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Good Follow - Caitlin Clark Drops 32 Points, Angel Reese’s Triple Double + Valkyrie’s Win Streak & More
00:29:40
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- [00:01]
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- [00:32]
Logan Hackett
You're listening to DraftKings Network.
- [00:54]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Bonjour. Welcome to Good Follow presented by DraftKings. I'm Roz Gold onwere. That's my girl, Logan Hackett. I'm coming to you from France. I'm in Cannes in the south of France, if you will, the French Riviera for a conference out here. And Logan, no matter where we are in the world, the show must go on always. Yeah, I feel like you and I just changed places because you were just in Paris and I am now in Paris and Ken now.
- [01:26]
Logan Hackett
Fun fact, I'm actually in Paris next week as well.
- [01:29]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Oh, this is crazy. Like, we should learn French and just do like a bilingual show or something.
- [01:33]
Logan Hackett
Fun fact, I'm also bilingual in French. What?
- [01:37]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Okay, say something.
- [01:46]
Logan Hackett
Oh, good.
- [01:48]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Okay. All right. Now you just showing off.
- [02:02]
Logan Hackett
We're gonna give you guys an amazing show and we are so excited.
- [02:06]
Roz Gold-Onwude
We are. Let's get to it. Let's get to it. So we're starting off with Caitlin Clark's return. An impressive three point shooting, the fever take down the liberty. We've got Angel Reese first career triple double. And we'll talk about the implications of what that could mean for the future of her career. The Valkyries recent success and and player depth and how about that Women's Basketball hall of fame 2025 class. We're going to take a look at some of our favorite players who have been inducted all the things.
- [02:35]
Logan Hackett
Also, big reminder, we are now dropping the tong parcement two times a week on Tuesday and Thursday. I saw it last week and it's going to continue. And as always, thank you for subscribing, commenting, liking clicking all the buttons and following our socials. Roz, are you ready?
- [02:51]
Roz Gold-Onwude
I am ready to go. Wee wee.
- [02:53]
Logan Hackett
Oh, I love it. Right, so Caitlin Clark made her return this weekend and it was a huge one in Pete Caitlin Clark fashion, handing the liberty, their first loss of the season with a 102 to 88 win. Now Caitlin came off the bench and immediately hit some very impressive threes at one point hitting consecutive shots from 33, 27 and 31ft, all within 38 seconds like insane. She ended the game with seven three pointers, six being beyond 27ft, and scored a season high 32 points. Points. But one thing that really stood out to me is with her coming off of an injury. She was obviously being played in short spurts and her limit, her minutes were a bit limited and it looked good. I think it could honestly be a tactic because with that they were kind of going on runs when she come on the court because she'd bring so much speed and fire and get the team together. At one point, they went on a 17 and a run in under four minutes. Caitlin Clark had seven of those points, but Lexi hall had 14, AB had a double double. And Sid Colson, that was one who really impressed me, who had 10.6 rebounds or, sorry, six assists. And I feel like this could really be something that the Fever uses to their advantage going forward.
- [04:03]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Yeah, no. Logan, I think you bring up an interesting point about playing in spurts in general. That often does work out for sometimes individual players. Sometimes that can be a strategy for a collection or a group of players. Like, you might see a certain lineup in spurts. For example, like if a team, a coach decides to have a small bowl lineup, you know, to start the third quarter and just change the game or that kind of look. So that strategically could make sense. And to your point, it also might allow for some rest. If you think about how much Caitlin Clark is leaned on to manufacture production, you know, whether that's just her pace or her own points or her passing ability or the amount of holding she goes through and people, you know, trying to be physical with her defensively or the amount of screens she goes around or the. The amount running up and down the court. You know, there's a lot of taxing movement and action happening for Caitlyn and that perhaps playing in spurt, she could get more rest and maybe that could also see some of her turnovers come down. Right, because that's the only thing that you could point a finger to that. Like, hey, you know, you want to keep seeing that decrease. You know, in that game, she had seven turnovers along with the 32 points, nine assists, eight rebounds, seven threes. So you. Obviously, the good is far outweighing the bad. But I think to your point, there's something there about potentially giving her more rest. And I think Stephanie White has been very thoughtful about experimenting with different things with Caitlyn. They've played. Obviously, we know Caitlyn to be the one with the ball in her hands a lot. But we've also seen Stephanie White experiment with Caitlyn off the ball and that's a different kind of rest and break within the game on Caitlin, whether or not it's as productive as, as, as her having the ball in her hands and making things happen, that's to be seen. But it also could also be about mental and physical rest on the court. So I think it's, I think it's a really cool point you brought up there.
