“Rivalry is dead” - Jason Whitlock puts an end to $3.1M NIL-valued Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese comparisons after Iowa's stellar win vs. LSU

Caitlin Clark won this time around, with the Iowa superstar putting a dominating performance in her team's 94-87 Elite Eight victory over Angel Reese's LSU on Monday.

In what seemed to be a rematch for the ages, after the Baton Rouge school won their previous and only encounter in program history in last year's championship game, Clark put the nail in the coffin of the Tigers' season.

Jason Whitlock said that Clark put up a performance for the ages, tweeting:

"We can officially quit putting Angel Reese on Caitlin Clark's level. Stop it. One is an all-time great player. The other got famous for taunting. The rivalry is dead."

He's referring to the now infamous hand-waving incident in last year's championship game when Reese chased and waved her hand at Clark while signaling her ring finger. All of it was meant to show Clark that Reese was soon to have a national title. Since then, a rivalry was born.

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Caitlin Clark's stats vs LSU

In the Elite Eight game, Clark put up one of her usual dominating performances. She scored 41 points and had seven rebounds and 12 assists, giving a performance that propelled Iowa to a confident 94-87 win.

With that, she exacted revenge on LSU for the 102-85 loss during their only previous game. That game also happened to be the national championship game of 2023.

Despite the loss, Clark put up great numbers that day, scoring 30 points, while also recording eight rebounds and two assists.

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Is there a rivalry between the two standouts?

Much was made of a hand-waving incident in the aftermath of the 2023 national title game. Angel Reese taunted and almost harassed Caitlin Clark towards the end of it by chasing and waving her ring finger in front of her (signalling her soon-to-be victory).

However, Reese dismissed the whole shebang in the days before the rematch, telling ESPN:

"I don't think people realize it's not personal, once we get out between those lines, if I see you walking down the street, it's like, 'Hey, girl, what's up? Let's hang out.' I think people just take it like we hate each other. Me and Caitlin Clark don't hate each other.

"I want everybody to understand that. It's just a super-competitive game. Once I get between those lines, there's no friends. I'm going to talk trash to you. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get in your head the whole entire game, but after the game, we can kick it. I don't think people really realize that.

Clark - who has an NIL valuation of $3.1 million (as per ON3), - agreed, telling the sports outlet:

"There's definitely that competitive fire," Clark said. "Both of us want to win more than anything, and that's how it should be when you're a competitor and you get into a situation like this, whether it was the national championship, whether it's the Elite Eight.

"I think that's the main similarity is how competitive we are. We both grew up loving this game, and we're going to do anything we can to help our teams win."