The Iowa-LSU Elite Eight matchup became the most-watched women's college basketball game on record with 12.3 million viewers, surpassing last year's championship game. It was also ESPN's most viewed college game ever. The game attracted high viewership due to the thrilling rematch between the two powerhouse teams and the drama surrounding LSU's Angel Reese taunting Iowa's Caitlin Clark in a previous championship game.
The 2023 NCAA Division I women's basketball championship game was the final game of the 2023 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. It determined the national champion for the 2022–23 NCAA Division I women's basketball season and was contested by the Iowa Hawkeyes from the Big Ten Conference and the Louisiana State (LSU) Tigers from the Southeastern Conference. The game was played on April 2, 2023, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. In the game, LSU defeated Iowa 102–85 to win their first national championship, setting a record for most points scored by a team in an NCAA women's basketball championship game. LSU's Angel Reese recorded a double-double and was voted the Most Outstanding Player (MOP) of the Final Four.LSU's victory gave them their first women's basketball national championship and the fourth in the head coaching career of Kim Mulkey. Much media attention was directed to Angel Reese for a taunting gesture made to Iowa's Caitlin Clark near the end of the game. LSU held a championship parade in Baton Rouge and were invited to the White House.The championship game was televised on ABC and the broadcast broke numerous records, including the highest viewership for a women's college basketball game at 9.9 million; the semifinal game between Iowa and top-ranked South Carolina was itself the third-highest-viewed women's college basketball game in ESPN's history. It was also the most-viewed college sporting event ever shown on the ESPN+ streaming service, and the year-over-year viewership from the 2022 championship game more than doubled.
During Iowa's victory over LSU in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, actor Jason Sudeikis taunted LSU with a celebratory gesture, referencing a previous gesture made by LSU's Angel Reese. Iowa's Caitlin Clark led the team to victory with a strong performance, scoring 40 points. The rivalry between Clark and Reese adds excitement to the game, despite both players clarifying that there is no animosity between them.
LSU's Angel Reese and Iowa's Caitlin Clark, stars of the 2023 national championship game rematch, clarify that their on-court trash talk is part of the game and not personal animosity. LSU coach Kim Mulkey suggests criticism of the players' behavior may stem from sexism. Iowa's Hailey Van Lith defends the trash talk as entertaining and part of the game's attraction, expressing concerns about racially biased comments. Van Lith's transfer to LSU was influenced by the excitement of the championship game and admiration for coach Mulkey's coaching style.
Iowa's Caitlin Clark, considered the greatest scorer in Division I history, is facing challenges in the NCAA Tournament, shooting below her usual percentages and dealing with increased pressure and defensive tactics from opponents. Despite her struggles, Clark is balancing media attention, endorsements, and the expectations of carrying her team to success.
The LSU Tigers women's basketball team represents Louisiana State University in NCAA Division I women's college basketball. The team’s head coach is Kim Mulkey, the former head coach at Baylor University, who was hired on April 25, 2021 to replace Nikki Fargas, who had been head coach since the 2011–2012 season. The team plays its home games in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center located on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.LSU is the 2023 NCAA national champion, having defeated Iowa 102–85 in the national championship game.
All eyes were on the city of Albany on Monday night. More specifically, they were at the city's MVP arena which hosted the highly-anticipated LSU vs. Iowa rematch in the NCAA women's basketball tournament. However, some from Albany (Albanians?) are not happy with ESPN's Rebecca Lobo who called the game with her broadcast partner Ryan Ruocco. At one point in the game, the broadcasters were discussing Iowa star Caitlin Clark's family and how they were looking for ways to enjoy themselves in Albany.
The 2023 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 68 teams to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2022–23 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 41st edition of the tournament began in March 2023, and concluded on April 2, 2023 with the championship game at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.Big Sky champion Sacramento State, Atlantic 10 champion Saint Louis, Southland champion Southeastern Louisiana and WAC champion Southern Utah made their NCAA debuts, while CAA champions Monmouth made its first NCAA appearance since 1983.
The 2024 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament is an ongoing 68-team single-elimination tournament to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 42nd edition of the tournament began on March 20, 2024, and will conclude with the championship game on April 7, 2024 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.Big South champion Presbyterian, Southland champion Texas A&M–Corpus Christi, WAC champion California Baptist and at-large bid Columbia all made their NCAA tournament debuts. Additionally, Big Sky champion Eastern Washington made its second-ever appearance and first since 1987, Big West champion UC Irvine made its first appearance since 1995 and Sun Belt champion Marshall made its first appearance since 1997.
Angel Reese (born May 6, 2002) is an American college basketball player for the LSU Tigers of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Nicknamed the "Bayou Barbie", Reese attended Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore, Maryland, where she was awarded McDonald's All-American honors in 2020 and was ranked the number two player in her class by ESPN.Reese joined the Maryland Terrapins as the highest-ranked recruit in program history, but her freshman season in 2020–21 was interrupted by a fractured right foot. She was named a third-team All-American by the Associated Press as a sophomore. In her junior season, Reese transferred to LSU and was a unanimous first-team All-American selection. She led LSU to its first national championship, where she was Most Outstanding Player. Reese set the NCAA single-season record in double-doubles and the SEC single-season record in rebounds. As a senior, she was named SEC Player of the Year. At the international level, Reese helped the United States win a silver medal at the 2023 FIBA Women's AmeriCup. She is estimated to be one of the top earners among college athletes from name, image and likeness deals.