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Logan Hackett
And then as for what you saw in Caitlyn in this game, what impressed you the most about her?
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Roz Gold-Onwude
Oh my gosh, I think, look, she misses game, she comes back and there's nothing bashful about her. You know, she's just a gamer. The moment to seize it, the importance of what she does to the momentum of her team within the game. There was an absolutely scintillating moment that got, that went viral, that got everybody talking. It's the three threes and 38 seconds. They're all from deep. They allow the Fever to tie the game at 24. Like they were down, the Liberty were up, you know, and so like it's the succession, it's heat check after he check after he check. It's, you know, 33ft, 27ft, 31ft. The three point lines, like what is it on that graphic? It's a 22ft normally. Logan.
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Logan Hackett
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Roz Gold-Onwude
And that's, this is how deep that she's taking these shots and how fast. And so it's the entertainment factor that's that maybe is most impress impressive to me. She does have something that is like the way maybe Stephen Curry makes us feel. It is very unique in the way she can score the ball. And for me it's the pace in which she plays, it's her ability to shoot off the bounce under duress. I mean it was not like those threes in particular. The defense was locked in like they were there. They recognized they had to pick her up early and she's just like, even if you pick me up earlier, I'm going to shoot it even deeper, you know. And then it's, it's just like her confidence, the range. This is what all makes what Caitlin's doing so unique. And I think also her range is what set sets up so much for everyone else on the court. Obviously the Fever scored more points as a team. They had. Let me get to my notes as a team. They had 25 assists, 17 threes, first triple digit game. And I Just think the offense opens up in particular because you have to be so far out on Caitlin that it's just space, right? If she does a pick and roll now you got two defenders that are so preoccupied with her, that's more space, you know, and room for confusion and mistakes. So it's just her impact is immediately felt out there. But the three point shooting is something else.
- [08:34]
Logan Hackett
Such a testament doing this in her first game back against a team like the Liberty as well, where you even have vets. Stewie is laughing at her as they're running back, like, how insanely crazy this is. And the shots that she's hitting.
- [08:47]
Roz Gold-Onwude
She's also. The weight room work is showing itself, you know, like she's getting to the rim. She's. It's not all threes. She's taking some bumps and pulling up or continuing to drive towards the basket. So she's really gotten, like, stronger out there. And I think that her handle and her strength are being showcased too.
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Logan Hackett
We were speaking preseason about how we could physically see it, how she was absolutely yoked, but now we're actually seeing it come into effect during the game. So love that. And Kelsey Mitchell, she dropped 22 on the Liberty, just crossing a career milestone of 4,000 career points. And I feel like this is a player who is super consistent but is overlooked and or underrated in the league. Do you feel the same way?
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Roz Gold-Onwude
I think maybe for the casual fan, perhaps they don't know Kelsey Mitchell's name, but I think the Fever are so popular now that people are starting to know all of the different stars and role players and different components of the team. And certainly the Fever knew how important it was to re sign Kelsey Mitchell, and that was like priority number one to get her back there. I think the thing for Kelsey is she was on a team that was not playoff bound for years and years since Tamika Catchings had retired. And I think sometimes you can be a star and you just need the right pieces to be, like, surrounded with, like, when there has been a strong playmaking guard alongside her. Kelsey Mitchell has been really great this season, whether that was Caitlin Clark or Arie McDonald in those games where she's like, has that support of the, like the lead guard and takes a little bit of that pressure off of her, she's been more efficient and really been able to shine. So I think right now it's just, hey, the team's winning. She's got a good collection of players around her, and I think, you know, like, it's all meshing and coming Together. But make no mistake, whether she was slept on or not, Kelsey Mitchell was already an all star player. Before all of the new changes came to the Indiana Fever, she was already a WNBA All Star. So it's, it's also about narrative and, you know, just fit story. All those things that go into the way we discuss a player sometimes, unfortunately.
