“She Starts Going ‘And-One!’”: Purdue WBB Coach Recalls How Caitlin Clark Outdid Her Plan to End Half With a Foul

Caitlin Clark’s college runs are the stuff of legend. Despite not winning an NCAA championship, the Iowa star put the world on notice and was, along with Angel Reese, clearly responsible for the increase in viewership of women’s basketball. A lot of NCAA teams felt her wrath, and the Purdue Boilermakers were no exception, with the guard notching a 26-10-10 triple-double en route to a 96-71 win last January. The Boilermakers’ coach Katie Geralds recently revealed her strategy for that game, and how Clark rendered it obsolete after a late flurry in the 2nd quarter.

According to Geralds, she instructed her players to foul Clark late in the 2nd quarter, to prevent the guard from scoring. Unfortunately, Clark heard their scheme, and sensing the foul coming, she threw up a shot from near half-court. She immediately turned around and claimed the and-1.

“We were gonna take a foul on her. She brings it over and we were gonna tell Jayla Smith to foul. you can see Caitlin like hear that. Now Jayla Smith goes to foul, she throws it up, turns around, it goes in, and she didn’t even see it. And she starts going ‘and-1! and-1!'”

The shot somehow went in, meaning she would’ve got the chance for a 4-point play, but the referees waived it off, claiming the foul came before the shot was attempted.

The coach also mentioned how that event demonstrated the difficulty of coaching a team to set up against Clark. She described the process as one of trial and error, claiming it was akin to “throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.”

The Hawkeyes ended up improving their record to 16-1 after their win that day, en route to a runners-up finish, losing the championship game to the USC.