Dawn Staley on Caitlin Clark’s omission from the Olympics: ‘If we had to do it all over again… she would definitely qualify’

Yes, people at USA Basketball and the surrounding area realize that it is easy to question the decision to leave Caitlin Clark off the Olympic team.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, a member of USA Basketball’s selection committee, said Sunday that Clark’s recent play is a strong argument for her participation in the Olympics.

Clark’s absence was the most notable from the U.S. women’s national team when it was announced on June 11. The roster features many WNBA and USA Basketball veterans such as Diana Taurus, Brittney Griner, Breanna Stewart and A’Ja Wilson, while Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young are on the team after playing in 3×3 basketball in Tokyo three years ago.

As Staley noted in her remarks, Clark was still in a bit of an adjustment period in her rookie WNBA season. After her stellar run with Iowa, Clark was the No. 1 overall pick of the Indiana Fever and immediately stepped into a key role.

In nine games in May, Clark shot just 38 percent from the field. However, she has improved significantly in June and July. In six games in July before the WNBA’s Olympic break, Clark shot 43 percent from the field, despite shooting 27 percent from behind the 3-point line. She also averaged 12.5 assists per game in those games, after averaging seven assists per game through the first two months of the season.

This isn’t Clark’s only Olympic chance, though. She’s likely to become a fixture on the U.S. basketball team, given the way she’s been playing in the pros. And there’s an argument to be made that Clark needed a break from competitive basketball, too. Clark’s first regular-season WNBA game was on May 14, a little over a month after she played the final game of her Iowa career in the April 7 national title game.