{"id":528331,"date":"2026-03-17T07:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/528331\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:03:10","slug":"caitlin-clark-at-risk-of-losing-fan-vote-mvp-to-usa-teammate-at-2026-fiba-womens-world-cup-qualifying-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/528331\/","title":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark at risk of losing fan vote MVP to USA teammate at 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Caitlin<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark IMAGN 03162026<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark at risk of losing fan vote MVP to USA teammate at 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup qualifying<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Caitlin Clark has been one of USA Basketball’s standout players at FIBA Women’s World Cup qualifying in Puerto Rico. But she is not a shoo-in for the fan-voted MVP of the Qualifying Tournament.<\/p>\n

In her first four games for the national team, Clark has averaged 12.8 points and 6.3 assists, dazzling fans in San Juan with her passing ability and long-range shooting. Clark’s performances for the unbeaten US team have been especially noteworthy amid her lengthy injury-related absence; the Indiana Fever<\/a> superstar had not played competitively since July.<\/p>\n

Even still, Clark is far from the only star on Team USA.<\/p>\n

The field’s most loaded roster also features fellow debutant Paige Bueckers, who is Clark’s chief competitor for MVP honors, due to be announced after the US plays Spain on Tuesday in their final group game.<\/p>\n

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MORE:\u00a0Caitlin Clark’s full stats from 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup qualifying<\/a><\/p>\n

Clark, Bueckers are neck and neck<\/p>\n

Bueckers, who succeeded Clark as the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year in 2025, may well get the nod from fans in tournament MVP voting too.<\/p>\n

As of Monday afternoon, Bueckers leads Clark by around 6,000 fan votes<\/a>,\u00a0which is not an official statement from FIBA.<\/p>\n

Bueckers \u2014 who, with Clark and Angel Reese, represents the future of the national team \u2014 has averaged 11.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists in four qualifying games, all of which the United States has won by at least 30 points.<\/p>\n

Since playing only 14 minutes in her debut against Senegal, Bueckers has played 20 or more in the three games, demonstrating her value as an on-ball creator and as an off-ball weapon \u2014 sometimes in the same backcourt as Clark.<\/p>\n

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The MVP vote is likely to come down to whichever star guard performs better against Spain. Nothing is decided just yet.<\/p>\n

More WNBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark IMAGN 03162026 Caitlin Clark at risk of losing fan vote MVP to USA teammate at 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[3691,1760,23008,2839,2833,99,87715,434,237554],"class_list":["post-528331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-angel-reese","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-fiba","tag-indiana-fever","tag-paige-bueckers","tag-sports","tag-usa-basketball","tag-wnba","tag-women39s-world-cup-qualifying"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}