WNBA thread… 28.5 ain’t your pay cut

She is. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. (It didn't always work in college either.)

 

Long before Caitlin Clark invented women's basketball, there was this amazing college player with a similar skill set named Jackie Stiles. She was so good she carried SW Missouri State to damn final four in 2001 I believe. I think she shot close to 50 percent from 3-pointers as a senior, averaged 33-35 points or something ridiculous.

I'm curious of her thoughts on all this because she was kind of the prototype. Launched a bunch of threes. Was the talk of the women's game that year. It's just bad luck she wasn't doing it during the hot-take era of TV sports talk where they could have analyzed everything about her. I know she was WNBA Rookie of the Year and then had a bunch of injuries. I don't know if it was because she wasn't big enough to deal with the rough nature of the game (she was like 5-7, 140 pounds) or if her back just gave out from carrying SW Missouri State for a few seasons.

 

Could stretch it back to five games during which she's shot 23-for-56 (41 percent) including performances of 2-9, 3-12 and 5-17, but if she scored two more points in that first game her streak would be five doubles doubles.

 

Ionescu was a champion flopper in college, if you came anywhere near her on a shot she was on her back in a heartbeat. The refs buy it, she gets and makes the ensuing free throws.

 

I think a better Jackie Stiles comparison is Becky Hammon, who obviously had a great WNBA career. They played each other in the second round of the 1999 NCAA tournament too. Hammon is smaller and lasted in the WNBA, so who knows on the size/physicality thing. Hammon had a complete game too, could drive, playmaker, etc. I honestly don't totally remember if Stiles had all that, although I know she was a very good player.

Overall probably a different era. Clark is also bigger and I think eventually will bring an overall better game.

 

Stiles had a complete game. She just broke down physically.

 

Story is from this past college season and not the WNBA impact, but has several quotes from Stiles about Clark and her impact on the women's game:

https://www.news-leader.com/story/s...uri-state-kelsey-plum-recruiting/72272083007/

I've heard in the past theories that the injuries that derailed Stiles' career were not so much about the physical nature of the WNBA, but were basically self-inflicted. That when she would feel soreness/fatigue/pain, instead of listening to her body, she would be determined to fight through it, which led to bad things snowballing on her. And I'm sure her physical frame didn't do her any favors in the big scheme of things.

 

For good or bad, in today's basketball culture it would be much more notable if Clark didn't flop and whine at the officials.

 

At some point we'll have more than one or two posts about an actual game, if anybody ever watches one. So far I haven't, despite getting inundated with WNBA news on my homepage (Microsoft edge) every hour of the day.

 

Some rookies would love to shoot 41%.

 

Enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing.

 

I hadn't heard of her before her mention in this thread, but yeah - That's a great stat line for a rookie. She played 21 games in her second year, and then basically didn't play in the WNBA again, I'm assuming because of pretty bad injuries.