A few years back when ESPN shifted the schedule of Women’s March Madness by a day to create a bit more opportunity for its games to stand out from the simultaneous men’s tournament it was generally seen as a concession that, head-to-head, more people care about the boys than the girls. Creating another night of basketball of any kind was the primary goal; besides, it filled a few more hours during a time of year when tonnage of significance is limited.
But that was before the recent explosion and interest in women’s college hoops, which reached its boiling point a year and a day ago when Iowa and LSU met on a sunny April Fool’s Day afternoon, where a good deal of new people discovered the majestry of Caitlin Clark and the confidence of Angel Reese. It was a tense battle which Reese and her Tigers were able to win, with a record 9.9 million viewers on the ABC/ESPN family of networks and platforms capitvated. Reese continued to grow her record-setting social media profile in the wake of her attitudinal win, while Clark proceeded to methodically break virtually every single record of consequence as well as regular season TV ratings.
So the rematch between them that kicked off an Elite Elight doubleheader last night was heavily anticipated and hyped. And because of the geographies and the demographics of their respective fan bases, it would not be inaccurate to observe this was as much of an ideological war as it was a basketball showdown. Both good and bad, it did not disappoint. Per the Associated Press:
Caitlin Clark made nine 3-pointers and finished with 41 points and 12 assists as Iowa knocked defending national champion LSU out of the women’s NCAA Tournament with a 94-87 victory on Monday night, advancing the Hawkeyes to their second straight Final Four.
And while Clark gets to extend her college career by yet another game on her way to the WNBA’s Indiana Fever by summer, Reese will likely return for another go-round, but not without a good deal of pain and self-reflection, which she allowed herself to express during last night’s post-mortem. As BLEACHER REPORT’s Scott Polacek reported:
Basketball was far from the only thing on LSU star Angel Reese’s mind after her team’s 94-87 loss to Iowa in Monday’s Elite Eight game of the 2024 NCAA women’s tournament.
“I just try to stay strong,” she told reporters. “I’ve been through so much. I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times. Death threats, I’ve been sexualized, I’ve been threatened. I’ve been so many things, and I’ve stood strong every single time.
“… I’m still human. All this has happened since I won the national championship, and I said the other day, I haven’t been happy since then.”
The nightcap featured an equally compelling battle between old and new. And while even casual fans of the women’s game know the legacy and track record of UConn and its storied coach Geno Auriemma, they’ve rarely seen him and his Huskies in the role of an underdog (pardon the pun). As ESPN’s Alexa Philippou reported:
A slew of injuries hampered the Huskies for a third straight season. They hardly looked like a Final Four team when they lost three games in the first month and took more recent hits in nonconference play with losses to South Carolina and Notre Dame.
But they still had one player who could transcend all else — Paige Bueckers — and a cast of supporting characters who came through to put UConn back in the Final Four like it never left.
Behind Bueckers’ 28 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, the third-seeded Huskies defeated 1-seed USC 80-73 in the Portland 3 regional final on Monday to secure the program’s 23rd Final Four appearance and 15th in the past 16 women’s NCAA tournaments.
With six minutes and one second left on the clock in the second quarter of Monday night’s Elite Eight matchup with UConn, USC’s JuJu Watkins held the ball at the top of the three-point line with Paige Bueckers guarding.
Watkins stepped to the right and stepped back before draining a deep three-pointer. The three was instrumental in keeping the Trojans in Monday’s game, and it was also Watkins’ 899th point of the season.
While USC went on to lose to the Huskies in the Elite Eight at the Moda Center, the Trojans’ star freshman left with the NCAA women’s basketball freshman scoring record that has stood since before Geno Auriemma started coaching at UConn.
“It’s definitely an honor. … Not really the terms I would like to end on, on my season, I mean, I’m just blessed,” Watkins said after the Elite Eight loss to the Huskies. “This program has offered me a lot. I’m so grateful for it. It’s just been a great season.” The record is great. Just the moments that I’ve got to spend with this team have meant everything to me. I’m just excited for next year”.
And with USC heading for the Big Ten, the conference which Clark will be departing, there’s ample reason for that excitement among not only Trojan Nation, but the country at large.
Clark and Bueckers will square off on Friday night in Cleveland, with the not-to-be-dismissed and still unbeaten South Carolina Gamecocks trying to hold off their ACC rivals from North Carolina State. That too is a delicious storyline, as the Wolfpack will join the Huskies as arguably the unlikeliest of schools to field Final Four squads in both the men’s and women’s tournaments simultaneously.
It was definitely a banner night for women’s hoops; potentially its most-viewed night ever. And the best part is all signs point to that record being broken in the not too distant future, too.
Courage…