April 4, 2024 | SPORTS | By Alexis Cornachio
The early days of April mean we are in the thick of the 2024 Women’s and Men’s March Madness tournaments. My social media feed is flooded with basketball. Even my roommate, who has never picked up a basketball in her life, now follows a Paige Bueckers fan page on Instagram.
Bracketology, highlight reels, interview snippets, trash talk, brawls, three-point line discrepancies and politics all surface on our feeds daily. An overarching message is communicated: people are finally paying attention to women’s basketball.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Caitlin Clark. And if you haven’t, here’s a breakdown.
This past season, the 22-year-old Iowa star broke the record for the highest points scored of all college players, men’s and women’s. Clark’s record breaking three-pointer that made history was from the center court logo, significantly further from the actual three-point line. This notoriously difficult shot is a testament to Clark’s signature range.
Fans and crowds surge to watch Clark, breaking viewership records in the process. The Iowa-Louisiana State University (LSU) rematch on Monday night set an all-time record for viewership in women’s basketball, averaging 12.3 million viewers on ESPN. She’s the projected top WNBA draft pick and has garnered the attention of basketball fans across the nation. But it’s not just this star who’s responsible for the growth of the women’s game.
In an interview with University of Southern California (USC) head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, she attributed the success of women’s college basketball this season to the faces of the game. Her team’s star, freshman ‘JuJu’ Watkins, broke the record for most points scored as a freshman in NCAA Division I history. Some believed she would carry USC to the final four for the first time since 1986, and she almost did, scoring 29 points despite University of Connecticut’s (UConn) tight defense.
On Monday night in the USC-UConn game, the matchup to watch was Watkins against Paige Bueckers. The UConn star Bueckers sat out all last season due to a knee injury. Coming back, Bueckers is arguably one of the top players of the moment, along with Watkins and Clark.
Bueckers helped push UConn through to the semi-finals on Monday night. Bueckers scored 28 points to Watkin’s 29 in the game, pushing UConn a step closer to the title.
People seem to be invested in these individual player matchups, watching star powers compete against one another in an effort to bring the women’s game to the next level. In Monday night’s Elite Eight games, the storyline centered around LSU’s Angel Reese and Iowa’s Clark, as the two faced off for the second time since a heated title championship in ‘23.Last year LSU walked away with the ring. This year, Iowa kicked them out of the Final Four.
In the past week of the tournament, four teams have punched their tickets to the Final Four. The first team to establish their spot was undefeated University of South Carolina (USC) Gamecocks. The Gamecocks, led by former women’s college basketball star Coach Dawn Staley, are popularly projected to win the tournament and have been deemed legendary.
USC will face North Carolina State University in the semifinals. The NC State Wolfpack, coached by Wes Moore, is not expected to win, however, they were not expected to win their last two matchups against higher seeds. Who’s to say the Wolfpack can’t make another upset? It’s March Madness; anything can happen.
Prior to the tournament, USC battled LSU for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) title. The competition was fierce. Watching the Gamecocks’ Kamilla Cardoso and defending champion LSU’s Angel Reese battle it out was a matchup to remember. The game ended with a brawl in the last minutes of play which started with LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson pulling the arm of an USC player who just stole the ball off her dribble.
The technical foul conspired into shoves and words thrown in all different directions, referees and coaches pulling players from each other. Cardoso received the brunt of the media backlash. After shoving Johnson to the ground and being ejected from the championship game, Cardoso was automatically suspended by the NCAA from playing in the next game, which was the first game in the 2024 tournament.
The media spotlighted Cardoso’s shove, even though she was just one of multiple players who were shoving and ‘jawing’ as well. It seems that the players were just in the heat of the moment, but, of course, sports media loves to feed into the version of the interaction that will receive the most traction and the storylines that will reinforce harmful stereotypes about the players.
The popularized narrative is that LSU is the most polarizing team in women’s basketball, entwined with tensions of racism. This past week, the LA Times published an article calling the predominantly black LSU team the “villains” of women’s college basketball and “dirty debutantes.”
The author of the overtly racist and sexist article Ben Bolch, offered an apology on Monday April 2 for the offensive language used in the article. The central question communicated by Bolch was, “who do you want to see win, UCLA, ‘America’s Sweethearts and milk and cookies of college basketball, or LSU, dirty debutantes and Louisiana hot sauce.’?”
His coded words contribute to the hate received by senior leader of LSU, Reese, who had been labeled a villain by popular media because of her reputation for trash-talking her competitors.
LSU teammate Haley Van Lith in an interview condemning the article and defending her teammates, commented that calling her team “dirty debutantes” and terms alike, is not motivational.
In the postgame interview on Monday night after losing to Iowa, Reese reflected, “I haven’t had peace since we won the title last year,” commenting on the adversity she and the team have confronted throughout their regular season and the NCAA tournament.
Reese and the LSU team have been a large part of placing women’s college basketball on the map. In an interview a few days after the Los Angeles Times article surfaced, teammate Flau’jae Johnson responded to what it feels like being a part of history and how important it is for her and her teammates to continue being themselves in this sport, to interrupt dominant narratives and inspire the next generation of players.
Reese leaves us with an important sentiment, “I’m still a human” responding to the critics she’s faced in her basketball career, who have judged her based on assumptions instead of her person. As of April 3, Reese plans to enter the draft for the WNBA.
This upcoming weekend presents more big-time matchups. On Friday, No. 1 undefeated USC Gamecocks vs. No. 3 NCSU Wolfpack at p.m. MST. Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes face Bueckers and UConn for a chance at the final which will air on Sunday at 1 p.m. MST.