The fix has been in for Bueckers ever since Geno started recruiting her.
When Bueckers and Clark played on the USA Basketball U19 team that won FIBA gold in the summer of 2019, Bueckers started all 7 games averaging 27 minutes, and Clark started none, averaging 15 minutes a game. Bueckers was tourney MVP, and became just the second high school student to receive USA Basketball's Female Athlete of the Year; the first being Breanna Stewart, another UCONN recruit. If Geno hadn't been recruiting Bueckers, or if Bueckers had already committed to Minnesota, things would have been different.
Bueckers was named the 2020 Gatorade Female High School Athlete of the Year, the first basketball player to win the award since 2014. Bueckers also won the 2020 Gatorade National Girls Basketball POY (10th UCONN signee); 2020 Naismith Girls Prep Player of the Year (11th UCONN signee), and the 2020 Morgan Wootten Girls HS Player of the Year (7th UCONN signee). If Bueckers had been a Minnesota signee, things would have been different.
The major HS Girls BB recruiting services ranked Bueckers as # 1 (ESPN, PN, BS) or # 2 (ASGR), and Clark as # 4 (ESPN), # 6 (BS) or # 7 (PN & ASGR). If Clark had been the UCONN signee, and Bueckers a Minnesota signee, things would have been different.
If Clark had been the UCONN signee, she would have been the first HS girls BB player to appear on the cover of SLAM magazine.
With the Geno-created legend of Paige Bueckers, it will be hard for Clark to ever be treated fairly on the national awards stage.