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    For Women’s Basketball, Caitlin Clark’s Lasting Impact May Be Economic

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    People have flocked to watch the Iowa star on TV and in person at a time when her sport is more valuable than it ever was before.Caitlin Clark, the University of Iowa basketball player who has dazzled crowds with her deep shooting range and preternatural scoring ability, is one of the biggest draws in sports.Tickets to her games this season were nearly 200 percent more expensive than they were last year, according to Vivid Seats, a ticket exchange and resale company. Fans routinely traveled hundreds of miles to catch a glimpse of her, lining up for hours before tipoff and boosting local economies.Nearly 10 million people, a record, watched her play in last year’s championship game, a loss to Louisiana State. More than three million tuned in this year when she set the career record for points scored by a Division I college basketball player. Ms. Clark and top-seeded Iowa begin N.C.A.A. tournament play on Saturday.Adam Bettcher/Getty ImagesNow, as Ms. Clark prepares for her final N.C.A.A. tournament — No. 1-seeded Iowa plays its first game on Saturday — excitement has reached a fever pitch. It has some wondering if Ms. Clark’s effect on the popularity of women’s sports, and their economics, will linger after her career at Iowa ends.Viewership, juiced by media rights deals, and corporate sponsorships are the key drivers of revenue for college and professional sports. In women’s sports, those have long lagged behind what men’s sports receive. In 2019, for instance, women’s sports programming accounted for less than 6 percent of coverage on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” according to a study.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Looking for Aces Guard Jackie Young? She’s Probably in the Gym.

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      Young, set to start in her first W.N.B.A. All-Star Game, is known for her competitive drive. “She’s going to try to beat everyone,” one teammate said.Las Vegas Aces guard Jackie Young has met success at every level of basketball. She has a high school championship, an N.C.A.A. Division I title at Notre Dame, and last summer, she claimed Olympic gold in the first 3×3 competition. Now, as a first-time W.N.B.A. All-Star, Young, an Indiana native, has added another accolade en route to her ultimate goal.“Everyone wants a ring. I definitely want a ring,” Young said, adding, “We’ve been close each year.”Young is in her fourth W.N.B.A. season with Las Vegas and has made the playoffs each year, including a trip to the finals in 2020. The Aces selected her No. 1 overall in the 2019 draft.Young is one of the top defensive weapons on the Aces and is posting the best offensive numbers of her career, which helped her earn a place as a starter in her All-Star debut this weekend. The All-Star Game is Sunday in Chicago.When Young came to Las Vegas in 2019, it was her first major move away from Indiana. She was the middle child, and both her older brother, Terrence, and younger sister, Kiare, played basketball, too.Jackie attended Princeton Community High School where she tallied 3,268 career points for the girls’ basketball team, a record for the girls’ and boys’ teams. From Princeton, Young traveled about 300 miles northeast to play for Notre Dame.Young won an N.C.A.A. championship with the women’s basketball team at Notre Dame in 2018.Michael Caterina/South Bend Tribune, via Associated PressAs a sophomore, she dropped a game-high 32 points in the 2018 Final Four semifinal game against Connecticut. In the championship game against Mississippi State, Young hit the game-tying shot and came up with the steal that led to her teammate Arike Ogunbowale’s game-winning basket. Young played one more season with Notre Dame before entering the 2019 W.N.B.A. draft.“It was always a dream of mine to play in the W.N.B.A., and it came down to making a decision for my family. I knew I needed to help my family, and that’s what I’ve worked for my whole life,” Young said.She described her family as “close-knit” and said she had uncles and aunts around to help her mother, Linda Young. Her extended family shared housing sometimes to stay afloat financially. Jackie Young’s decision to leave Notre Dame meant less financial burden for her family.