Geno Auriemma shares sobering stance about Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers star power

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma shared a worrying outlook on the future of women’s basketball, claiming that Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers need help to grow the sport

Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers may be generational talents, but UConn head coach Geno Auriemma doesn’t believe the pair of stars can carry women’s basketball to new heights all by themselves.

After dominating over four years at the collegiate level with Iowa, Clark picked up right where she left off in the WNBA, taking home the league’s Rookie of the Year award and placing fourth in the MVP rankings with 130 points.

Her record-shattering performances night-in and night-out drew thousands of new fans to women’s basketball, with the News & Observer reporting the Indiana Fever shattered the single-season record for average attendance (17,036) and total attendance (340,715), while also breaking a multitude of records in regards to television ratings and merchandise sales.

Bueckers, meanwhile, actively stands as one of the biggest names in college sports on the heels of being named a 2024 WBCA, AP, and USBWA First Team All-American. She and the No. 2 seed Huskies begin the 2024-25 campaign as one of the favorites to win a National Championship in March, trailing only South Carolina in the nation’s rankings.

Though few would question Clark and Bueckers’ brilliance on the court, Auriemma conceded that women’s basketball would need to develop more star power in order to continue growing as a sport. “Where are we going next?” he asked on the ‘Make a Difference With Phil Martelli’ podcast.

“If we think that one kid, one Caitlin Clark, is going to be enough to take this where it needs to go, it’s not. Or one Paige Bueckers, it’s not.

Auriemma is no stranger to molding young talent, having won 11 NCAA national championships and eight Naismith National Coach of the Year Awards over a 40-year career. Looking towards the future of women’s basketball, the decorated coach argued that developing the next wave of players would be key to the success of the sport.
What [Clark and Auriemma] do is they show you the way. They show you what’s possible,” he said. “And then the people that run the operation have to capitalize on it, and then the younger generation, the high school people, have to prepare these kids so that when they get to college, we have something good to work with.And then we send them up to the WNBA and then they have something good to work with. And it just keeps on growing and growing and growing. So it still comes back to those of us that are in charge of the game. Are we making the game better every day? Are we making our players better every day?”

Fortunately for the WNBA, women’s basketball appears to be in good hands for the foreseeable future. Collegiate stars such as JuJu Watkins, Kiki Iriafen, Audi Crooks, and Flau’jae Johnson are each expected to turn pro in the coming years, while Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, and Kamilla Cardoso all shined in their first taste of professional action.