“People weren’t even mentioning Caitlin Clark when Paige Bueckers was a freshman”: When Geno Auriemma shared the benefits of WNBA draft eligibility

Geno Auriemma is soaking in his last season as a mentor to college hoops star Paige Bueckers as she is likely to declare for the WNBA draft after this campaign. The pair have aspirations of winning the national title this year, considering Bueckers has never won it and Auriemma last clinched it in 2016.

In the press conference before his Huskies faced off with the Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2024 NCAA Final Four, the 70-year-old spoke about the growth of the players thanks to the WNBA draft rules. He used Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers as examples:

"The women's game is benefitting," Auriemma said. "It's going to continue to benefit from the fact that players are around long enough to create a name, create a buzz. People weren't even mentioning Caitlin Clark when Paige was a freshman because it was all Paige. Now, it's all Caitlin.

"So, had she (Clark) left after her freshman year like it would've been if she was a guy, or Paige left, they would've had to find somebody else, and if that person wasn't there, then you wouldn't have the ability to do all this that's happened."

Geno Auriemma highlighted how the WNBA's rules for draft eligibility mean that female players stay for four years and many stay with the same program. This gives players a chance to develop at their own pace and fans get more invested in individuals over their college careers.

Geno Auriemma thinks newer fans support women's basketball over teams

Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers. Source: Steph Chambers, Getty

As it stands, women's basketball is gaining more and more attention. One factor behind this was the record-breaking viewership from the March Madness games Caitlin Clark used to play. Geno Auriemma thinks spectators are becoming fans of the women's game as a whole, rather than specific teams.

"Fans of women's basketball were fans of their teams. When it got to the biggest stage, if your team wasn't involved, there wasn't a national consciousness. ... I think it's going beyond that now because of what some of these kids have done. They've created a fan base of women's basketball. ... They'll go to the game not just because it's their team playing," he said. (2:27)

Clark is thriving in the WNBA right now and is ramping up for her second campaign later this year. In Bueckers and Auriemma's case, they are 7-0 in the 2025 Big East conference and will host the Seton Hall Pirates on Sunday.