Top 15 best-looking NFL players as of 2023: cute football players

Iowa's Caitlin Clark And UConn's Paige Bueckers Sharing The Women's Basketball Spotlight, Will Meet In Final Four

The two former Naismith Player of the Year recipients will face off on Friday, a rematch from the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

Iowa guard Caitlin Clark shoots the ball during a day of press conferences, open locker rooms, and open practices ahead of an NCAA Tournament Final Four game between No. 1 Iowa and No. 3 UConn at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday, April 4, 2024. The Hawkeyes and the Huskies face off Friday at 8:30 p.M. CT.

CLEVELAND — The first time UConn's Paige Bueckers matched up against Iowa's Caitlin Clark, the two faced off in an old dusty middle school gym for an AAU basketball game in front of a small crowd of friends and family.

Nearly a decade later, the two Naismith Player of the Year recipients will be playing in front of a sold-out crowd at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse — home of the Cleveland Cavilers. In arguably one of the biggest women's basketball games ever, No. 1 Iowa will take on No. 3 UConn in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

"We've known each other for a very long time," Bueckers said at a Thursday press conference. "Caitlin gets better each and every year, but she's kind of been doing that since our AAU days." 

Friday night's matchup will be a rematch from the Sweet 16 in 2021, where UConn beat Iowa 92-72 on its way to a record 12th appearance in the national championship.

Bueckers finished that game with 18 points, nine assists, and eight steals, and the Huskies had three other starters score over 15 points, with current Phoenix Mercury guard Christyn Williams leading UConn with 27 points. 

During the 2021 matchup, Bueckers and UConn held Clark to her tournament-low 21 points on 33 percent shooting from the field. 

"That game seems like forever ago, and I was looking back at some old game footage, and we both look really young," Clark said. "It's cool to see kind of how our careers have evolved." 

Much has changed since the last time Bueckers and Clark faced off. First, Friday's crowd won't have to be limited due to COVID-19 restrictions, which made it so the 2021 tournament was played in a 'bubble' style of format, meaning players had to quarantine and had limited interactions with the outside world.

Second, the tables have turned for Clark and Bueckers.

After her freshman season in 2021,  Bueckers was branded as the future of women's basketball due to her exceptional scoring ability from all three levels and being both a facilitator and a playmaker with the ball. 

Does this sound familiar to any Iowa fans?

After playing just 17 games her sophomore season due to a knee injury, Bueckers tore her ACL in a pickup game in August 2022, causing her to miss the entirety of her junior season as the Huskies failed to advance to the Elite Eight of the tournament for the first time in over a decade. 

In her absence, Clark exploded on the scene, quickly becoming the face of women's basketball by shattering scoring records and taking Iowa all the way to its first national championship appearance in program history. Clark is the NCAA's all-time leading scorer, men's or women's. 

Bueckers said she realized she was the "media darling" during her freshman year but said she doesn't hold any grudges now that much of the spotlight has shifted toward Clark.

"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 to now, it's just cool to see," Bueckers said. 

While much of the mainstream media has been touting this game as Paige vs. Caitlin, head coach Lisa Bluder said she doesn't like this sentiment and that it should be strictly Iowa vs. UConn. 

"Let these two women do what they do best," Bluder said. 

"If that was the case, then we would all sit down, and it would be one vs. One, and no one really wants to see that," associate head coach Jan Jensen added. "If you're gonna get all caught up on Paige vs. Caitlin hoopla, you'll lose out on this moment." 

A Look At UConn Women's Basketball History Vs. Iowa

Paige Bueckers vs. Caitlin Clark. UConn vs. Iowa.

It's going to be a blockbuster showdown in the Final Four on Friday night, as the Huskies and Hawkeyes get set to face each other for the third time in the last four years and tenth time overall.

It's the type of matchup basketball fans everywhere be salivating over. Here's a look at the past matchups between Bueckers' Huskies and Clark's Hawkeyes:

March 27, 2021: UConn 92, Iowa 72

Christyn Williams led all scorers with 27 points, the freshman duo of Paige Bueckers and Aaliyah Edwards each added 18, and top-seeded UConn knocked out No. 5 Iowa, 92-72, in the Sweet 16 in the River Walk Regional in San Antonio, Texas. Clark, who was also a freshman at the time, scored 21 points and added five assists for the Hawkeyes.

UConn shot 54 percent from the field and 10-for-23 from 3-point range, and led throughout. They also got 17 points from Evina Westbrook. McKenna Warnock added 20 for Iowa, but the Hawkeyes couldn't keep pace with the Huskies. UConn moved to 27-1 on the season and would reach the Final Four for the 21st time in program history, but were upended in the national semifinals by Arizona.

Nov. 27, 2022- UConn 86, Iowa 79

With Paige Bueckers out, Aaliyah Edwards and Azzi Fudd led the way as the Huskies downed the Hawykeyes again, this time in the championship game of the Phil Knight Legacy tournament in Portland, Ore. Fudd finished with 24 points on 10 of 19 shooting while Edwards added 20 and 13 rebounds. Caroline Ducharme also chipped in with 15 points off the bench for the Huskies.

Clark scored 25 in this game, but shot just 2 of 11 from 3-point range and 9 of 24 from the field. Kate Martin added 20 for the Hawkeyes, who used a 27-15 blitz in the second quarter to take a 41-35 lead into halftime. UConn responded though, as Geno Auriemma's teams almost always do, with a 26-16 edge in the third quarter and closed out a seven-point win late.

'They're All Better Than They Were Last Year:'…

After their 2019-20 season was abruptly cut short with the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament, it's been an offseason full of upheaval and uncertainty for the returning players to the UConn women's basketball team. With stay-at-home orders in place due to to the coronavirus pandemic, it hasn't been easy for the players to get into the gym, and their return to campus for summer workouts was delayed nearly two months. But even through all that disruption, the Huskies' four returners — setting aside Evina Westbrook, who while technically a returner, did not play last season — still found ways to get better.

