Dick Weiss on College Basketball
PHOENIX– The hype for Friday’s night’s NCAA women’s tournament semi-finals between Iowa and UConn was off the charts. Caitlin Clark, the women’s all time
career scoring leader, vs. UConn guard Paige Bueckers, the 2021 national Player of the Year as a freshman who was finally 100 percent after missing
most of the last two seasons with injuries. America’s team vs a storied program that had won 11 national titles under Geno Auriemma.
The average ticket price for the game in Cleveland was $467.
Clark recovered from a slow start in the first half to finish with 21 points,9 rebounds and 6 assists during a 71-69 Iowa win. Bueckers finished with 17 points and four assists.
But the performances of the two All-Americas were obscured by a controversial last game offensive foul that decided the game.
UConn cut Iowa’s lead to one with 39 seconds remaining in regulation and had an opportunity to win it with 9.3 seconds after forcing a turnover. But the Huskies
never got off a final shot. Point guard Nika Muhl looked to pass the ball to Bueckers with Aaliyah Edwards setting a screen to give Bueckers space on
the perimeter. However, Edwards was called for a moving screen on Gabbie Marshall with 3.9 seconds. Marshall, who rocked back upon contact to possibly
help sell the screen,
”I knew it was a moving screen” Marshall said.
Video released later that night appears to uphold the official’s decision, but it would have been nice to see the players decide the game.
There’s probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I just know there were
three or four of them called against us and I don’t think there was any called against them. So, I guess we just gotta get better at not setting.
illegal screens.”
UConn had its share of celebrity supporters were upset at both the call and the timing.
“Naaaaaahhh! I ain’t rolling with that call,” LeBron James tweeted.
“Nah, they are rigging that! You cannot call that,” Dallas Cowboy’s All Pro linebacker Micah Parsons said.
“To call that on a game deciding play was so wrong” Olympic guard Kelsey Plum said.
So Iowa advances to the finals against 37-0 South Carolina Sunday. Best team vs. best player. South Carolina is has lost only one game in the last two years–to Iiowa in last year’s semifinal and warmed up to the rematch by taking apart NC State, 78-59, in the semi-finals, overwhelming the Pack inside with 6-7 Kamilla Cardoso and Ashlyn Watkins.
At stake for Iowa will be the Hawkeyes first national championship and a chance for Clark to join the discussion of best of all time.
Clark is a two-time national Player of the Year, but her team has never gotten over that final hump, losing to LSU in the final last year.
Compare that to UConn immortal Brenna Stewart, who won four straight titles from2013 through 2015 and was the Most Outstanding Player in each of
those tournaments.
“You’re going to look back 10 years from now and you are going to see all the records that she has broken, points and stuff like that,” Stewart said of Clark. “But anybody knows your goal when you play college basketball is to win a national championship. So you need one.”
