ALBANY — One image from last year’s U.S. title game was released before the others. Angel Reese teases Caitlin Clark as John Cena’s “You Can’t See Me” flashes in front of her face while waving her hand.
A calendar year later, the context in which Clark used the gesture a week earlier against Louisville as Iowa State clinched its first Final Four appearance in 30 years has been largely obscured.
Haley Van Lith, then a star at Louisville, defended the derogatory comments made by both players.
You win, you choose the winning cigar.
“It’s our personality,” said Van Lith, now a guard at LSU. “That’s what makes the game interesting for us.”
Like Reese, Van Lith enjoys the view from the Death Star.
She expects the majority of fans to be in the Iowa corner Monday night.
Her only problem seems to lie in the root cause of why so many critics (most recently an LA Times column that described the Tigers as “evil” and “dirty debutants”) criticize the champions. ing.
“There are a lot of black women on this team. [and] Unfortunately, that bias still exists today,” Van Lith said Sunday. “Many of the people making comments like that are racist towards my teammates. I’m in a unique situation. When I talk trash, the Angels talk trash. You’ll get a different reaction than you would have. …Some of the language used in that article was so sad and upsetting that I didn’t wish I had read the article before that. [Sweet 16] Because it’s not right to hear such things. … They call us “dirty debutantes” that have nothing to do with sports.
“I wish I hadn’t read that because I think it might crush your soul a little bit for someone who doesn’t know us to say something like that about us. To our team. I know for a fact that people look at us differently because there are a lot of black women who have bad attitudes and like to talk trash, but people feel a certain way about it. But at the end of the day, I’m shaken up with them because they won’t allow themselves to change.”
Most members of LSU can laugh about the last time they saw Clark.
Van Lith, who led Louisville to the 2022 Final Four, is remembered for his 41-point triple-double at the Elite Eight that catapulted the Iowa State star to fame.
“I remember getting my ass kicked by Caitlin,” Van Lith said.
A week later, Van Lith was one of 9.9 million viewers to tune in to the national title match.
She was then attracted to the team that beat Clarke and became the most coveted player in the transfer portal.
“I just remember the excitement of the game and the emotion I felt on TV. I felt like it was a big moment for women’s basketball,” Van Lith said. “The emotion I felt in that moment definitely influenced who I reached out to when I was in the portal. I thought, ‘I want to play for that team.’Trash Talk and Coach Howe [Kim] Mulkey was coaching with so much emotion that all of those things combined made me feel like I resonated with that. That seemed like something to me. ”
