April 11, 2024 | SPORTS | By Alexis Cornachio
The 2023-24 women’s college basketball regular season and certainly their March Madness tournament told us why we should care about women’s sports.
Whether it was watching Caitlin Clark throw up deep-ranged three-pointers over unrelenting defense, watching freshman JuJu Watkins perform like a senior and lead her team to the Elite Eight, Paige Bueckers’s return from an ACL tear her junior season and being stronger than ever or by simply following the legacy of Dawn Staley and South Carolina’s undefeated season –– the women of college basketball generated unprecedented attention this season.
The Final Four games began with two matchups on Friday evening, the first being a regional matchup between North Carolina State University and South Carolina State University. NC State fought when no one expected them to, and they belonged on that stage. In the second half, SC pulled away and punched their next ticket to the 2024 women’s final, the final score 78-59. In my opinion, not enough people were talking about SC at this point in the tournament because their attention was on the next game’s matchup, Iowa vs University of Connecticut.
I unintentionally conducted a social experiment where I hosted a watch party for both games and waited to see how many of my friends would show up for each game. The lack of viewership in my living room for NC-SC could’ve very likely been attributed to Fun Run ending just an hour before the tip-off; however I stand by my claim, SC deserves more attention than they got this season.
The Iowa-UConn game was a must-see matchup between Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and UConn’s Paige Bueckers. The viewership for the game averaged 14.2 million viewers on ESPN, making the broadcast the most-viewed women’s basketball game and the largest audience for an ESPN basketball showing of all time. That was at least until Sunday’s final between South Carolina-Iowa, which shattered all viewership records, averaging 18.7 million views. If you are stunned, feel free to look up “how many viewers for the men’s final Purdue v. UConn” (it was about 14.8 million).
Unlike Louisiana State University’s defense or lack thereof, in their Elite Eight against Iowa, UConn was able to hold Clark to only 21 points (remember, she’s Caitlin Clark). Both semi-final games were tied at halftime, making it impossible to peel your eyes away from the screen during the second half without missing something. Iowa made a run in the fourth quarter, the game finishing in a nail-biter; Iowa clinched a spot in the final with just a two-point difference (69-71). UConn’s most valuable player (MVP) award in my opinion, goes to the hardworking forward Aaliyah Edwards who was top scorer for her team with 17 points and remained a force to be reckoned with in the post. Edwards is the predicted 6th pick in the upcoming WNBA draft.
What’s great for big fans of Paige Bueckers is that Bueckers recently announced she was staying with UConn for the 2024-25 season. Now, she gets to compete for UConn with a different chip on her shoulder.
However, looking ahead to the next March Madness tournament, my money might be on SC with the momentum they’ve gained from this past season. The victorious SC team has two greatest strengths: Kamila Cardoso and their bench depth. Cardoso is the senior leader and one of the WNBA’s top picks in the upcoming draft. In both the semi and final games, Cardoso was the top scorer for the Gamecocks with 22 and 15 points, respectively. Now, their second biggest strength: in the Gamecocks’s 87-75 win over Iowa Sunday they had the ability to substitute in any of their bench and expect starter-quality-play. The quantity of great players for SC won them the title and allowed them to have the season they did.
Take Raven Johnson for example, the sophomore on her ‘revenge tour’ had Clark on lock-down defense after being humiliated in last year’s Final Four. Clark waved off the then-freshman Johnson as she was dribbling just outside the three-point ring leaving her unguarded. This year, Johnson was determined to turn the tables on the Hawkeyes.
There has also been discourse surrounding the Gamecocks’s coach, Dawn Staley entering rarefied air for her achievements within the sport and how she built the unmatched SC team this past year. Her respect for the players within the sport and SC competitors is a reflection of her class and humility as a leader.
Iowa, back-to-back national runners-up, but I’d put coach Lisa Bluder, Clark and the unsung heroes of the Iowa team including Kate Martin, Gabby Marshall, Hannah Stuelke and Sydney Affolter as one of, if not the top team contributing to the growth of women’s basketball, testing the boundaries of the women’s game and drawing never before seen viewership numbers. What’s even more exciting: women’s sports are just starting to get the attention they deserve.