NFL Draft cornerback prospect Cooper DeJean apparently believes he can beat fellow former Iowa athlete and No. 1 overall 2024 WNBA Draft pick Caitlin Clark in basketball.
DeJean, 21, who is projected to be a first-round pick, said being asked whether he could beat Clark, the NCAA basketball all-time leading scorer, in a game of one-on-one was among the strangest questions he was asked by NFL teams during the Combine earlier this year.
“I wouldn’t say it’s really weird but a lot of teams have asked me if I could beat Caitlin Clark one-on-one, just being from Iowa. I said I think I can,” he said via Yahoo Sports. “She’d probably score a few buckets on me but I think I could pull it off.”
DeJean was a three-sport varsity high school athlete, which included playing both quarterback and defensive back in football, as well as averaging a reported 25.9 points, 7.1 assists and 7.9 rebounds per game during his senior season in basketball, according to GoBound.com.
DeJean rated as a four-star prospect and ranked as the No. 8 safety, the No. 3 player from the state of Iowa and the No. 149 overall prospect for the 2021 football national recruiting cycle, according to 247Sports.
Clark, 22, recently signed a historic eight-year, $28 million Nike endorsement deal shortly after being selected by the Indiana Fever as the top pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. The former Iowa standout recently had her previous deal with Nike, which was agreed upon in 2022, expire following the conclusion of her decorated college basketball career at Iowa, allowing her to hit the market at the height of her popularity.
Clark's emergence as the face of women's college basketball has led to a significant increase in popularity for the sport, which included her final collegiate game, a loss to South Carolina in the March Madness Final, being the most viewed women's sporting event in history, peaking at 24 million viewers and averaging 18.7 million, which was a larger than the men's final for the first time in history. Clark recorded 30 points, including 18 in the first period, eight rebounds and five assists and averaged 31.6 points, 8.9 assists and 7.4 rebounds during her final season at Iowa.
Clark is scheduled to make her preseason WNBA debut against the Dallas Wings on May 3. The Fever will have 36 nationally televised games during the 2024 WNBA season.