re: Make Clark work defensively

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She's not going to commit a lot of obvious fouls.

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She did last year. LSU came out shooting hot from the perimeter, made Clark chase a little bit, and as a result she picked up three stupid fouls in the first half. After that, she was a complete liability. They tried to hide her in the triangle part of the triangle-and-two defense they were playing, but Mulkey recognized that and went right at her. Like I said, she was literally letting players drive past her.

Will that happen again? Maybe not. Maybe she eases up. But if she does, that should result in relatively easy buckets for LSU. Either way, I think you go right at her -- probably with Flau'jae slashing to the basket as part of an inside-out game.

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I agree with making her work defensively. I just don't think a foul trouble strategy is going to pan out.

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You make a good point that making her work defensively may not lead her to getting into foul trouble. OTOH, even if it doesn't, making her work defensively will likely cause frustration (no one really wants to see the player they're guarding contribute to the game w/ points or assists) or fatigue. Frustration will take you out of your game offensively and fatigue is always the great equalizer. I'm confident Coach Mulkey and her staff have been working on a good plan to defend CC for many months.