- [11:02]
Logan Hackett
Absolutely. And then as for the other side of this, I mean, despite taking the L, Sabrina Nescu had a season high 34 points. But what do you think held the Liberty back from being able to close this game out?
- [11:13]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Well, I think this is a moment where you recognize just how important players like, you know, Jonquil Jones and Leonie Phoebus are for the Liberty, who are still stacked, they still put out a very star studded team out there, a very deep team. And, and credit goes to the Indiana Fever, who just were fantastic at times, especially offensively, but in particular Jean Cole. Jones anchors this team defensively in the paint. It changes the way people can attack in there with her rebounding, with her shot changing and shot blocking. I do want to point out Leonie Phoebus, this is a player who sometimes you may not be, unless you're watching the Liberty game to game, you may not recognize all the ways that she's impacting the Liberty, just like her understanding of what to do and her trustworthiness out there. So like defensively, I think this was a game where like maybe the Liberty could have switched some things up, thrown Leon Fish, put that look on, on Caitlyn Clark. You know, Leon's 64 and can move her feet and she's going to compete. That height and length might have been disruptive or helpful and Leon certainly isn't afraid to defend. So I think on the defensive end, Leon Phoebus, Jonquil Jones were sorely missed and they allowed the fever to shoot 48% from the field, but even crazier 48% from three and 17 three pointers. So yeah, I thought the Liberty missed some of their, their key two starters. I mean that that's going to shake up a bunch of teams, especially when you got a team rolling out hot the way the Fever did.
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Logan Hackett
Yeah, I completely agree. And another big moment that we absolutely need to touch on is Angel Reese's triple double. She has officially become the third fastest player to get her first career triple double in the W and then the fastest forward to reach this milestone. And of course with angel, rebounds have always been a huge part of her game and her brand. But allegedly she has trademarked me bounds as a Clapback to the haters and capitalizing on this opportunity, which is iconic. But the part that most impressed me about this triple double is the 11 assists, which is more than double her career high. And I feel like Tyler Marsh has been experimenting her in a point forward role, and we finally got a glimpse or true glimpse of what the vision is, slash and. Or could be. So do you think angel stepping into the point forward position could be the key for this guy to see more success going forward?
- [13:37]
Roz Gold-Onwude
First, just addressing the me bounds and her trademarking that if there's one thing that my girl angel gonna get to, it's a rebound or the bag, okay, she is gonna get to the rebound or the bag, and there's just no stopping the force that is angel and her team. I think they all. They do a great job there. But, you know, we can sit here and talk X's and O's as much as we want. But the thing that has always stood out for me with angel, she has great heart. She is so resilient. She is tough. She is tougher than most. And she's definitely going up against, in some ways, more emotional duress than most players in her position or at her age or stage of their career. Like, it's just comes with the territory of her. She's just stands and represents so much, right, and on the court and off of it, you know, And I think I've never seen her shy away from it. And whether you watch her press conferences or if you watch her play in the game, or if you even see the way she attacks like life and all the different ways that she crushes it there, it has to start with a certain motor that you have internally to go be great. And I see that in angel and always admire that. And so the rebounding. Nobody rebounds like Angel. She's going to historically rebound in this game. And when her career's over, we'll see it all. All, you know, be in the. In the books. And another thing that you don't see in the stat sheet, you know, is screens. Angel screens. She's running all over the court to screen and get people open and set up an action and a play that there's a selflessness that comes with that. Again, the motor, the. The conditioning that it takes to do what Angel's doing, the strength that it takes to do what Angel's doing. And before I even get to the assist in the triple double game, I want to also call out her impressive play against the Liberty. A much improved performance from the first one, mind you. Now, John Quill Jones didn't play and I think that's a big factor to mention when you're talking about having to go up in the paint. But versus the Lib, she has 17 points, 11 rebounds on 8 for 13 shooting. And then now come to the game where she has a triple double. Really impressive stuff like the 11 points, 11 assists, 13 rebounds, not to mind you, two, three steals, two blocks and two turnovers. As much as he had the ball in her hands and as much activity as she was a part of. So throughout the whole game, all I saw was angel just making quick, strong decisions. And those assists are what can change an entire dynamic of a team. When you have a post that can suddenly you can run your offense through them, you can stretch the court with them and they can be cerebral and facilitating game changer. And you know what I saw that worked was pulling angel out, giving her space so that she could make a read or face up and attack. So one further from the basket and allowing her to operate there, catching her on the move. Like a lot of these assists are her off the balance on the move. And what she really showed me is good body control. She avoided charges, she made quick dishes before getting in too deep. And you know, I just, she's played up tempo. I thought she facilitated pace. So this is a benefit, seeing all of this happen for angel and perhaps that's one way to just like put her in those positions where she can do that.
