She’s basically the women’s Larry Bird of 2023 - at just 6’ tall. Both games last night were awesome. South Carolina was the tallest team in the history of women’s hoops - at 6’7, 6’5, two at 6’4 and one at 6’3…plus a couple more over 6 foot. They had a seventh all time 41 game winning streak going.
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I thought Lisa Buder’s gameplan was terrific. That is Iowa’s coach.
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Agreed. And she doesn’t dress like Delta Dawn.
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Reminded me of Steph Curry during his tourney run at Davidson. Deep 3s, got to the bucket, all sorts of crafty moves mixed with athleticism and elite level shot making. She was absolute must-see TV last night.
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Glory - You’re right! Dominant performance. She can hit routinely from the logo or drive into the tall trees. Fascinating player!
Caitlin was more Luka than anything last night. Just an incredible basketball IQ. Why SC didn’t throw traps at her I will never understand.
The O/U for the title game tomorrow is 160.5!!!
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Kim Mulkey’s granddaughter was wearing identical clothes. It was cute.
FYI Caitlin Clark was named NCAA Women’s Player of the Year this week. And deservingly so.
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Come on Hawkeyes. One of the reasons I like them is that their starters have all played together there for 3-4 years. That is so rare these days. Contrast that to LSU being built through transfers. The NCAA continues to do a disservice to the ladies IMO. That was THE game of the year and you started it at almost 10 ET. 3/4 of the teams are east of the MS river and Iowa right on the river. No west coasters so why start it so late, and then they play the championship early? It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Great to see Staley lose. I still think Geno’s a better coach.
Mulkey has turned LSU around in 2 years. Year before she came in 9 wins. Now in the championship game. There is a reason she has won 3 national titles. That being said, my favorite coach, men or women, is Geno!
I love Caitlin Clark and have watched her play a lot over the last 3 years. I actually think she may be the best women’s basketball player in the world right now.
Iowa has sold out every home game this season Dan Patrick asked her in an interview ( after she hit the three pointer on an out of bounds play with 1 second left and down 2 against Indiana) if she would turn pro after this her Junior year, and she said" No, I will probably also use my covid year and play here two more years". He asked her if she would not be giving up a bunch of money by not turning pro and she said “No, I am making more at Iowa and I love it here.”
Bringing this back to MAC women’s basketball, Robin Fralick, BG’s women’s basketball coach, has just taken the open Michigan State women’s coaching job.
Even though BG has pretty much their entire roster eligible to come back, I do not think they can be as good next season without her. She is an exceptionally good coach and their team was better as a group than you would think it could be looking at the individual talents. That is a great coach.
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BG had a great postseason run.
Supposedly the frontrunner for the BG job is Kari Pickens, who followed Fralick at Ashland and just led the Eagles to a 37-0 season and D2 national title.
If the growling bean can do it, so can we. Period. That campus is bleak. Resources no better than ours. Passion to win might be higher though. That’s the divider.
Stroh Center is a better basketball facility than Millett.
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Well of course, it’s a basketball-specific arena that opened in 2011 instead of an auditorium that opened in 1968. For all of Millett’s faults, at least it has AC, large concourse, and more than two bathrooms (unlike BG’s former home Anderson Arena). That’s not to say we don’t need a major renovation or outright replacement badly, but it’s not apples to apples.
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The LSU V. Iowa National Championship game was one of the worst officiated games I have ever seen. Hoopsjunkie had he watched it would have blown a gasket. Clearly the refs were intimidated by Mulkey. Clark was completely taken out of her game. And her 4th foul technical was unbelievable. It is a shame the refs had such an influence on what could have been a terrific game. That aside, LSU is a perfect example of how quickly you can turn a basketball team around. In two years Mulkey won 26 games and then a national title. Granted, there is a lot of NIL money involved in that, but basketball, especially now in the days of the portal, can have a team turn around quickly.
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Mulkey’s “on-court” presence should not have been allowed.
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Lots of negative press around this game…SI blasted it, too. LSU won the championship but Iowa won the public’s sympathy. LSU’s athletic department doesn’t seem like a place I’d like to work - the entire Wade situation plus dealing with personalities like Brian Kelly and Kim Mulkey. I’ll pass.
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