And THIS is what happens when people that haven't watched a minute of women's college basketball or WNBA in their entire lives before last spring start flapping their gums. Guess what? A lot of the things Caitlin does that she gets away with at the college level won't fly in the W. In other words, those touch fouls she got called in her favor today, when people were like "Where's the foul"? They don't call those in the W, it's always been a more physical league, in regards to what is allowed. It's been a more physical league than the NBA(In regards to how it is refereed) for decades. I never said she couldn't play, I took great pains to point out that she will be dynamite(Shooting tends to translate well, and barring her having some kind of insane injury that saps her athletic ability, she should be at worst an extremely dangerous volume scorer).
That said, the cultists that think that she is going to come in and immediately dominate, are unrealistic and honestly, are showing their ignorance about the WNBA. Caitlin, if she is going to be what people think she is going to be has to be a better driver of the basketball(Be able to get separation without consistently pushing off or chicken winging people), shot selection has to improve and honestly, her handle has to tighten up. Raven had her flustered for the final 3 quarters, she was getting deflections almost at will. Her handle is loose, it is what it is, and honestly, I don't think teams in the B1G were talented or athletic enough to make her pay for it. We saw the same thing against UConn and WVU. Teams that can throw athletic, quick guards at her and get in her face, that's when she had problems on the handle.
Yes, she can make passes, there won't be nearly as many free runners at the next level, and she will be making passes into even tighter windows, due to the increase in athleticism. In college, she didn't see teams like South Carolina often, the B1G has relied on bulk for **** near ever. When someone like Stuelke dove to the rim, it was very rare that there was anyone to affect the pass usually because 1)Hannah was the open person due to a double coming for Cait and 2)Most teams Iowa faced didn't have anyone that could cover that ground and force the issue. A classic case of how athleticism can affect passes happened today. Cait thought she had a gimmie layup by throwing one to Affolter in transition, SC had someone come out of nowhere to deflect the pass. That window closed extremely fast and Clark reacted on screen. You could see her think "Where did she come from". She's going to see that in the WNBA a lot more often. I look at a team like Las Vegas, where you have athletes all over the place, and that's just at the upper end. Due to the lack of teams, you have deep squads all over the place, it's akin to what you'd see in the NBA if you got rid of 5 teams.