- [17:24]
Logan Hackett
It is very much giving Alyssa Thomas and I feel like her basketball IQ has grown a lot and it's going to continue to grow. But the last topic I want to touch on are the Valkyries. And in my head they've always been a comparison to an NHL team that won in 2022, where it was very much a team of misfits and it just worked out very, very well. But they are exceeding expectations as an expansion team. And all of that kind of came full circle when Kayla Thornton and Tammy Faye Bentley said this in their post game press conference. We have a team of six women. Like, we've come from different teams around the league. We know what it takes to be great teammates and we know what it takes to step up and do what we need to do for the team to succeed. Like, you know, so whoever leaves, it's gonna be fine. Everyone is gonna know someone's gonna step up, right? So currently on a three game win streak, I mean, it's a team of role players, six women who are used to coming in and getting the job done. But My question to you is, is depth more valuable than having a superstar in today's WNBA climate?
- [18:27]
Roz Gold-Onwude
You know, what Temi was discussing, and being a team of a bunch of six players and role players that get it, I think that could be a really tough team and challenge. Right? Because you can't just take one player out and it's over. Like, on any given game, it could be, you know, Veronica that goes off for a big one, or it could be Monique Billings who comes off the bench and has a big game. So it's like everyone's contributing, and in some ways, it's. It's harder to strategize for a team like that. And also, when a team has a strong culture, like, they impose their will and style of play, if they're going to be a team that subscribes to, like, hey, we are going to be really tough on defense, and it's physical and. Or we're going to be a team where we're going to manufacture a lot of threes. Like, sometimes, like, that can be hard to stop because they're so good at doing what they do. And I definitely think that a team that is a bunch of role players that are crushing the assignment at a high level, they can certainly be a playoff team. In fact, at the time of talking, the Valkyries don't look, now we're number six in the standings. You know, that's a bit ahead of schedule than some people might have thought. People had them picked for last, even. But ultimately, I still think star power matters. I think when you look at a team like the New York Liberty who have a. Have a team full of stars that are willing to take roles now, that can go a long way. Right. But the mindset has to be sacrifice and selflessness, or you have a team like the Lynx who have, like, a very centered superstar like Nafisa Collier, but you've got a nice group of players around her. I think that, you know, game on the line, your superstar often is the one that can make those plays that just change the way we talk about a series in a playoff or the way we talk about legacy and things like that. So I think it's a tough question. I. I might have said a lot of words and didn't give you a direct answer, but I got the gist. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's tough, but ultimately, I would say, am I picking a team of six women over the New York Liberty or the Links right now? And the models, they have no.
- [20:46]
Logan Hackett
Ooh. Well, y' all, we want to hear your answer to that question. Would you rather have adapt and a team of six women or a superstar? Let us know in the comments. But coming up, I make my DK Game Pick of the Week and we have some quick hits for you. We'll be right back.
