Post by WBBDaily on Mar 28, 2023 15:27:49 GMT -5
Iowa vs. South Carolina: The Final 4 matchup we wanted, the one the sport deserves
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Dawn Staley wasn’t ready to talk about Iowa and Caitlin Clark just yet Monday night.
It was 10 p.m. at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, and Staley, wearing another Final Four hat after No. 1 seed South Carolina’s 86-75 win against No. 2 seed Maryland, didn’t want to look ahead to the Gamecocks’ Final Four opponent.
“We’re gonna have these questions for the next four days, so I want to enjoy our team,” Staley said, politely declining to comment on the Hawkeyes. “Getting to another Final Four is pretty special, so we’re gonna answer the Iowa, Caitlin Clark questions in the near future.”
Staley was well within reason to want to savor the moment Monday night with her team. South Carolina, 36-0, is on a historic run in its quest to win its second consecutive national championship and third title since 2017. This particular Gamecocks team will go down as one of the sport’s best.
But, with all due respect to Staley, she might have been alone on wanting to wait to talk about the looming showdown.
By 9:51 p.m., Staley and Clark, Iowa’s do-it-all star whose 40-point triple-double against Louisville on Sunday was the first in the men’s or women’s NCAA Tournament history, were already trending on Twitter.
By 10:13 p.m., ESPN’s in-studio crew was already breaking down the matchup on the network.
Aliyah Boston vs. Caitlin Clark. No. 1 seed vs. No. 2 seed. Offense-fueled vs. defense-powered. Two rabid fan bases who each passionately believe their star should win national Player of the Year honors. This is the matchup women’s basketball deserves. Though the teams don’t have much of a mutual history and Iowa’s yet to win a title, this feels like a budding rivalry we’ve all waited for — especially as the sport grows exponentially. And for this meeting to come in the Final Four just makes it all the more delicious.
“Everyone has their attention all over the place for their specific fan bases, but I feel like everybody has been looking forward to this matchup since last year when we were supposed to meet up,” Boston said. “It’s a great game.”
Indeed, these two teams were headed toward a meeting in last year’s tournament before the Hawkeyes dipped out early after a shocking second-round upset at the hands of No. 10 seed Creighton.
South Carolina went on to win the national championship comfortably against UConn, which just this week snapped its streak of 14 consecutive Final Fours after Ohio State knocked the Huskies out of the tournament. UConn will be back, everyone in women’s basketball agrees. Especially with All-American Paige Bueckers returning from injury next season.
But after years of the Huskies and their rivalries with Tennessee and Notre Dame dominating the sport, the Gamecocks of the South and the Hawkeyes of the Midwest squaring off is just what we’ve all been craving.
Iowa has the nation’s most exciting offense, averaging 87.6 points per game. South Carolina has the nation’s most dominant defense, holding opponents to just 50.4 points per game. And both teams are the gold standard for fan attendance. The Gamecocks averaged 12,942 fans per home game, good for the best mark in the nation. Iowa wasn’t far behind with 10,705 fans per game in the regular season. And that this matchup comes on the cusp of women’s basketball at a crossroads with its media rights makes it all the riper for the sport at large.
“We need to have the television coverage and we need to have the money in women’s basketball that it can provide,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said after Clark’s 40-burger. “We’ve been shortchanging ourselves for years and years. But certainly, when you have a product like this, a game like this it helps make it really seem like, yeah, this is a no-brainer.”
The Clark-Boston player-of-the-year debate in itself is an important one for the sport, too. Clark is the exhilarating scorer, a 6-foot guard coming off her record-setting 41-point, 12-assist, 10-rebound performance. With a 27.3-point average, she’s ranked third nationally in scoring, and her 8.6 assists per game lead the country. Boston is the ultimate two-way player, a 6-foot-5 forward who stuffs the stat line with 12.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. She’s the reason the Gamecocks have won 42 games in a row.
However, this year’s POY debate is important to women’s basketball not simply to decipher who most deserves the award, but also because the debate at all exists. For years, the sport was measured in overall collective success, but these meaty and feisty and fun hypothetical arguments are just another entry point for new fans to engage in the sport.
Boston said she would allow herself the duration of the bus ride home between Greenville and Columbia, about a 90-minute trek down Interstate 26, to enjoy the Gamecocks’ Elite Eight victory against Maryland.
Senior guard Zia Cooke, who scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds against Maryland, said the Gamecocks “definitely” watched the Hawkeyes beat Louisville, but she also wanted to cherish Monday night. She would scout them when the time came.
That time is here for the rest of us, only intensifying as we get closer to Friday’s tipoff in Dallas.
“(Iowa is a) great team. They like to score the ball. They like to push in transition,” Boston said. “Caitlin shoots the ball really well. She also finds her teammates really well. So we’re just gonna scout them, have our game plan and be ready to go.”
Told that Clark was already trending on Twitter shortly after South Carolina’s game ended, Cooke and Boston giggled at the news conference dais. Perhaps they were giddy about the matchup. Or maybe that was their competitive juices already flowing.
Before Clark knew for certain she’d face South Carolina, on Sunday in Seattle, she said: “I love to play this game. I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was a little girl. I’ve always wanted to take a team to the Final Four and be in these moments and have confetti fall down on me.”
