Caitlin Clark

I hope that you all stayed up late last night to watch the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship Semi-Final match-up between the University of South Carolina and the University of Iowa.  This game had the build up, to me at least, of any game thus far in the Men's tournament.  On one side was South Carolina, undefeated, defending champion, riding a forty-two game winning streak, and featuring Aliyah Boston, the 2021-22 Player of the Year.  On the other side was Iowa, champions of the Big Ten and featuring 2022-23 Player of the Year, Caitlin Clark, who over the course of the season became the incandescent star for women's college basketball and who was coming off of a 40 point triple double in the Regional Finals game.

The game and Clark delivered.  Iowa led for much of the first half, but SC stayed with them, despite Boston being on the bench for the last five minutes of the first quarter and all of the second quarter due to early foul trouble, and Iowa took a one point lead into the locker room at half-time.  They held the led throughout the third quarter, leading b as many as nine points at one time, and held a four point lead at the end of the third.  Fifty seconds into the fourth, Carolina took a 60-59 lead.  Clark responded with a three pointer fifteen seconds later, and Iowa never lost the lead from that point on.  Like Ali and Frazier in Manilla, Carolina never let the Hawkeyes get away from them, closing to within one point with 4:01 remaining, but in the end, Iowa held on to win 77-73.

"Terrific" doesn't even begin to describe this game.  To reuse the metaphor from the previous paragraph, it was like a classic heavyweight championship fight, or maybe it was like Ohtani vs. Trout from the World Baseball Classic.  This game was, as I say time and again, the reason why you follow sports, and the overwhelming star of the game was Caitlin Clark.   If you have never seen her play, make Sunday afternoon's championship game between Iowa and LSU appointment viewing.  She is incredible to watch.  She can shoot and score, she had 41 points last night, and her passing is remarkable.  It was like watching John Stockton dish the ball and she hit her teammates.  She had eight assists last night, and she either scored or assisted on all 18 of Iowa's fourth quarter points.   (And in an oddball but fun statistic, Clark has scored mored points in these five NCAA tourney games than Iowa's football team did in the entire 2022 season.)  South Carolina, a great defensive team, threw everything they could to stop her, but in the words of the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins, "Clark cut through that defense like scissors shearing fabric."

Sally Jenkins is, of course, a far more elegant writer than I, so I would suggest you read her piece from today's Post HERE.

As I said earlier, do yourself a favor and tune into the Championship game between Iowa and LSU at 3:30 tomorrow, Sunday, afternoon.