- [21:13]
Roz Gold-Onwude
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- [21:56]
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- [22:39]
Logan Hackett
Welcome Back to Goodfellow. Today's episode is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours. It is now time for the DraftKings Pick of the Week presented by DraftKings. This weekend, the San Diego Wave take on Washington Spirit in what I imagine to be a very good and close one. San Diego is looking like one of the best teams in the league with an 81 record through their past nine games. Their team is dynamic with 13 different goal scorers and currently second in goals scored with 25. There's a few players I'd look out for, but Adriana Leon has been very impressive lately, netting three goals in her past three games. I love watching her play and she is a key piece to the Waves forward line. As for Washington, they're coming off their first loss since April, but are battling in a tight race for second place this week. Again, the Spirits midfield has been on lock and they have a ton of options. With 10 different goal scorers, the one to watch here is Ashley Hatch, currently top five in the Golden Boot race and leading the Spirit with six goals in 10 games. I imagine this one will be very close, but if a team's coming out on top, I'm going with the Spirit for the upset and statement win. This segment is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours. I. I love that part. We both share the crown.
- [23:48]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Okay, my queen. It's the time in the show where we talk about some quick hits and highlights or headlines.
- [23:54]
Logan Hackett
Do you got them for me? Yes, the first you actually mentioned at the top of the show. The Women's Basketball hall of fame 2025 class is officially here with Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, Cappy Pondexter and Alana Beard. They were all inducted. What an iconic class.
- [24:09]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Iconic and special shout out to Kathy Pondexter, who I like to say it's my favorite WNBA player all time. I really love her game and I love her spirit.
- [24:18]
Logan Hackett
Yeah, yeah, love that. And then going over to soccer, Angel City made a statement this weekend doing their Immigration City Football Club merge where all of the proceeds are going to Camino Immigration Services. They gave all the people in the stands one for free and their players walked in with them. So we love to see that. And then we had a big moment in track and field. Georgia won their first ever title. They had 73 points and the team behind them was USC with 47. So they won by a margin of 26. No one else was even close. And then in softball, Texas Tech, after coming off of their world Series finals loss, we knew they need to build around Nashri Kennedy, but we didn't expect them to do this. They signed the 3, 4, 5, 6 and 28th ranked players from the portal, so we can definitely expect to see them back in the finals next year.
- [25:09]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Hey, there's always next season.
- [25:11]
Logan Hackett
Yeah, exactly. And then lastly, I don't know about you, but my TikTok feed, the whole thing pretty much is just filled with stud buds. And there are so many iconic moments. But the one that had me almost in tears was Natisha talking about there, there was a scuffle with Skylar Diggins and she goes, I used to have a crush on you. And Skylar looked at her and goes, you still do. I love it.
- [25:36]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Right? Or something like that. Right? And so, yeah, it's funny because there were all these different like camera angles of the post game and like, and the TV camera actually you got, you can see the interaction. And it's really funny because you can absolutely see Natisha, low key shooting her shot. Like, not shooting her job, but just kind of clowning. Maybe shooting her shot with Skyler. But it's just so funny. I'm like, yo, the WNBA gotta be one of the most entertaining leads, like, of them all.
- [26:04]
Logan Hackett
Oh, absolutely. The way she just kind of stood there too and had to take a second to process it, like, that was not what she expected. But, y' all, if you don't watch the stud buds, please go and tune in or find social clips because it is amazing.
- [26:16]
Roz Gold-Onwude
You know what else is amazing? Doing the show with you, Logan. But sadly, we are at the end of this one. But the good news is there's another one coming this week. We're. We're two times a week now, dropping on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we're worldwide, baby. We do this show in la, New York, Miami, Toronto right now from France next week. She's in France, so it's an international show of love for women's sports in the game. And we hope you rock with us. This is good. Follow presented by DraftKings. I'm Roz Golden Woode. She's Logan Hackett. And Logan, how do we say bye in French? Oh. Au revoir.
- [26:54]
Logan Hackett
Yeah, Au revoir.
- [26:56]
Roz Gold-Onwude
Au revoir.