuries. “And they never made excuses. To me I think that’s something you know, you just really admire as a competitor more than anything.”

Bueckers seemed to remember the game a bit better than Clark did.

“I think,” she said to Auriemma, seated in the next chair, “that’s the game I slapped you on your butt.”

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Auriemma pursed his lips as if he was tasting oregano on a zep. But he’s happy to let his players roast him, and he didn’t deny the charge.

“Yeah,” Bueckers said, “so that was a fun game.”

Then it was on to her view of Clark.

“The biggest thing about her is she competes, and she’s just a winner. She wants to win at all costs,” Bueckers said. “I’m excited; it’s great for the game. And to be at this level on this high of stakes, to see where we were in AAU competing against each other, it’s just really cool to see.”