*
Did you watch the game the other night?
C'mon. You know what game TigerBlog means. Did you watch it? Odds are good you did.
The game, the NCAA women's basketball regional final between LSU and Iowa if you didn't already guess that, drew an average of 12.5 million viewers. That's more than any of the men's regional finals drew, more than any women's basketball game has ever drawn and, for that matter, more than any World Series game drew last year. Only one NBA Finals game last year did better.
The Iowa-LSU game was the most hyped game in a very long time, in any sport. It put an extraordinary amount of pressure on one player, Caitlin Clark, and did she respond?
As you know, the answer is that she did. Resoundingly. As in 41 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds. Forty-one points? It was one of the greatest individual performances you'll ever see in a situation like that.
Her long-range shooting is ridiculous, and it's not even the most impressive part of her game. That would be her passing. The way she sees the court, combined with how she shoots? Larry Bird, perhaps? Michael Jordan? Tiny Archibald if you want to go back that far? Oscar Robertson if you go back further?
She's certainly had as big an impact on the women's game as anyone has had on the men's game. Just look at the ratings.
The best compliment you can get as an athlete is that you make everyone else on your team better, even if you're the team's best player by far. For a player to lead the country in scoring and assists? That's wildly impressive.
The game was about more than basketball, of course. You could write several sociology theses on everything that went on around it.
TigerBlog watched the game. He was awed at a lot of what he saw, especially that it became as big as it did. He remembers when women's basketball was an afterthought, when there was no national interest, no coverage. Those days are completely gone.
He's often said that, beyond the wins and losses, the biggest contributions to Princeton Athletics that former women's basketball coach Courtney Banghart and current coach Carla Berube have made is the way that their teams have been embraced by a male audience who for decades did not attend or have any interest in the women's game.
*
Meanwhile, the rain has apparently stopped after it was absolutely horrible here the last few days. TigerBlog commends the weather forecasters for their amazing accuracy of late. The forecast that has appeared 10 days out has been the forecast that has fallen on every game day this spring.
The women's lacrosse team will be in New York City tomorrow, with a forecast of 52 and cloudy, or, translated for the 2024 Tigers, a feeling of sunny and 90. The way the schedule has fallen this year, every home game for the women's lacrosse team has been brutal, especially Wednesday night in the 14-9 win over No. 7 Penn.
Princeton will be at Columbia (1 pm start) to take on the Lions, who are 0-3 in the league and 3-7 overall after a 16-8 win at Wagner Wednesday night.
Columbia's leader in caused turnovers is Ali Surace, with 11. Surace? Surace? Why does that name ring a bell?
Oh yeah, Ali is the daughter of Princeton head football coach Bob Surace. As Bob said to TigerBlog and John Mack at yesterday's monthly department staff meeting, this is "the one time a year I root against Princeton."
He can be forgiven.
*
The weather may be cooperating, but there is not a lot on the schedule in Princeton this weekend. There is home women's tennis today (3) against Columbia and men's tennis Sunday (1) against Cornell, with the opposite schedule that has the men at Columbia today and the women at Cornell Sunday.
There is home women's lightweight rowing against Ratcliffe tomorrow (9) and home men's volleyball tonight (7) against NJIT. The men's golf team hosts its invitational tomorrow and Sunday.
Everyone else is on the road or, in the case of women's open rowing, men's lightweight rowing, women's golf and men's lacrosse, a weekend off.
The complete schedule is HERE.
*
Back at women's basketball and a male audience, the most recent women's basketball game that TB watched was not in the NCAA tournament. It was yesterday afternoon, Game 1 of the EuroCup finals between the London Lions and Besiktas, a Turkish team, in Istanbul.
If you recall, TB was there when London began its run through the EuroCup back in December. The Lions' roster includes Megan Gustaffson, who was the all-time leading scorer at Iowa before Clark came along.
The team also has Princeton grad Abby Meyers, the 2022 Ivy League Player of the Year who played in the WNBA last summer and who is in her first professional season in Europe.
The EuroCup playoffs are home-and-home, two-game total points competitions. Besiktas won Game 1 75-68, meaning that London needs to win Game 2 and by at least eight points to win the championship. If it's a seven-point London win, then they'll play a five-minute overtime and so on.
The arena in Istanbul was packed for Game 1, and the Copper Box Arena in London figures to be likewise for the second game on April 10. As TB watched the game, he saw what he saw when he attended the game at the Copper Box — an audience that had a large male contingent.
*
The EuroCup for women is only 20 years old. It literally didn't exist at the turn of the century.
The NCAA women's basketball tournament goes back to 1982. Who was the first winner? Louisiana Tech? Who was the other team in the final? Cheyney State.
Can you name the point guard for the Lady Techsters that year? She made the all-tournament team. That would be Kim Mulkey.
*
Predicting the basketball tournaments from here out, TigerBlog goes with South Carolina-Iowa in the final and a South Carolina win and UConn-Purdue in the men's final, with a Purdue win.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment