Barstool boss Dave Portnoy has blasted the ‘race baiters’ who believe Caitlin Clark is only popular because she is white after the NCAA women’s championship viewership numbers were released.
Iowa’s appearance in last year’s March Madness title showdown with South Carolina, Clark’s final game for the Hawkeyes, drew 18.9million viewers, the most for a women’s basketball game in history.
Sunday’s championship game between South Carolina and a Paige Bueckers-led UConn team drew 8.5million viewers.
Portnoy is a longtime defender of Clark, standing up for her at nearly every instance that could be controversial in her career.
‘I’m going to need all the race baiters who explain Caitlin Clarks popularity simply because shes white to explain why 10 million more people watched her last year than Paige Bueckers(also white) this year. I’ll hang up and listen,’ Portnoy said on X.
Clark and Iowa set the record for the four most-watched women’s basketball games of all time within a 13-month span during her junior and senior seasons at Iowa.
Portnoy has blasted the ‘race baiters’ who believe Clark is only popular because she is white
Portnoy was posting about Clark again after title-game viewership numbers were released
Clark drew 18.9million for her final college game, while Bueckers only managed 8.5million
Bueckers and Clark were both in the Class of 2020 coming out of high school, with the UConn star ranked as the top prospect in the country. Clark was No 4 with Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, and Kamilla Cardoso rounding out the top five.
Bueckers is now headed to the WNBA where she is nearly guaranteed to join the Dallas Wings, who hold the No 1 overall pick in next week’s draft.
Clark is the only one from that 2020 quintet to never win a national title in college, losing in both big-game appearances.
Yet, she is at the forefront of the rise in popularity of women’s basketball over the last two years.
Now Bueckers will enter the professional fray and try to keep her stellar form intact, much like Clark did at this time last year. Portnoy will be sure to stay in Clark’s corner as her sophomore WNBA campaign is about to begin.
