Bluder has coached Clark since her freshman season, where she started as a point guard and made her collegiate debut on Nov. 25, 2020. Bluder has praised the player throughout her rise to stardom.
“She’s absolutely amazing,” Bluder told Good Morning America following her team’s 94-87 win over LSU in the Elite Eight leg of the 2024 NCAA tournament. “She has been consistent throughout her entire career, but when the spotlight is on, she is at her very best at that time.”
“I could never have fathomed the amount of interest that we are getting right now in our game,” she said. “When I played and when I started coaching, you know, you’re begging people to come and watch your team play. And now it’s so fulfilling.”
“We always knew there was something special about her. She’s always been a little different in a good way,” Bluder previously said of Clark’s game. She told GMA, “It’s an exciting time to be part of women’s basketball.”
Bluder’s awe of Clark is clearly reciprocated. “Coach Bluder is a Hall of Fame coach,” Clark said on March 31 ahead of Iowa’s victorious rematch of 2023’s national title game with LSU.
“I think the biggest thing for me throughout the recruiting process that I loved about her is she’s a player’s coach. She’s not going to have a set offense that you have to run,” Clark continued of Bluder. “She’s going to tailor everything to what she has on her team and what’s going to put her team in positions to be very successful.”
Clark called Bluder “one of the best our game has ever seen” and attributed many of her accomplishments to Bluder, per the Daily Iowan. “Over the course of my four years, I don’t know if I would have the type of success I do if I didn’t have amazing teammates but also a coach who really allows me to be myself,” Clark continued. “For that, I’m forever grateful.”
