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For as much progress as women’s basketball has made in finding its way into the zeitgeist and recorded viewing behaviors of sports fans they had sort of plateaued during their iteration of March Madness. CLUTCH POINTS’ Jess Koffie struggled to spin ESPN’s rose-colored narrative in her mid-tourney recap that dropped last week:
The South Carolina women’s basketball team’s Round of 32 win over USC women’s basketball led the way with an average of 1.8 million viewers and peaked around 2.0 million. Those numbers lifted the game to fourth place in ESPN’s record books….Meanwhile, UConn women’s basketball‘s takedown of Syracuse slotted in at seventh all-time, averaging 1.5 million viewers and peaking at 1.7 million.
And that basically echoed the afterthought status that THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s aptly monickered Rick Porter gave the first round a coupla days earlier:
On the women’s side, the first round Friday and Saturday was led by undefeated UConn’s blowout over 16-seed UT-San Antonio; it averaged 981,000 viewers. South Carolina’s easy win vs. Southern was close behind with 972,000 viewers. Those two contests rank sixth and seventh all-time for women’s first round games.
Given the framing that pretty much all live sports has received so far this year with the revised methodology of Nielsen Big Data + Panel providing built-in boosts, and the fact that for only the second time in NCAA history all four number ones won their respective brackets to advance to the Final Four up until last night the narrative has pretty much fallen into the dog-bites-man–er, woman–pigeon hole.
But boy did that all change last night. Pitting the Gamecocks and Huskies together in the Final Four doubleheader opener produced both true surprise and high drama. THE ATHLETIC’s Chris Branch and Matt Piper captured it succinctly in their PULSE newsletter early this morning:
Let’s first consider that UConn had won 54 straight games, 53 of them by double-digits. They routed the Gamecocks in last year’s title game. And yet South Carolina seemed more confident throughout last night’s 62-48 victory, clamping down on National Player of the Year Sarah Strong, outrebounding the Huskies by 15, hitting several big shots … they were all-around superior, and it was impressive.
So what, getting back to that elephant in the room, was UConn head coach Geno Auriemma so worked up about?
First, Auriemma ranted wildly about the refs during the fourth quarter break. Then, in the waning seconds, he said something to South Carolina coach Dawn Staley that triggered a shouting match and stole the moment from the Gamecocks. Staley still sought him out for a handshake, but he just walked down the tunnel.
He later told reporters he was upset because Staley didn’t give him a pregame handshake — and actually she did?
It certainly provoked a reaction from the distaff answers to Kenny the Jet and Jay Bilas–the ridiculously smart and attractive Chiney Ogwumike and the confident Andraya Carter–and it made for one heck of an impression and statement during the post-mortem.
And that proved to be only the first helping for an eventful Friday Night feast where another storied name in basketball lore made news, only this time in a more uplifting light. Per ESPN’s Michael Voepel:
The Bruins proved they could defend at just as high a level as Texas, which many might not have expected. Most figured that if this were a high-scoring game, it would favor the Bruins. But it was the exact opposite, and UCLA still won. The Bruins held Texas to 31% shooting (20-of-65). Junior All-American Madison Booker was the Longhorn who struggled the most and had a nightmare game: 3-of-23 for six points, her season low. Four of the UCLA starters scored in double figures, led by senior center Lauren Betts with 16 points, plus 11 rebounds. Kiki Rice had 11 points, including four key free throws in the final minute to seal the win, and fellow guards Gabriela Jaquez and Gianna Kneepkens each had 10 points.None of Texas’ starters scored in double figures; senior center Kyla Oldacre led the Longhorns with 11 points off the bench.
It sets up a pretty compelling Easter Sunday championship game between the re-ignited presence of Staley–herself already a WNBA pioneer, Hall of Fame coach with nine Final Fours and a title as recent as 2022–against the upstart Bruins, who have more than seized the opportunity to reclaim Los Angeles’ ADD-like spotlight in the wake of USC missing the supposed heir to Caitlin Clark, JuJu Watkins, for most of the season–hence falling so ignominiously to the Gamecocks so early. One that could indeed rival even Clark’s record-breaking title game of her own two Aprils ago–against South Carolina.
And if you’re defining success in the new-school manner that ESPN has been pushing that’s inclusive of viewing from its Unlimited streaming platform—because that’s the way especially college-age sports fans consumer content these days—they’re actually gonna be the icing on an already fully baked cake. Koffee had already parenthetically referenced that:
So far, the women’s NCAA tournament has amassed 3.3 billion total minutes viewed overall, setting it as the most-consumed opening rounds of March Madness on record.
And since that consumption also eventually includes encores, time-shifting and shortform content, if you’ve already scrolled through the memes above and clicked on the Carter-Ogwumike analysis (again; you should), you’re actually contributing to building upon that record yourself.
On behalf of all women’s sports fans, thank you and we’ll see you on Sunday.