Popular upset picks like New Mexico, McNeese State, and Drake did not beat the odds in the men's Round of 64 in the NCAA basketball tournament. Only one upset occurred in the women's tournament so far. Over 22 million brackets were busted in ESPN's men's tournament bracket challenge. Historically, there has never been a tournament where every higher seed won a game, highlighting the unpredictability of March Madness.
In basketball, points are the sum of the score accumulated through free throws or field goals. In National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I basketball, where a player's career is at most four seasons under normal circumstances, it is considered a notable achievement to reach the 1,000-points scored threshold. In even rarer instances, players have reached the 2,000- and 3,000-point plateaus (no player, whether male or female, has ever scored 4,000 or more points at the Division I level). The top 25 highest scorers in NCAA Division I women's basketball history are listed below. While the NCAA's current three-division format has been in place since the 1973–74 season, it did not sponsor women's sports until the 1981–82 school year; before that time, women's college sports were governed by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).To be listed in the NCAA record book, a player must have been active in at least three seasons during the era in which the NCAA governed women's sports—although for those players who qualify for inclusion in the record book, AIAW statistics are included. Most notably, Lynette Woodard of Kansas, whose career total of 3,649 points made her the career scoring leader in women's major-college basketball before Iowa's Caitlin Clark passed her on February 28, 2024, was not recognized as the NCAA career leader because her entire college career (1977–81) predated NCAA sponsorship of women's sports.Some players among the top 25 scorers in Division I history played in the era before the three-point line was officially adopted in women's basketball on an experimental basis in 1986–87 and fully in 1987–88. All of the players with a dash through the three-point field goals column were affected by this rule. Valorie Whiteside of Appalachian State is the only three-point shot era player on this list who did not make a single three-point shot, and she only played in one season in which the use of the three-pointer was mandatory.The three-point distance was first marked at 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m) from the center of the basket, the same distance then used in NCAA men's basketball. From that point through the 2007–08 season, the three-point lines remained at 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m). On May 3, 2007, the NCAA men's basketball rules committee passed a measure to extend the distance of the men's three-point line back to 20 ft 9 in (6.32 m); the women's line remained at the original distance until it was moved to match the men's distance effective in 2011–12. The men's distance was changed to match the FIBA standard of 6.75 m (22 ft 1+1⁄2 in) in a two-phase implementation that took effect in 2019–20 in Division I and 2020–21 in Divisions II and III, but the women's distance was not changed until 2021–22, when it was moved to match the men's distance.The only player on this list to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is Cheryl Miller.Three players among the top 25 played basketball in more than four seasons. Rachel Banham of Minnesota tore her ACL 10 games into her senior season of 2014–15. She qualified for a medical hardship waiver, popularly known as a "medical redshirt", that allowed her to compete in a fifth season. Dyaisha Fair of Buffalo and Syracuse and Ashley Joens of Iowa State both benefited from a blanket NCAA waiver that did not count the 2020–21 season, which was impacted by COVID-19, against the athletic eligibility of any basketball player. Two players among the top 25 played at more than one school, Alysha Clark, who played two seasons at Belmont before transferring to Middle Tennessee, and Fair, who played the first three seasons of her career at Buffalo before transferring to Syracuse for her final two seasons of eligibility.
Caitlin Clark (born January 22, 2002) is an American college basketball player for the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference. She is the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer (for both women's and men's) and is regarded as one of the greatest players in college basketball history.Clark attended Dowling Catholic High School in her hometown of West Des Moines, Iowa, where she was named a McDonald's All-American and rated the fourth-best player in her class by ESPN. In her freshman season with Iowa, she led the NCAA Division I in scoring and earned All-American honors. As a sophomore, Clark was a unanimous first-team All-American and became the first women's player to lead the Division I in points and assists in a single season. In her junior season, she won all major national player of the year awards and led Iowa to its first national championship game. Clark again led the Division I in assists and set Big Ten single-season marks in points and assists. As a senior, she became the Division I women's career scoring leader and broke the conference all-time record in assists.At the youth international level, Clark has won three gold medals with the United States, including two at the FIBA Under-19 Women's World Cup, where she was named Most Valuable Player in 2021. During her college career, she has been credited with drawing unprecedented national interest to women's basketball, dubbed the "Caitlin Clark effect."
The Law Firm of Clark and Czinano, also known as The Law Firm, were a duo of college basketball players consisting of Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano, who both played for the Iowa Hawkeyes from 2020 to 2023. Developed under head coach Lisa Bluder, they were one of the top duos in NCAA Division I, leading Iowa to the 2023 national championship game, two Big Ten tournament titles and one Big Ten regular season title.
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