Fans have expressed strong reactions to Jay Williams’ failure to recognize the prowess of young basketball prodigy, Caitlin Clark. Williams, a former Duke star, believes it is premature to hail Clark, the star player of the Iowa Hawkeyes, as an exceptional athlete. He argues that she has yet to achieve the ultimate accolade: an NCAA women’s basketball championship.
On Thursday, Clark, Iowa’s standout guard, shattered the all-time NCAA women’s basketball scoring record with an impressive 49-point performance in their 106-89 victory over Michigan. Clark claimed the record by sinking a logo 3-point shot early in the first quarter, surpassing the previous milestone.
Following the game, renowned figures in basketball, such as Tom Brady, Angel Reese, Billie Jean King, and Alex Morgan, along with former rival Andraya Carter, showered praise on her. ESPN/SEC analyst, Andraya Carter, lauded Clark, describing the six-foot player as both a phenomenal athlete and a beloved figure among fans, regardless of whether she is playing at home or away. However, Williams expressed a different opinion:
He continued:
Having surpassed Kelsey Plum’s record, Caitlin Clark now approaches another historic scoring milestone. The Hawkeyes guard is just 99 points away from surpassing Pete Maravich as the all-time leading scorer in both men’s and women’s college basketball.
After Caitlin Clark broke Kelsey Plum’s record to become the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer in women’s basketball, she received congratulations from various notable figures. Andraya Carter praised Clark for her ability to captivate crowds at both home and away games, calling her a great player on “College GameDay.” However, Jay Williams, another analyst on the show, disagreed with Clark’s greatness at this point.
This then sparked a frenzy on social media with the popular social media platform, X (formerly known as Twitter), seeing the most reactions. Here are some of the reactions:
– It’s because she is white, and he doesn’t want to give credit to a white girl.
– Jay Williams is unwilling to acknowledge that Caitlin Clark is exceptional… yet.
– Larry Bird must have been terrible at Indiana State.
– Jay Williams isn’t a champion if he doesn’t have Carlos Boozer and Shane Battier on his team.
– I’m sorry, but if you refuse to acknowledge how special Clark is, then you shouldn’t watch sports or talk about them.
– Let’s be honest. He refuses to say she’s great because she’s white.
– Let’s be honest, Jay, it’s because she’s white. And we all know it.
– Jay is what we call on the streets a HATER. We don’t care what haters say, we know CC is extremely talented and only getting better.
Despite scoring 30 points and dishing out eight assists, Clark and the Hawkeyes narrowly missed winning the national championship last year when they lost to LSU in the title game. Throughout the 2023-24 campaign, they have consistently remained near the top of the AP Top 25 poll. However, after a loss to Nebraska, they slipped two spots from the No. 2 position.
According to the Source firstsportz.com