IOWA CITY, Iowa — Barring the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history, Iowa is a 38.5-point favorite against Holy Cross — Caitlin Clark’s final home game will be Monday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Another Caitlin might be waiting on the other side.
Caitlin Chen, last season’s Ivy League Player of the Year, led No. 9 Princeton (25-4) to a first-round matchup with No. 8 West Virginia (24-7) on Saturday, giving the Tigers an NCAA title. The aim is to bring victory in the tournament. He was named to the Power Conference Team for the third year in a row.
“Caitlin is also a really, really good player,” West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg said. “She’s exceptional. She’s looked at her a lot. She’s trying to figure out how to slow her down and slow them down.”
Last year, Chen had 22 points and seven rebounds in a first-round win over North Carolina State.
In 2022, Chen scored 17 points in Upset at Kentucky.
“It’s great to have a player with that experience and that poise and composure to play with,” Princeton coach Carla Berube said. “She’s smart, she’s strong, she sees the floor well and she doesn’t falter in any moment.”
Chen, who is averaging 15.8 points and five assists per game despite being in his third year at Princeton, is reluctant to allow the Ivy League to give players an extra year of eligibility. As a result, he will be playing in his last game at the same school. NCAA during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The point guard entered the transfer portal in the fall and will be one of the most coveted players on the offseason market.
It is widely believed that she will spend her final season with a high-major program.
The California native will be one of the tournament’s No. 2 seeds (Stanford, UCLA) or the nation’s No. 2 scorer (JuJu Watkins) and three Ivy League transfers (Mackenzie Forbes, Caitlin). Davis, Kayla Padilla).
“I’m not really focused on that right now,” Chen said. “I’m focused right now on making sure we can make the NCAA Tournament.”
