18.9 million to 14.8 million. That is the amount of viewers the Women’s National Championship game drew compared to the Men’s. For the first time ever, the women’s game had more viewers. This was due to the colossal meeting between Iowa led by Caitlyn Clark, who many believe to be the best player in the nation, and an undefeated powerhouse in South Carolina.
The Gamecocks rolled into the matchup at 37-0, seeking to be the 10th undefeated team in women’s history. Clark, the back-to-back player of the year, and all time leading scorer in college basketball, sought to add a national championship to her already vast list of accolades.
Clark started the game scorching hot, scoring 18 points in the first quarter, a championship game record. In the second quarter however, the Gamecock’s Raven Johnson was switched onto Clark. Last season in the semifinal, Clark had scored 41 points against South Carolina, and also waved off Johnson, and left her open for a three, which Johnson would pass up.
Johnson would get her “get back,” which are the words she used in a text to teammate Bree Hall according to ESPN. Johnson would hold Clark to 12 points on 5-20 shooting over the remainder of the game. South Carolina would go on to win 87-75, winning their third national championship since 2017. The Gamecocks, and their impressive nine player rotation would dominate the Hawkeyes in the second half.
Clark would finish with 30 points. South Carolina dominated Iowa on the glass, out rebounding the Hawkeyes 51 to 29, and had 18 offensive rebounds. Senior, and the tournament’s most outstanding player, Kamilla Cardoso led the way for the Gamecocks, finishing with 15 points and 17 rebounds. Sophomore Chloe Kitts also had double digit boards, finishing with 10, along with 11 points.
The Men’s tournament saw two red hot teams squaring off against each other. The defending champion University of Connecticut Huskies had won their last five tournament games by an average of 25 points. Their title team the year prior had won their games by an average of 20. This year’s team was missing five of it’s top eight scorers from the season prior however. Despite this, the Huskies rolled into the tournament at 31-3, aiming to be the first team to win back to back national titles since the 2006-2007 Florida Gators.
Purdue rolled to the championship behind dominant performances from 7 ‘4 center Zach Edey. Edey came into the game averaging 28 points and 15.4 rebounds in the previous five games of the tournament. Edey and the Boilermakers had lost to 16-seed Farleigh Dickinson University the year prior. Purdue was set to take a page out of Viriginia’s book, and win a national championship a year after losing to a 16 seed.
UConn, once again, dominated. After a close 1st half, UConn would spend most of a not-closer second half up more than 12 points over the Boilermakers. Purdue came into the game as the best three-point shooting team in the country, but were limited to 1-7 shooting in the game as UConn’s tough peremiter defense shut down the Boilermakers’ shooters. Zach Edey still had a fantastic showing, finishing with 37 points and 10 rebounds. The tournament’s most outstanding player, Tristen Newton, finished the game with 20 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds.
UConn won all of its tournament games by a combined 140 points at an average of 23.3, surpassing the previous record holder, North Carlonia, set in 2009 with 125 points. Before last season, no team had won all six of their tournament games by 13 or more points. UConn has now done that two tournaments in a row. The Huskies have won six titles in the last 25 years, the most in that span. While they haven’t been dominant over the whole quarter century, they have the most hardware in their trophy case to show for it.
