Anyone watching?? They sure make it exciting……and come on Iowa
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Iowa got out to a 17-9 lead and then LSU's clearly better personnel (other than Clark) dominated. Iowa has no answer for LSU's inside players.
Caitlin Clark reminds me of Dame Lillard. Unlimited range and great distributor, but almost completely disinterested in playing defense. Her body language suggests it is beneath her.
She is way better than her teammates, they often cannot handle her passes which to me frustrates her, leading to a bit to much forcing.
If she was 3-4 inches taller, she could play the 40-year-old Kyle Korver role in the NBA. Come in at the end of quarters and come off high ball screens from Giannis and shoot deep threes.
It's not like Korver could play defense when he was the Bucks anyway, but he was tall enough to provide some resistance standing there.
These 3s to start the second half are Steph/Dame like.
If you took away Caitlin Clark, Iowa would probably lose this game by 40.
If you took away the offensive rebounds, LSU would lose this game by 30. LSU has 17 offensive rebounds.
I wonder if any team has ever been outrebounded almost 2 to 1 and won by double digits. LSU has outrebounded Iowa 45-27 and are down 11 going to the 4th.
Fantastic. Iowa wins!! Great game
A great game by two solid teams. On to Cleveland, Hawkeyes!
I didn't watch but would have loved it if Clark had waived bye to the LSU player that likes to taunt others.
LSU's basket had a lid on it in the second half for sure. I cannot believe how many easy put-backs they missed. For them, that's usually an easy two. While I love how Clark can make threes from long distance, LSU did a lousy job game-planning and pushing her from the spots where she's comfortable. I'd also make her play defense.
OTOH, I'm soooo glad Mulkey lost. She makes it so much more about her than her players. The outfits, the dramatics, the me-vrs-the-world chip, it's all about her. Just shut up. She's a good coach but a rotten person.
@The Heckler posted:I didn't watch but would have loved it if Clark had waived bye to the LSU player that likes to taunt others.
The Heckler is against taunting 🤔
That first half was about as good and entertaining of a basketball game as you can get.
Reese getting hurt and LSU missing a ton of easy shots made it a bit of a laugher in the second half but what stood out to me was how neither team did much of anything on defense to adjust.
As poor of a FT shooter that Reese is why did Iowa not simply try to get physical and foul her more often? As for LSU, it was obvious that Van Lith could not guard Clark and was was giving up a lot of size but Mulkey didn’t seem to care.
Both coaches made Mike Budenholzer look like Phil Jackson in this game.
UConn and Iowa should be another good matchup. The Huskies don’t have a Reese but overall have a much more balanced offense and more players that can hit shots.
@Pikes Peak posted:The Heckler is against taunting 🤔
Oh trust me I am very much behind taunting especially towards anything to do with LSU. I would love to be like the guy taunting in Happy Gilmore yelling "jackass" behind their bench during the whole game.
I actually don’t mind Iowa or LSU. The problem with LSU is Kim Mulkey is really difficult to like, and some of that bravado and arrogance and obnoxious behavior rubs off on the team.
Her ridiculous outfits are the least of her issues.
Especially the first half of this game was a glorified game of "horse". Very little defense by either team. Most shots were uncontested. Uconn / USC game was a much better defensive game. Interested to see what Geno does with Clark. I would force her to go right when outside the 3 pt line and left inside the line. Double her on any ball screen or handoff. Of course easier said than done.
Iowa has a decent overall team but it’s the classic case of make someone else besides Clark beat you. Outside of a few possessions here and there LSU failed miserably in that regard.
Van Lith is a good player but she’s giving up height and girth which is a bad combination against a rangy shooter like Clark. Even when contested she could shoot over Van Lith pretty easily and doesn’t have the strength to knock her off her spots.
There’s nothing more that players like Clark hate than the opposing guard getting up in your face and physical with you. Shooters are all about locating their spots and getting comfortable and in rhythm. LSU adjusted later in the game but by then it was too late.
I would D her up full court and make her beat you off the dribble. Yes, Clark is a very good passer but again, make someone else get a layup or bucket because if she gets a clean look she will knock it down 50% of the time. You can give up a lot of midrange shots or even layups vs (mostly) open 3pt shots.
The other thing LSU didn’t do enough was make her play on both ends of the court. Scorers like Clark really don’t want to rebound or play D. It’s another way for her to expend energy and absorb physicality.
I’m not sure what the Mulkey gameplan was given how well they forced the issue with Clark last year but something tells me Geno will have a different strategy in the next matchup.