“​​My mom, a single mother, made a lot of sacrifices for me and my siblings,” Young said. “She definitely went without to make sure we have food on the table, clothes on our backs, and so I knew if I had the chance to leave early I was going to.”Young will make about $72,000 this season and more than $165,000 in each of the next two seasons until she is an unrestricted free agent in 2025, according to Her Hoop Stats.Her transition from college to the W.N.B.A. was swift.Notre Dame narrowly lost to Baylor by 1 point in the 2019 N.C.A.A. women’s basketball championship in Tampa, Fla. Three days later, Young was in New York City being announced as the first overall pick in the W.N.B.A. draft.Aces forward A’ja Wilson had a similar transition to the W.N.B.A. the year before, but with an added twist: The Aces transitioned, too, from being the San Antonio Stars. The franchise spent 15 seasons in Texas, then moved to Las Vegas as the Aces for Wilson’s first season.“When I got drafted, we were such a new franchise,” Wilson said. “I didn’t have a quote-unquote vet that kind of knew the ropes.”Wilson decided to embrace the chance to be a big sister to Young.“Jackie was kind of like our first rookie that we had,” she said. “We already were pretty much established, in a sense, so I wanted to make sure that I could be that vet that I didn’t have for her and answer all the questions that she needed, making sure that she was comfortable.”Young, right, finished her college career just three days before the Las Vegas Aces drafted her No. 1 overall in 2019.Julie Jacobson/Associated PressNow Young is a veteran, and she is held accountable when she’s asked to assert herself by other players or Aces Coach Becky Hammon.“I talked with Becky about this earlier in the season, just talking about my court awareness and seeing things before it happens,” Young said. She added: “I think that would help us along the way, too, me just being more vocal. I’m just working on that every day.”The work hasn’t gone unnoticed by Wilson, who won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2020.“Jackie is someone where she understands her assignment, 100 percent. She is a pro at what she does and watching that growth, it’s been incredible, honestly, to watch,” Wilson told reporters recently. She added: “She’s locked in no matter what, and she makes sure that others around her are doing the same.”Another challenge for Young is to also know when to shut off her competitive edge.“She’s someone who’s in the gym all the time. I’ve got to kick her out,” Hammon told reporters before a recent win over the Minnesota Lynx.“I literally tell her to go home and take the ball and put it on the rack,” she added.Hammon, who retired as a guard for the San Antonio Stars, said she believed Young was en route to being considered for the M.V.P. Award this season. She trusts Young with defending the best perimeter shooters every night.“I really take pride in that,” Young said. “I know how to get stops, and I have a big assignment each night. So I think everyone knows that on this team.”Aces forward A’ja Wilson, right, described Young, left, as “locked in no matter what.” Aces guard Kelsey Plum, second from right, said Young “wants to win everything.”Ellen Schmidt/Associated PressThe next level of Young’s game, as Hammon sees it, is to be more demanding on offense. That goes hand in hand with her growing into a confident communicator on the court — a floor general.“I want her to be an animal. That’s what I want,” Hammon said, adding, “I want her to understand that she can impact a game like that and demand that kind of attention offensively.”Offensively, Young is posting career numbers in points and steals per game while continuing her reliable defense. She averages about 17 points per game, more than 10 points per game above her average in her rookie season. Her 46.9 percent accuracy from 3-point range is among the best in the league entering the All-Star break.On Sunday, Young will not only appear in her first W.N.B.A. All-Star Game, but she will also start opposite her Las Vegas Aces teammates Wilson and Kelsey Plum.Will the fun festivities in Chicago be a chance for the hard-working Young to shift into a lower gear? Not likely.“I don’t think there’s such thing as less competitive for Jackie,” Plum said. “I think she’s going to do what she does.”This will also be Plum’s first All-Star appearance, and she is ready to take on Young. They were both set to compete in the skills competition on Saturday.“I know she’s going to try to beat everyone including me, you know,” Plum said. “That’s just who she is. She wants to win everything. And if she doesn’t win, someone cheated.” More

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      Are Super Seniors the Secret to N.C.A.A. Tournament Success?