Aubrey Griffin played against her brothers. Christyn Williams got in better shape. Olivia Nelson-Ododa worked on her strength and post moves. Anna Makurat trained with the Polish national team and physically transformed herself as well.

Who knows when college basketball will return? But UConn coach Geno Auriemma is already eager to see how his returners build upon their offseason progress for a team that will rely upon every one of them to elevate their play next season.

"They're all better than they were last year," Auriemma told media after the team had been on campus for only two weeks. "Anna's completely different. She looks like a completely different person, completely different player. Aubrey's, like, 100 times better than she was last year. Christyn looks completely different. Liv has a completely different mindset."

After graduating five seniors and losing Megan Walker to the WNBA, the Huskies have no seniors and six freshmen. Thus the team's success next season undoubtedly depends on how well those four experienced returners, plus Westbrook, make the jump and play at a high level consistently.

"You go from freshman, sophomore year — where you're playing but you're really not a focal point of the team but you know you're important — to now all of a sudden everybody's looking at you going like, 'Liv, Christyn, Evina, Anna, Aubrey, if you guys aren't really, really good this year, we're going to stink,'" Auriemma said. "So there's this sense [among the returners] of, 'It's my time.'

"And they're embracing it. I love it."

UConn's Christyn Williams, disappointed in her play as a sophomore, returns in better shape, saying she feels quicker and more confident.

Christyn Williams

Williams, UConn's top returning scorer (14.6 points per game), found her quarantine time back home in Little Rock, Ark., as a "blessing in disguise," not just because she was able to get her body where she wanted it to be, but because she could also mentally reset after a disappointing sophomore campaign.

"Looking back on last year, my confidence level went down the drain," Williams said. "Freshman year, I was very confident. Sophomore year, it was just not good consistently, and that's not good."

Williams shot 45.7 percent for the season (33.3 percent from beyond the arc) but went through a particularly bad shooting slump in January and February and disappeared in big games against Oregon and South Carolina.

The Christyn Williams of 2019-20 is gone, she insists. In fact, she is looking at this season as "a brand new slate."

Williams returned to Storrs last month with renewed confidence and looking better than ever on the court. The junior focused on improving her diet and says she lost some weight, making a noticeable difference for her game.

"I've noticed I'm quicker. I'm more explosive," Williams said. "I haven't felt this explosive since high school. I've been working hard, and I'm excited for you all to see. It's about damn time!"

"Christyn just looks like she's a great athlete now, instead of just a high school kid," Auriemma said. "She looks like a college player now. And there's an intensity level about her that's more consistent. Her confidence is really sky high."

Olivia Nelson-Ododa

Fellow junior Nelson-Ododa also found the time at home in Winder, Ga., to reset. Though she tweaked an ankle during workouts in Storrs and sat out a bit to heal up, the work she's put in over the offseason has still been apparent to Auriemma.

The 6-foot-5 center averaged 10.9 points and 8.5 rebounds as a sophomore, her first year as a full-time starter, and turned a corner both in mindset and on-court performance after the team's loss to Oregon. Though freshman Piath Gabriel (also 6-5) provides another option for the Huskies down low, Nelson-Ododa will still be looked upon to dominate the paint on a team with few true posts.

"[I've been] working on strength and then continuing to work on post moves and just more offensive-based stuff," Nelson-Ododa said. "Just to carry on over with defense, too, continue to work on getting quicker and working on my physical self right now and then incorporating more offensive-based stuff has been the main goal."

Nelson-Ododa is also thrilled to get to work a full season with Jamelle Elliott, who served as an interim assistant since February and took over the role officially on July 1.

"She's an amazing coach," the junior said. "Her being included in the staff since February, in practices, it's just a noticeable difference with the energy and the knowledge that she brings. I'm super excited to continue working with her this season."

Aubrey Griffin

Back home in Ossining, N.Y., Griffin was able to play regularly against her brothers — Alan (who recently transferred to Syracuse after two years at Illinois) and Adrian Jr. (a Duke commit) — whom she credited for making her tougher.

"They don't care; they go as hard as if they were playing against a guy," Griffin said. "They still dunk on me and stuff. They don't take it easy."

The main focuses for Griffin, who shined on defense and when crashing the boards last season, have been improving her offensive game and becoming more comfortable shooting. As a freshman, Griffin was named to the All-AAC Tournament team after averaging 9.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals. Now, she and fellow sophomore Makurat are two of the more experienced players on the roster.

"She just looks more mature and conducts herself in a way like, 'I've been here,'" Auriemma said. "She's actually showing some drills to the younger kids."

Anna Makurat

Unlike the others, Makurat was able to find some meaningful court time by training with the Polish national team for three weeks this summer. But her primary offseason goal was to get in better shape. In working with a nutritionist, Makurat was able to drop nearly nine pounds of body fat and gain over four pounds of muscle mass, she described on Instagram.

"I didn't feel great last season, so I think [being out of shape] pushed me down a little bit," said Makurat, who averaged 7.9 points on 42.9 percent shooting (41 percent on 3s) as a freshman. "I was thinking about being tired, not only about basketball and executing stuff on the court. So I think being in better shape will really help me with focusing on the little things on the court and be a better basketball player."

The sophomore says she's already feeling more comfortable, strong and energetic on the court, which, coupled with her budding confidence playing in the Huskies' system, has both her and Auriemma excited.

"Her conditioning level is a complete 180 from last year," Auriemma said. "She's so confident and her quickness and just everything."

Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.Com.

---