@Tschmack posted:I actually don’t mind Iowa or LSU. The problem with LSU is Kim Mulkey is really difficult to like, and some of that bravado and arrogance and obnoxious behavior rubs off on the team.
Her ridiculous outfits are the least of her issues.
She’s basically a female version of Bobby Knight with the flamboyant outfits being the only difference. Brilliant coach like Knight. I spent a week in high school almost 40 years ago with Knights assistant coaches at a camp my uncle ran. Dakich was the top assistant back then. They’d all tell anecdotes of how Knight would spend hours with players in need (he spent days in the hospital with Landon Turner after his car accident barely leaving his side and being just a tremendous person). But then he’d be a complete Jack ass and overbearing bully to some other players who did nothing to deserve it. Mulkey strikes me as the same way.
The Washington Post article on her was pretty straightforward and fair.
Any way to get that article without paying?
I think the Bobby Knight comparison is appropriate. The whole “loyalty” element in particular is interesting because they both demanded it no matter what. And their level of sensitivity and impatience toward anyone that questioned their style or motives really shows up.
The part that Knight differed a little bit is he took a lot of pride in truly embracing and developing athletes as students and not just basketball players. Mulkey doesn’t seem as committed or interested in that regard.
@MichiganPacker2 posted:If you took away Caitlin Clark, Iowa would probably lose this game by 40.
If you took away the offensive rebounds, LSU would lose this game by 30. LSU has 17 offensive rebounds.
I wonder if any team has ever been outrebounded almost 2 to 1 and won by double digits. LSU has outrebounded Iowa 45-27 and are down 11 going to the 4th.
Iowa obviously learned offense from the football team.
Monday night's rematch between the Iowa Hawkeyes and LSU Tiger was the most-watched women's college basketball game in history.
According to an announcement from ESPN, more than 12 million people tuned in to watch Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes avenge their national title loss to Angel Reese and the Tigers. Clark dropped 41 points en route to a 94-87 victory that became the most-watch gamed in women's basketball history.
What’s been the most watched men’s game so far? Would be interesting to compare.
Iowa v LsU and Iowa v UConn should draw big numbers. Star players = eyeballs.
@Tschmack posted:What’s been the most watched men’s game so far? Would be interesting to compare.
Iowa-LSU outdrew all but one of the five games in last year's NBA Finals, along with the clinching game of last year's World Series (11.48 million).The viewership surpassed the 11.84 million who watched the 1983 NCAA championship game between Southern California and Louisiana Tech. It was also the most watched men's or women's college basketball game ever on ESPN, more than doubling the prior largest audience. Only one men's NCAA tournament game this year had bigger viewership: North Carolina State's win over Duke on Sunday in the men's Elite Eight on CBS averaged 15.1 million.
Duke vs NCS drew 15 million or so on Sunday. Between the women and men’s games it shows we do like basketball but maybe not the current. NBA model.
Why? A way too long, basically meaningless regular season that even the players don’t seem to care about. I played buckets 2 or 3 times a week till I was almost 50, had the Jones. I haven’t seen a whole NBA regular season game in years.
Just my opinion. Can’t wait for the playoffs tho.
It's a combination of things. Watching the pros, it's the same teams all the time on TV; it gets old to watch Boston-Milwaukee (okay, Mwkee v. anyone doesn't get old), Boston-Lakers, Boston-Warriors, Lakers-Warriors, etc. Whichever team is "hot" gets over-exposed. Next, it's the 82 games: regular-season games are just players going through the motions. It's pretty obvious they're cruising when you see the scores of regular-season games vs. playoff games.
College is just the opposite: short season, a wide variety of featured games, every game counts. NIL may also help as college players are sticking around a bit longer in some programs; they and fans can get more invested in the program. On the other hand, the transfer portal has allowed teams to freshen up with new players to create new excitement. (Of course, the flip side of that is that college is becoming more pro-like as you're cheering for the uniform only.)
And the growth of the women's game doesn't surprise me too much. The skill level has shot up, the advertising and promotion has gone up to reach more people, and the game is more accessible. You can't get near an NBA player; the WNBA players are approachable. (Fewer scandals, too.)
The NBA and MLB regular seasons have too many meaningless games and the seasons are too damn long IMO. And the issue is over half the teams have no legitimate shot at a title. In MLB it’s due to no salary cap and in the NBA if you don’t have star players it’s tough to win. MLB should be 120 games at most and NBA should be more like 50 games.
There’s no better sporting event to me than the NCAA basketball tournament. Yes, the favorites win most of the time but not always. The emergence of women’s basketball makes the overall format even better.