UConn's Geno Auriemma Talks Not Recruiting Caitlin Clark, Potential Bueckers Pairing

Iowa star Caitlin Clark and UConn star Paige Bueckers will face each other in a highly anticipated Final Four showdown on Friday, but they could have shared a backcourt if Geno Auriemma recruited the former as well.

Carl Adamec of CT Insider relayed comments from the Huskies head coach when he was asked about his program not pursuing Clark, and he pointed to the decision to commit to Bueckers early in the process.

"Well, there's a lot of kids we didn't recruit and there's a lot of kids who don't want to go to UConn," Auriemma said Tuesday. "I committed to Paige Bueckers very, very early and it would have been silly for me to say to Paige, 'Hey listen, we're going to put you in the backcourt and then I'm going to try really hard to recruit Caitlin Clark.' I don't do it that way.

"Caitlin is obviously a tremendous player, a generational player. But if Caitlin really wanted to come to UConn she would have called me and said, 'Coach I really want to come to UConn.' Neither of us lost out. She made the best decision for her and it's worked out great. We made the decision we thought we needed to make."

While Auriemma seemed to deflect the blame by saying Clark could have reached out, Wright Thompson of ESPN noted the Iowa guard's dream school growing up was UConn.

"Honestly, it was more I wanted them to recruit me to say I got recruited," she said. "I loved UConn. I think they're the coolest place on Earth, and I wanted to say I got recruited by them. They called my AAU coach a few times, but they never talked to my family and never talked to me."

Yet, as Adamec noted, the Huskies didn't exactly have endless openings at the guard position.

In addition to Bueckers, they recruited Hailey Van Lith and Azzi Fudd around the same time. While Van Lith chose Louisville and eventually transferred to LSU, Fudd ended up joining the Huskies to play alongside Bueckers.

"I get asked these questions all the time by our own fans," Auriemma said. "I get, 'How come that kid's not at Connecticut?' Let's say we get Paige, Caitlin Clark, JuJu (Watkins), Kamilla Cardoso, (Milaysia) Fulwiley, and that's our starting five. Who the hell would we play against? You know what I mean?"

Bueckers wasted no time establishing herself as a star as the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award winner as a freshman.

However, she missed the 2022-23 season with a torn ACL and played just 17 games over the two campaigns following her breakout freshman one. Clark has now become the face of the sport and the primary headline going into the Final Four.

The Iowa guard won the Naismith Award for the second straight season after leading the country in points (32.0) and assists (9.0) per game. She passed Kelsey Plum and then Pete Maravich to become the leading scorer in the history of Division I basketball and is known for launching three-pointers from well beyond the arc and taking over games.

To her credit, Bueckers has returned to preinjury form and was a finalist for the Naismith Award.

Their individual matchup will be the biggest draw of Friday's game, and the winner could get the chance to go up against undefeated South Carolina for the national title.