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      A number of the most successful teams in the 2022 tournaments feature athletes who are older than their N.B.A. counterparts.If this year’s N.C.A.A. basketball tournaments look a little bigger — a little older — your eyes are not deceiving you.Call it a silver lining of the pandemic.Before the pandemic intervened, college students had five years to complete four seasons of play. For various reasons — among them injuries, one-time transfers or competition waivers — athletes were always able to find ways to extend their eligibility. But after the pandemic eliminated many conference tournaments and the entire 2020 national tournament, the N.C.A.A. added a special bonus year: Any athlete who lost playing time during the 2019-20 season could extend their college career by a full season.Now, every team heading into the Final Four this weekend, both in the men’s and women’s tournaments, will include players who have taken advantage of this option.The additional season was meant to even the playing field, but some rosters are more stacked with super seniors and graduate students than others, and the trickle-down effect may linger for years.“I don’t think there’s any question that any of us in college athletics would see the benefits of a more experienced squad,” said Tom Burnett, the commissioner of the Southland Conference and the chairman of the Division I men’s basketball selection committee.A handful of athletes this year are older than their N.B.A. counterparts. Just look at Kansas. Last Friday against Providence, Mitch Lightfoot, 24, a veteran bench player and sixth-year student, had four blocks, and Remy Martin, a 23-year-old Arizona State transfer, came off the bench to lead the Jayhawks in scoring with 23 points. Both wouldn’t have returned to college if not for the pandemic, Coach Bill Self said last weekend, adding, “I actually think Mitch is the best he’s been.”Jalen Coleman-Lands, a super senior guard for Kansas, is 25. So is Devin Booker, who is in his seventh season with the Phoenix Suns.And there are more seasons remaining. “If you look at just our starters, those starters have eligibility left,” Self said. “Even though we’re an old team, they technically could all come back next year.”Self noted that Providence also had a handful players who were playing past the standard eligibility period.“If they didn’t have those four cats, they would look a lot different,” Self said. “If we didn’t have Remy, we’d look a lot different. If Villanova didn’t have Gillespie, they’d look a lot different.”Villanova guard Collin Gillespie averages 15.6 points per game. He won the Big East Conference Player of the Year Award for a second consecutive season.Scott Wachter/USA Today Sports, via ReutersCollin Gillespie, a 22-year-old guard, is the youngest of the three Villanova graduate students playing this weekend.But, parity concerns aside, Self said the bonus year had contributed to the “great quality of ball this year.”That was the case in the Horizon League, where Macee Williams, 23, a super senior center for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, won her third straight league Player of the Year Award in the 2020-21 season. She chose to come back for the 2021-22 season — her fifth year — and once again won the award.“That’s an example of how our women’s basketball programs really capitalized on that opportunity,” said Julie Roe Lach, the commissioner of the Horizon League.I.U.P.U.I., a No. 13 seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament, lost by only 6 points in the first round to No. 4 Oklahoma.Depending on who you ask, the additional year of eligibility can be viewed as a glass half-full, half-empty issue. It allows college athletes to reclaim their lost year of play, and a bigger, older team can mean an extra layer of cohesiveness.“Once athletes are upperclassmen, there’s a certain maturity that comes with leading the team and handling the pressure once you are in those end-of-season moments,” Roe Lach said, adding that “younger students and their teammates can benefit from their senior leadership.”But some officials are worried about the long-term effect padded rosters will have on recruiting. If athletes choose to use their extra year of eligibility, that could limit spots for fresh faces.“A lot of us are asking that question: Are the opportunities still there for high school student-athletes?” Burnett said.Macee Williams, right, returned to I.U.P.U.I. for a fifth season and won her fourth Horizon League Player of the Year Award.Mitch Alcala/Associated PressThat’s exactly what worries Adam Berkowitz, the associate executive director of New Heights Youth, a sports-based youth development nonprofit in New York. The additional season of eligibility added to an already complex system in light of the N.C.A.A.’s 2021 decision to eliminate the rule that had required athletes to sit out a season upon transferring, which had the effect of “doubling and tripling” the number of players in the transfer pool, Berkowitz said.Both those factors have created a “changed landscape” when it comes to college recruiting, he added, resulting in an all-out “scramble.”“Last year was the most difficult year I’ve ever experienced placing students at schools,” said Berkowitz, who has worked with transfer students for 20 years. “If you have an offer on the table, you have to strongly consider it, because it otherwise may not be there.”As a result, Berkowitz said, students are increasingly feeling “under-recruited” and opting to attend lower-ranked schools, both in Division I and Division II, before attempting to transfer. Berkowitz said that when he spoke to college coaches last year, many were not even looking at high school students, preferring to turn to the transfer portal and then junior colleges.Berkowitz said he anticipated this being the case for several more years, as athletes’ option to play an extra year lingers. High school sophomores will be the first class not affected by the change.“It’s just logjam at a lot of places,” he said. “If 200 guys are taking their fifth year, that’s 200 fewer spots for high school graduates.”Mitch Smith More

