“She clearly was on to something” – Caitlin Clark opens up on Stephanie White replacing Christie Sides on Fever

Caitlin Clark looking forward to working new head coach Stephanie White. -- Photos from Indiana Fever X page)

Caitlin Clark looking forward to working new head coach Stephanie White. — Photos from Indiana Fever X page)

Indiana Fever All-Star guard Caitlin Clark is looking forward to working with new head coach Stephanie White. She believes that the former WNBA coach of the year has some stuff going for her that should help the team in its campaign.

The reigning rookie of the year shared her thoughts on White as the latter was officially introduced by the Fever as its new coach, replacing Christie Sides, on Monday. It is a homecoming for White, who starred in Indiana in high school and college (Purdue), played for the Fever, and later on became an assistant coach with the team.

Caitlin Clark shared her thoughts on the hiring of White, whom she has high hopes for, saying (via ESPN Women’s Hoops on X [formely Twitter]):

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“I felt like her teams always had the best scouts against us … She clearly was on to something. Hopefully, in turn, now that she knows how to stop us, that should be a good way to know how to [help us] beat certain things as well.”

White is coming off two successful coaching seasons with the Connecticut Sun, who she steered to back-to-back playoff appearances and an overall record of 55-25. In her first year with the Sun in 2023, she was named WNBA coach of the year.

Last season, her Connecticut team defeated the Fever in two of their three regular season matches before sweeping them in their opening-round playoff showdown. With the Fever, White joins a highly improved team, led by Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. The team returned to the playoffs in their recent campaign after eight seasons.

Stephanie White likes the competitive fire in Caitlin Clark

As much as Caitlin Clark is excited to work with new coach Stephanie White, the latter also feels the same. She, in particular, is high on the star guard’s competitive fire.

The former WNBA coach of the year shared this during her introductory press conference as the new Indiana Fever coach on Monday. She spoke highly of Clark as well as center Aliyah Boston, whose competitive spirit she believes is something to build on in line with their goal of establishing a winning team.

White said (via High Post Hoops):

“First and foremost… They’re (Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston) both incredibly competitive players. There is fire and a mentality that you can’t teach when it comes to competitive spirit … Then you put it together and you’ve got the point guard and the center, are you kidding me? You got the bookends that you want to build around. These two are the best.”

Caitlin Clark had a stellar rookie campaign last season, finishing with averages of 19.2 points, 8.4 assists (league-high), 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals. She was adjudged rookie of the year while ending up in fourth place in the voting for most valuable player.

Boston, for her part, was also solid, named to her second straight All-Star Game built on numbers of 14 points. 8.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.2 blocks.