Caitlin Clark built the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball into a national powerhouse and has her name on virtually every women’s college basketball record.
But somehow, and someway, former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl couldn’t remember her name during a tease into Sunday’s Big Ten women’s basketball championship between No. 9 Iowa and No. 1 UCLA on CBS.
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“Iowa women’s basketball. No superstar Caitlin Smith,” Pearl said during CBS’s in-studio show following the conclusion of the Missouri Valley men’s tournament. Caitlin Smith? Oy vey.
REQUIRED READING: Iowa women’s basketball vs. UCLA in Big Ten title game: Highlights, score
By the time Pearl was getting finished with his sentence, someone — either at the desk or in his IFB earpiece — must have said something to him, as he said, “you are right, Caitlin Clark” after an initial pause.
The now-college basketball analyst for CBS and TNT did get the fact C. Vivian Stringer coached the Hawkeyes correct. However, he forgot to mention Clark’s college coach, Lisa Bluder, off the jump as well, and then incorrectly pronounced Bluder’s name when he mentioned her at the end with Clark. So close Bruce, but yet so far away.
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The Hawkeyes went 528-254 overall under Bluder and won five Big Ten tournament titles, while making the NCAA Tournament 18 times in her 24 seasons in Iowa City.
Clark helped the Hawkeyes to three consecutive Big Ten tournament titles from 2022 through 2024 in her illustrious career at Iowa. The NCAA all-time leading scorer, both men’s and women’s, was named the Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player on three different occasions.
The Hawkeyes are looking for their fourth Big Ten tournament title in the past five years on Sunday, and fourth in the last seven iterations of the conference tournament.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bruce Pearl forgets Caitlin Clark’s name during CBS tease for Big 10 WBB final