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      Louisville Clinches the Last Spot in the Final Four

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      The Cardinals, playing in their fourth straight regional final, became the third No. 1 seed to reach the national semifinals by beating No. 3-seeded Michigan.WICHITA, Kan. — Olivia Cochran sat most of the first half with foul trouble. She reacted incredulously when what she thought was a clean block was whistled as a foul, and she played the final five minutes of Monday night’s game knowing that one miscue would foul her out for good.But when No. 1-seeded Louisville needed her most, when its offensive stars could not get free, Cochran, the team’s defensive anchor, broke through a stubborn Michigan defense for three layups in the final three minutes to send the Cardinals to the Final Four, defeating Michigan, a No. 3 seed, 62-50.Louisville knew the rematch would not be as easy as the teams’ game in December, when the Cardinals blew out Michigan by 22 points at home. They knew Michigan would better cope with the pressure defense, and that they would have to win a dogfight.Louisville’s Emily Engstler had 16 rebounds and six steals.Andy Lyons/Getty Images“We can look at it for things that went well for us, but it’s March,” Louisville’s star guard, Hailey Van Lith, said before the game.It is indeed March, and what unfolded at Intrust Bank Arena on Monday night before a largely pro-Louisville crowd was a dogfight, one that played out much closer this time around, yet still ended in a Louisville victory.The Cardinals were led by Van Lith, who scored 22 points, and Chelsie Hall, who tied a season-high with 15 points, mostly coming from behind the 3-point arc.Michigan had the ball down just 2 points, 52-50, when Laila Phelia committed an offensive foul. “52-50, with the ball,” said Kim Barnes Arico, Michigan’s coach. “I’m going to have nightmares about that for the next eight months until we play again.”The next few possessions would prove decisive. Louisville’s Emily Engstler found a cutting Cochran with just under three minutes left to take a 4-point lead. Michigan thought it was about to have a 3-point play, but Naz Hillmon was called for an offensive foul on Cochran as her layup went through the rim. Cochran scored a nice driving basket on the next possession after beating the press, and the Louisville defense shut down Michigan the rest of the way.“That look was there the whole fourth quarter and we couldn’t deliver it to her,” Van Lith said of Cochran’s layups. “We were rushing and letting their pressure speed us up.”Louisville led by as many as 9 points in the third quarter, but every time the Cardinals came close to putting the game away, Michigan found a way to draw closer, usually at the free throw line. Michigan shot 11 more free throws than Louisville.Monday night’s matchup was between teams that, on paper at least, had many similarities. Both teams try to cause chaos with intense pressing. In Hillmon and Engstler, both are led by rangy, defense-first forwards who could be selected in the first round of next month’s W.N.B.A. draft. And both have coaches, in Barnes Arico and Jeff Walz, who make clear that they are hard on their players and tell them blunt truths, but who also seem to be loved by their players.Players and coaches on both teams tried to downplay the importance of that December game, but Barnes Arico conceded that Louisville’s defensive intensity was probably the highest her team had faced all season. In the four months since that game, Michigan often practiced how to combat the double- and triple-teams Hillmon, an All-American last season, commanded.“That’s become a staple in our practice plan because they really kind of went at her and tried to take her out of the game plan,” Barnes Arico said.Michigan forward Naz Hillmon, center, had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds on Monday despite Louisville’s defensive efforts.Jeff Roberson/Associated PressLouisville’s pressure once again flustered Michigan, as each Wolverines starter turned the ball over at least three times. But Michigan did not melt down like it did in Louisville in December. Hillmon lived at the free throw line, scoring 10 of her 18 points there, and Phelia and Maddie Nolan took some of the offensive load on the perimeter. Michigan also outrebounded Louisville, though it helped that Cochran played only 20 minutes.Engstler was as advertised on defense for Louisville, pulling down 16 rebounds and nabbing six steals as she led the press. “It seemed like every big play they made, she was involved in,” Barnes Arico said. But Engstler struggled offensively, shooting 1 of 9 from the field and 0 of 5 from 3-point range as she mostly settled for outside jumpers.Louisville was the last team to punch its ticket to the Final Four, where it will face South Carolina, the No. 1 overall seed, which has lost just twice this season and just beat Creighton by 30. The other side of the bracket will see Stanford play Connecticut. The national semifinals will be played on Friday in Minneapolis. The final is on Sunday.Louisville’s Final Four appearance is its first since 2018, when it lost to the eventual runner-up Mississippi State. Michigan’s appearance in the round of 8 was the first time the team had ever advanced that far. More

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      After Hiatuses, These Teams Are Back in the NCAA Women’s Tournament

