The Illinois Fighting Illini will face the Vanderbilt Commodores Monday night as both teams hope to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. While speaking to reporters this weekend, the team's head coach Shauna Green told reporters that changes in the Big Ten have had an impact on how the team will be scouting their opponents — but there's a big Big Ten-SEC connection that a lot of people have spotted, but that hasn't been widely discussed.
Green was coaching when Clark was in school at Iowa and busy making history. While discussing how her team will prepare for Vanderbilt's Mikayla Blakes, she referenced that time period — and compared the two powerhouse shooters.
"Obviously they're a very talented team and with just really some — I mean, Blakes is an elite guard," Green said. "I referenced her even with some of the things we talked about with we don't have many that are still left from my first couple years when Caitlin Clark was in our league, but I referenced her
this morning in film with Blakes just because of how and the volume they shoot at and how she'll pull up from really deep in transition and how you just can't let them — they're going to get their shots off, but you got to try to make their life as hard as possible in that 40 minutes."
Shauna Green said what a lot of head coaches have said this season
Green's comments on Blakes' prowess echo those that have been made by coaches in the SEC all season. Blakes, who has absolutely decimated several records so far this season, is among elite company when it comes to... pretty much everything she doeson the court.
That definitely includes Clark. While the two players are different in a lot of ways, they have exactly what Green mentioned in common: unless you can stop them, they will definitely get their shots going. The game can often become about just trying to stop that from happening, which is almost always an impossible task.
Green also had plenty to celebrate about the Big Ten, which she said is just as tough as the SEC. The Big Ten "has a ton of parity" but isn't a "top-heavy" league, as she put it — anyone in the league can beat anyone else, she added. The Big Ten has a lot of talent, she added, and her team will reference the guards they're familiar with as they try to take on a Commodores squad that quite effectively uses their own.