Women's College Basketball Has Arrived
This week's LSU-Iowa game drew a record-shattering TV audience. But the phenomenal growth in the women's game is bigger than one game or one star.
Angel Reese (left), photo credit: CCS Pictures, Caitlin Clark (right), photo credit: John Mac
It happened slowly, then it happened quickly. Last year was the breakthrough. Now, suddenly - but really it was not so sudden - women's college basketball has arrived. I can tell you exactly when. It was this past Monday night, April 1st.
That night, at the MVP Arena in Albany, New York, in front of 13,888 roaring fans, Louisiana State University and the University of Iowa played. Officially, it was to decide which team would advance to the NCAA Final Four in Cleveland. In reality, it was much more than that. It was the night that women's college basketball arrived.
Late Tuesday, ESPN released its ratings for the contest, ESPN disclosed that 12.3 million viewers had watched the game. The audience peaked at a stunning 16.1 million. It was by far the largest television audience ever to watch a women's college basketball game (or pro, for that matter). It shattered the previous record - 9.9 million (over 12 million at its peak) - who watched LSU defeat Iowa for the NCAA championship.
To put that into a larger perspective, The Athletic reports that Monday's TV audience was bigger than every televised NBA game last season except for Game 5 of the Finals. It was bigger than every major league baseball game last season. And only five college football games had more TV viewers.
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"These are moments that push the sport forward," wrote Chantel Jennings in The Athletic. "The stars, the player, the plays. The storylines, the drama."
LSU-Iowa game in Albany, N.Y.
On Monday, I arrived at MVP Arena an hour and a half before tip-off. The street in front of the entrance was blocked off to traffic. Music blared from loudspeakers. Women, men and a surprising number of children were milling around, waiting for the front doors to open. I saw little girls but also little boys and adults dressed in yellow-and-black Iowa garb. There were quite a few jerseys bearing the number 22. I wondered, had they really come all the way from Iowa City? Then, I realized, no, these were probably Iowa fans from all over. There are a lot of them nowadays.
Inside the atrium where two staircases led up to the seating area, people were packed shoulder-to-shoulder. They were calm. No jostling. No sharp words. Still it reminded me of the edgy excitement of the gathering crowd before a boxing match. That "let's get ready to rumble" energy.
The analogy would prove apt. The game turned out to be a heavyweight slugfest. The very first basket was Iowa's Caitlin Clark, No. 22, hitting a 3-pointer from practically the other side of the Hudson River. Under a furious Iowa offensive assault, LSU fell behind early, but then battled back to take the lead. For 20 minutes, the two teams played at a frenetic pace, trading blow after blow, the lead going back and forth before the first half ended with the score tied, 45-45.
In the second half, Iowa came out rolling. Clark again nailed a shot from long-range, and LSU faltered with their star player, Angel Reese, visibly hobbled by a twisted ankle. The Iowa Hawkeyes poured it on. At one point, LSU's flamboyantly attired head coach Kim Mulkey was heard to say to an assistant coach about Clark, "Is she just faster than us? Is she just better than us?"
She was that night. She - and her team - were just better that night. The final score was Iowa 94, LSU 87.
Fans entering the MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y.
So much has changed since the two teams met in the NCAA Final a year ago. This season, Clark became the biggest star in college basketball, male or female. Her Iowa team drew crowds as she chased and broke first the women's NCAA scoring record and then the men's all-time record set by LSU's Pete Maravich. But what happened this season was bigger than Clark or Reese, or UConn star Paige Bueckers or USC's rookie sensation, Juju Watkins. It was all women's basketball. TV ratings exploded. Sports fans started paying attention. Non-sports fans started paying attention. After decades of struggling to gain attention and be taken seriously, this was the season it all changed.
But this epic LSU-Iowa game was played under the shadow of controversy, which I suppose may have helped further hype the match up, if it needed it. Still, it was unfortunate.
Late last week, Mulkey erupted over a Washington Post profile of her that was about to come about. She was enraged and threatened to sue the newspaper even though she hadn't read the article, which is akin to panning a movie you haven't even seen.
When the story was posted, it was not flattering. It included accounts by former players depicting her as cold, tyrannical and even homophobic.
LSU coach Kim Mulkey, photo credit maddiiiesun
It was followed by a column by Los Angeles Times sportswriter Ben Bolch in which he described the upcoming LSU-UCLA game this past weekend as essentially a battle between good and evil. In his view, UCLA was "America's sweetheart" and "wholesome." He derided LSU, almost all of whose players are Black, as "dirty debutantes" and "basketball villains." Angel Reese waving goodbye to an opponent who had fouled out was presented as evidence of her low character. Last year, she was widely criticized for trash-talking Clark in the waning minutes of the NCAA Final.
"Do you prefer the team that wants to grow women's basketball or the one seemingly hellbent on dividing it?" Bolch wrote.
The reaction to the article was quick and fierce. Some denounced what they said were ugly racial tropes. The Times soon deleted some of the more offensive lines, but, even the edited version I read was offensive.
LSU’s Hailey Van Lith, who is white, said, “Unfortunately that bias does still exist today. I’ll talk trash and I get a different reaction than if Angel talks trash.”
Mulkey erupted.
"How dare people attack kids like that?" she said. "I can't sit up here as a mother and a grandmother and a leader of young people and allow somebody to say that."
On Monday, Bolch apologized. In a statement, he said, "I failed miserably in my choice of words ... not understanding the deeply offensive connotations or associations. Our society has had to deal with so many layers of misogyny. racism, and negativity that I can now see why the words I used were wrong."
Washington Post columnist Candace Buckner criticized the media for promoting the angle of a Clark-Reese grudge match even though both players have repeatedly denied any conflict.
"Stars drive league and television ratings," she wrote. "but it seems the networks have little confidence in the attention span of the sport's newest followers. So little that they lean on the most easily digestible storylines of one player versus another and blow up antics that happen in the heat of the moment. Other sports have adjusted to that. Women's basketball is still adjusting."
Angel Reese, photo credit: CCS Picture
Caitlin Clark, photo credit: John Mac
Monday's LSU-Iowa game carried all that baggage. Yet, once the game was underway, it was as if it was forgotten or at least set aside for the moment. For the next two hours, it was ten outstanding basketball players competing at their highest level, with passion and intensity. A group of young women seated near me cheered wildly for whoever was on offense. That was a new one for me. But it was that kind of night. You just wanted to see great competitors playing at the top of their games. It was art.
Even in her team's losing effort, Reese would still score 17 points, grab 20 rebounds, dish four assists, make two steals and block three shots.
Her teammate, Flau'jae Johnson, had 23 points.
For Iowa, Clark tallied 41 points, including a record-tying nine 3-pointers, to go along with 12 assists.
Iowa's Kate Martin, the team's captain who had 21 points, said later, "To have stars that LSU has and to have stars like Caitlin on our team, I think that just really grows the game."
After the game, Clark said, "There could have been nobody in the gym and both teams would have competed the exact same way."
Today, Reese announced that she will forfeit her final year of eligibility and enter the WNBA draft. Clark made the decision to turn pro a few weeks ago.
Following Monday’s game Monday, Reese was teary-eyed.
"No matter which way it went," she said, "I know this was going to be a night for the ages."
That it was.
Great story, Ron!
Good story!