CBS must be getting a little worried.

Lost AZ.

Still have UCONN, obviously...but they're not exactly a ratings powerhouse.

Might be the most underrated "mini-dynasty" program in recent memory, though.

 

At any rate, they have to be really desperate for UNC to overcome 'Bama and Nate Oats.

(Fwiw, the Brandon Miller Tide team had so much more NBA talent, but this is definitely a better college team, overall.)

Edited March 29, 20242 yr by caulfield12

Illinois really taking it to ISU out of the gate...let's see if they can weather the storm.

42 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Illinois really taking it to ISU out of the gate...let's see if they can weather the storm.

The game would be over if we could hit FTs.

1 hour ago, chw42 said:

The game would be over if we could hit FTs.

If they can get past Alabama...just might end up against Purdue for a spot in the championship game.

Houston/Duke looks like the marquee match-up tmrw, theoretically leading to a match-up with UConn.

21 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

If they can get past Alabama...just might end up against Purdue for a spot in the championship game.

Houston/Duke looks like the marquee match-up tmrw, theoretically leading to a match-up with UConn.

I don't think Illinois is gonna beat UConn. But you never know.

10 hours ago, chw42 said:

I don't think Illinois is gonna beat UConn. But you never know.

Yea gonna be a really tough one to beat, but I think UConn isn't ready for us either.  Hopefully it's a good game.

19 hours ago, chw42 said:

I don't think Illinois is gonna beat UConn. But you never know.

Probably not but Illinois will have the best player on the court and that should always give you a chance in basketball

9 hours ago, bigruss said:

Yea gonna be a really tough one to beat, but I think UConn isn't ready for us either.  Hopefully it's a good game.

Both teams are great offensively. But UConn is much better defensively. I was actually impressed at how good we were defensively yesterday (especially the first half). Part of that might have been Iowa State forgetting how to play basketball though. I thought we were gonna struggle badly on offense against that style of defense, but we did a great job of passing out of doubles and finding the open guy. 

The way I see it, if we get hot from 3 and we actually hit our FTs, I think we can hang. UConn is an 8.5 point favorite ATM. That's usually a spread you see when a top team plays like the 8th or 9th seed. Not playing another top 10 team. 

https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/basketball-women/2024/03/29/vanessa-bryant-nike-kobe-iowa-basketball-caitlin-clark-march-madness-ncaa-tournament-venice-beach/73151300007/

30-0run, wtf

Great season, terrible loss.  Just enjoying the season for what it was though, today is what it is.

Uconn is BAMF

1 hour ago, T R U said:

30-0run, wtf

Illinois didn't score for a quarter of the game. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. 

It's sad cause we actually looked like we could hang for the first 18 minutes. 

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/lsu-womens-basketball-coach-kim-184734424.html

"LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey subjected to harsh lens that no male coach is..."

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39842250/womens-march-madness-2024-iowa-lsu-caitlin-clark-angel-reese-elite-eight

Edited March 31, 20242 yr by caulfield12

My mom's side of the family has a few Purdue grads to congrats to them on reaching the Final Four.

Burns vs Edey in the final four is going to be so much fun

On 3/30/2024 at 8:02 PM, bigruss said:

Great season, terrible loss.  Just enjoying the season for what it was though, today is what it is.

Illinois had an incredibly good team. It's impossible to explain how they got buried by a 30-0 run. Illini got a great team, a very good coach, can we blame this one on starting times of games for the U of I? ... So it's Bama-UConn and Purdue-NC State. Purdue-UConn is a very competitive final. Or I think it would be.

Massey Ratings (Pre Elite Eight)

Elite Eight Simulator

• East Region: 1 South Carolina 73 over 3 Oregon State 59 (Correct)
• Midwest Region: 1 Iowa 82 over 3 Louisiana State 80
• South Region: 1 Texas 68 over 3 North Carolina State 63 (Wrong)
• West Region: 3 Connecticut 72 over 1 Southern California 64

Championship Odds:

1. 41.11% 1E South Carolina
2. 18.41% 3W Connecticut
3. 11.40% 1S Texas
4. 11.03% 1M Iowa
5. 8.57% 3M Louisiana State
6. 4.69% 3S North Carolina State
7. 3.00% 1W Southern California
8. 1.79% 3E Oregon State

Was waiting for a Fathom comment...

Still not going to predict a championship for Iowa when they still would have to get through USC/UConn and then likely South Carolina (yet again).

Watched the first quarter at home before going to work and thought it was going to end up as an LSU blowout the way things were trending, honestly.

On the plus side, Hannah Stuelke (foul trouble) and Gabbie Marshall didn't provide their normal games on offense but still won that game pretty comfortably.  Not sure if Clark has another game like that in her.  The biggest issue is the tendency to relax a bit after a hyped up game like that, but pretty hard to imagine the attention letting up with the media salivating over potential match-ups of star players colliding.

 

And now we get another week of Clark vs. Bueckers/Watkins hype...

Love that Iowa won.  Mulkey is a horrible person and Reese is a jerk.

Auriemma added that his comments came simply from the fact that he truly believed Bueckers was the best player in the country, ahead of Clark, after coaching her throughout the season. "I think every coach thinks the player that's on their team that's helping them the most is the best player," the 70-year-old continued.

"Listen, I've coached the best player in the country a lot more than anybody else coaching in this tournament; it's OK for somebody else to say their player is."

Auriemma added that if fans were to compare Bueckers and Clark's statistics and their overall impact on their respective team's success, the former would be considered the better player, regardless of accolades. "If you go by stats, if you go by efficiency, if you go by the entire box score and what she means to our team playing power forward, I think she's done more for our team than anybody else could've done on our team. And I wouldn't trade her for anyone else."

The legendary head coach's comments come after he received flak for claiming Bueckers was the overall better player than the Hawkeyes' star following a second-round NCAA Tournament over Syracuse. "We have the best player in America," Auriemma said at the time. "The whole statsheet says that she is."

 

https://www.themirror.com/sport/basketball/geno-auriemma-paige-bueckers-praise-413352

 

Bulletin board material already provided, as well as the media-approved storyline moving from Bird vs. Magic to Bird vs. Bird (Larry, not Sue, haha).  UConn's been pretty salty about being overlooked the last couple of seasons in the face of the South Carolina onslaught, not featured on ABC games (they chose UCLA-LSU over UConn, for example), etc.

They obviously have a really strong team but their depth is still suspect after all the injuries.

It's going to be fun since both stars feel (rightfully so) they're the best going back to their freshman seasons and recruiting rankings (#1 vs. #4 for Clark) and then UConn knocking Iowa out in the Sweet Sixteen by over 20 points three LONG seasons ago.

Edited April 2, 20242 yr by caulfield12

https://deadline.com/2024/04/iowa-colorado-espn-most-watched-ncaa-womens-sweet-16-ever-1235873985/

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/march-madness-iowas-win-over-lsu-draws-123m-views-to-smash-record-for-most-watched-ncaaw-game-014731830.html

Would have been 15-18 million on ABC....plus it was Monday night vs. Sunday afternoon or evening.

They apparently didn't want to preempt American Idol.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/caitlin-clark-surge-sustained-womens-110259094.html

Forty new advertisers are buying time in the women’s Final Four this weekend with ABC or ESPN. The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC and ESPN, confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that inventory for those games sold out earlier than ever before. Disney also confirmed that revenue from those sales more than doubled from last year and has more than tripled over the past three years.

GroupM, a prominent media investment group, announced last week a commitment to double investment in annual women’s sports advertising. It plans to do it with clients such as Adidas, Ally, Coinbase, Discover, Google, Mars, Nationwide, Unilever and Universal Pictures.

The ripple effect is expected to be felt across the WNBA, including in Los Angeles.

As of Thursday, Los Angeles Sparks fans can expect higher ticket prices for popular events such as a game against the Fever in May that will cost about $112 to $140 on StubHub.

That's a huge increase compared to last season when a Times editor purchased four tickets to see the Sparks battle the Fever in July for less than $16 total, not including tax and service fees.

The Sparks ticket prices for next season are comparable or at times higher than current Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavalier tickets on StubHub.

 

Edited April 5, 20242 yr by caulfield12

Well, Iowa's 3 turnovers down the stretch almost led to blowing a 9 point (a Gabby Marshall toe on the line way from a 10 point advantage) lead...I can't imagine how upset with the refs Iowa fans would have been if the situation was reversed and Clark wasn't able to get a last shot off.

Marshall did a good job of "selling" the impact from Edwards, and you can argue that Bueckers was covered well on the sidelines anyway, but she always could have gotten fouled or even hit the shot with her ability.

Bueckers had badly missed another three in the closing minutes before that play...IMO Edwards was having her way with Iowa in the paint for much of the second half, the play should have been to get it into her for a 2 pointer or a foul with only a 1 point deficit.

 

Really felt a bit like the refs might have wanted Iowa in the title game against South Carolina.   Gamecocks had already handily beaten UConn when they were in disarray earlier in the season.

The point spread was 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 points (favoring Iowa), so that final missed free throw from Clark wiped out a TON of pro-Iowa bets, and that's obviously where the majority of action was on the betting markets.

 

Hopefully the final on Sunday is at least a close game and not the blowouts like last year (thanks refs again!) and the S.Carolina/NC State blowout on Saturday night.