By: T-Nap
The most watched Women’s College Basketball tournament game:
In the NCAA Women’s tournament, Iowa and LSU set the all-time record for Women’s College Basketball viewership in their elite-8 matchup pulling in 12.3 million viewers for the heavily anticipated rematch between Iowa’s, Caitlin Clark and LSU’s, Angel Reese. LSU and Iowa met in the Championship game last season and a record 9.9 million watched as LSU took down Iowa 102-85 to claim the NCAA Championship title. This year, the 2 teams met in the Elite-8 and Iowa got some sweet revenge as they captured a 94-87 win over LSU. Iowa star, Caitlin Clark netted 41 points, had 12 assists and pulled down 7 rebounds. Angel Reese for LSU had 17 points and 20 rebounds in the game. The elite-8 game had about a 33% viewership increase over the 2023 Championship game.
This years NCAA Women’s tournament will most likely continue to set viewership records with the final-4 featuring four power-house programs and College Basketball’s new all-time leading scorer and emerging super-star, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.
Caitlin Clark of Iowa:
22-year-old Iowa star, Caitlin Clark has become one of the biggest names perhaps ever in all of college basketball. Clark has accomplished unthinkable records including breaking the all-time scoring-record in all of D1 college basketball! Caitlin Clark broke the all-time record for Women’s college basketball surpassing Kelsey Plums 3,527 points during a 49-point performance vs Michigan on February 16th. Less than a month later, Clark surpassed the all-time Men’s leading scorer, Pete Maravich’s record 3,667 points with a 35-point performance versus #2 Ohio back on March 3rd. Caitlin Clark had an all-time D1 record-total of 3,685 career points heading into this years March Madness tournament. Clark was also recently offered a $5-million dollar deal to play in Ice Cube’s Big-3 league which would make her the highest-paid Women’s basketball professional athlete. Caitlin Clark has very-deservedly earned a huge following and seems to be a great idol for all the young Female athletes out there.
Next up for #1 seeded Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes is a meeting with basketball-powerhouse #3 Uconn Huskies on Friday (April 5th) at 9pm. The winner of the game will head to the NCAA Women’s College Basketball Championship. In the other semi-final matchup of the NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament, #3 NC State battles #1 South Carolina on Friday (April 5th) at 7pm.
UConn Huskies:
#1 Iowa Hawkeyes (33-4) will be facing the most championship winning program in the Semi-Finals matchup, #3 UConn Huskies (33-5). The Huskies are the most storied program in women’s college basketball. The school boasts more national titles than any other program (11) and hasn’t missed an NCAA Tournament since 1988. UConn has been to at least the Sweet 16 every season since 1993.
UConn features a star of their own named Paige Bueckers. Bueckers was the #1 rated recruit in the class of 2020 (Clark was #4 rated recruit) and is the Huskies leading scorer with 22 ppg (points per game). UConn also features 6-foot-3 Aaliyah Edwards who averages 17.3 ppg and 9.3 rebounds per a game. Bueckers and Edwards combined for a whopping 52 points and 16 rebounds in UConn’s elite 8 80-73 win over #1 seeded USC.
UConn beat Iowa in their last 2 meetings including 92-72 in the 2021 tournament and 86-79 in a regular season meeting on November 27th 2022. Clark will be looking for revenge after losing the last 2 games vs UConn and not receiving much attention from the Huskies and long-time coach Geno Auriemma.
#3 NC State VS #1 South Carolina:
In the other matchup, #3 NC State (31-6) takes on undefeated #1 South Carolina (36-0). South Carolina comes into the game a heavy-favorite who has not lost yet this season. South Carolina has been an extremely dominant force this season beating their opponents by an average of 29.6 PPG. This is the fourth straight Final-4 for this years AP Coach of the Year, Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks. Including this season, Coach Staley has led South Carolina to the final-4 6 times and the program has 2 Championship titles, they won the title in 2017 defeating Mississippi State 67-55 and in 2022 with a 64-49 win over UConn. South Carolina is attempting to become the 1st undefeated champion since the UConn Huskies in 2016. The South Carolina Gamecocks are a very well-rounded team featuring 3 different players who average double-digit points per a game; Kamilla Cardoso (14.1), Milaysia Fulwiley (11.9) and Te-hina Paopao (10.9). South Carolina is also the top rebounding team in the nation averaging 46.3 rebounds-per-game.
North Carolina State is also a very well-rounded offensive team featuring 5 players who average double-digit points per a game; Saniya Rivers (12.7), Mimi Collins (10.7), River Baldwin (10.6), Madison Hayes (10.4) and Aziaha James is the offensive team-leader averaging 16.7 ppg.
Championship Details:
Two great matchups on Friday night which should lead to an epic NCAA Women’s Championship game on Sunday evening. The two winning teams in Friday’s matchups will advance to the 2024 Championship game and play at 3pm, Sunday April 7th. The NCAA Women’s Final-4 is played this weekend at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio.