Either way, women’s basketball is in for a treat. Grab your popcorn.
It was 10 p.m. at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, and Staley, wearing another Final Four hat after No. 1 seed South Carolina’s 86-75 win against No. 2 seed Maryland, didn’t want to look ahead to the Gamecocks’ Final Four opponent.
“We’re gonna have these questions for the next four days, so I want to enjoy our team,” Staley said, politely declining to comment on the Hawkeyes. “Getting to another Final Four is pretty special, so we’re gonna answer the Iowa, Caitlin Clark questions in the near future.”
Staley was well within reason to want to savor the moment Monday night with her team. South Carolina, 36-0, is on a historic run in its quest to win its second consecutive national championship and third title since 2017. This particular Gamecocks team will go down as one of the sport’s best.
But, with all due respect to Staley, she might have been alone on wanting to wait to talk about the looming showdown.
By 9:51 p.m., Staley and Clark, Iowa’s do-it-all star whose 40-point triple-double against Louisville on Sunday was the first in the men’s or women’s NCAA Tournament history, were already trending on Twitter.
By 10:13 p.m., ESPN’s in-studio crew was already breaking down the matchup on the network.
Aliyah Boston vs. Caitlin Clark. No. 1 seed vs. No. 2 seed. Offense-fueled vs. defense-powered. Two rabid fan bases who each passionately believe their star should win national Player of the Year honors. This is the matchup women’s basketball deserves. Though the teams don’t have much of a mutual history and Iowa’s yet to win a title, this feels like a budding rivalry we’ve all waited for — especially as the sport grows exponentially. And for this meeting to come in the Final Four just makes it all the more delicious.
“Everyone has their attention all over the place for their specific fan bases, but I feel like everybody has been looking forward to this matchup since last year when we were supposed to meet up,” Boston said. “It’s a great game.”
Indeed, these two teams were headed toward a meeting in last year’s tournament before the Hawkeyes dipped out early after a shocking second-round upset at the hands of No. 10 seed Creighton.
South Carolina went on to win the national championship comfortably against UConn, which just this week snapped its streak of 14 consecutive Final Fours after Ohio State knocked the Huskies out of the tournament. UConn will be back, everyone in women’s basketball agrees. Especially with All-American Paige Bueckers returning from injury next season.
But after years of the Huskies and their rivalries with Tennessee and Notre Dame dominating the sport, the Gamecocks of the South and the Hawkeyes of the Midwest squaring off is just what we’ve all been craving.
Iowa has the nation’s most exciting offense, averaging 87.6 points per game. South Carolina has the nation’s most dominant defense, holding opponents to just 50.4 points per game. And both teams are the gold standard for fan attendance. The Gamecocks averaged 12,942 fans per home game, good for the best mark in the nation. Iowa wasn’t far behind with 10,705 fans per game in the regular season. And that this matchup comes on the cusp of women’s basketball at a crossroads with its media rights makes it all the riper for the sport at large.
“We need to have the television coverage and we need to have the money in women’s basketball that it can provide,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said after Clark’s 40-burger. “We’ve been shortchanging ourselves for years and years. But certainly, when you have a product like this, a game like this it helps make it really seem like, yeah, this is a no-brainer.”
The Clark-Boston player-of-the-year debate in itself is an important one for the sport, too. Clark is the exhilarating scorer, a 6-foot guard coming off her record-setting 41-point, 12-assist, 10-rebound performance. With a 27.3-point average, she’s ranked third nationally in scoring, and her 8.6 assists per game lead the country. Boston is the ultimate two-way player, a 6-foot-5 forward who stuffs the stat line with 12.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. She’s the reason the Gamecocks have won 42 games in a row.
However, this year’s POY debate is important to women’s basketball not simply to decipher who most deserves the award, but also because the debate at all exists. For years, the sport was measured in overall collective success, but these meaty and feisty and fun hypothetical arguments are just another entry point for new fans to engage in the sport.
Boston said she would allow herself the duration of the bus ride home between Greenville and Columbia, about a 90-minute trek down Interstate 26, to enjoy the Gamecocks’ Elite Eight victory against Maryland.
Senior guard Zia Cooke, who scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds against Maryland, said the Gamecocks “definitely” watched the Hawkeyes beat Louisville, but she also wanted to cherish Monday night. She would scout them when the time came.
That time is here for the rest of us, only intensifying as we get closer to Friday’s tipoff in Dallas.
“(Iowa is a) great team. They like to score the ball. They like to push in transition,” Boston said. “Caitlin shoots the ball really well. She also finds her teammates really well. So we’re just gonna scout them, have our game plan and be ready to go.”
Told that Clark was already trending on Twitter shortly after South Carolina’s game ended, Cooke and Boston giggled at the news conference dais. Perhaps they were giddy about the matchup. Or maybe that was their competitive juices already flowing.
Before Clark knew for certain she’d face South Carolina, on Sunday in Seattle, she said: “I love to play this game. I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was a little girl. I’ve always wanted to take a team to the Final Four and be in these moments and have confetti fall down on me.”
Either way, women’s basketball is in for a treat. Grab your popcorn.