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      Some teams — like Illinois State and Massachusetts — will have already made history before taking the floor.The N.C.A.A. basketball tournaments always represent the chance to make history.Some teams have already done that before taking the floor.Massachusetts, a No. 12 seed in the women’s bracket, set a program record with 26 wins en route to making its first tournament in 24 years.UMass, the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament champion, will face No. 5 Notre Dame in Oklahoma. Coach Tory Verdi took over in 2016, when the Minutewomen weren’t exactly a high-profile program.But make no mistake; the Minutewomen aren’t just happy to be in the tournament. They want to shake up the field.“I feel like all of us really step up to that challenge, like the bigger the stage, the better we play,” Sam Breen, a graduate forward and the A-10 player of the year, said this week.Breen leads a group that has witnessed the program’s rebuilding, and one which includes Sydney Taylor and Destiney Philoxy, who were both second-team all-conference.Here are four more teams looking to create a new tournament narrative after years away from the biggest stage.HowardKaiya Creek, right, and Howard reached the tournament for the first time since 2001 and beat Incarnate Word in the First Four.Sean Rayford/Associated PressOn Wednesday, Howard made history twice in the same game: By defeating No. 16 seed Incarnate Word, 55-51, in South Carolina, the Bison won the first women’s First Four game.It was also Howard’s first tournament victory — ever.The Bison (21-9) made the field by winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament final, avenging their loss to North Carolina A&T in the championship game last season. Top-seeded Howard handled No. 2 Norfolk State, 61-44.So, for the first time in 21 years, the Bison are part of the N.C.A.A. tournament, and they already have a win under their belt thanks to a 15-point double-double from Brooklyn Fort-Davis.Their reward? A date on Friday with No. 1 seed South Carolina, one of the favorites in the field.FairfieldFairfield Coach Joe Frager is hoping to lead the Stags on a deep tournament run in his final season.Matt Rourke/Associated PressFairfield Coach Joe Frager knew this season would be his last.In October, ahead of his 15th season with the Stags, he said he would step away at the end of the year, citing his health.Frager has led postseason runs before: His Southern Connecticut State squad won the 2007 N.C.A.A. Division II championship in 2007, his last year there before he went to Fairfield.Under his predecessor, Dianne Nolan, the Stags earned an at-large bid to the 2001 N.C.A.A. tournament.They hadn’t been back since.“This has been a special season due to the efforts of our coaching staff and players,” Frager said. “This group has been focused and goal-oriented from beginning to end, and that speaks volumes about the leadership provided by our seniors. Right now, I am very much in the moment. I’m sure after some time passes, I’ll be able to savor the memories of this great season.”Fairfield (25-6) defeated Manhattan to take the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament championship and earn an automatic qualifier. The Stags are led by the senior forward Lou Lopez-Senechal, who scored 24 points in the conference title game. They’ll play Texas, a No. 2 seed and the Big 12 Conference tournament champion, on Friday.Nevada-Las VegasU.N.L.V.’s Essence Booker scored 25 points in the Mountain West Conference tournament championship game.Rick Bowmer/Associated PressU.N.L.V. (26-6) hasn’t been to the tournament since 2002. A win over Colorado State in the Mountain West Conference tournament championship game put it back there 20 years later.As a No. 13 seed, U.N.L.V. has an immediate challenge on Saturday night in the form of No. 4 seed Arizona, which lost to Stanford in last year’s title game.Coach Lindy La Rocque took over the program in 2021, and a year later has it back on college basketball’s biggest stage.U.N.L.V. averages 75.6 points per game, its most since 2009-10. The team is led by Essence Booker, who was named the Mountain West tournament’s most valuable player after dropping 25 points in the championship game.Texas at ArlingtonStarr Jacobs, the Sun Belt Conference player of the year, has played only a single Division I season.After transferring from Temple College, a junior college in Texas, she became the first U.T.A. player to average more than 20 points per game. She also led U.T.A. (20-7) to its first tournament appearance in 15 years.As a No. 14 seed, the team will face third-seeded Iowa State on Friday night. It will be the program’s last time representing the Sun Belt, as the university will join the Western Athletic Conference next season.Before then, though, U.T.A. wants to show its star power — or rather, Starr power.Illinois StateThe Redbirds, the Missouri Valley Conference tournament champions, have won a single N.C.A.A. tournament game, in 1989. They haven’t even had the chance since 2008.No. 15 seeded Illinois State (19-13) will play on Friday against No. 2 seed Iowa, the Big Ten tournament champion and one of the most dynamic and high-profile teams of the N.C.A.A. tournament.The Redbirds are 1-5 in the N.C.A.A. tournament, and it won’t be easy to beat the Caitlin Clark-led Hawkeyes.Juliunn Redmond leads the Redbirds in scoring with 17.6 points per game, while the all-conference forward DeAnna Wilson has tallied eight double-doubles this season.LongwoodLongwood’s Kyla McMakin, right, leads the Lancers in scoring. Longwood beat Campbell in the Big South tournament title game.Rusty Jones/Associated PressWhen Longwood takes the court Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C., it will have been more than a decade in the making.The No. 16-seeded Lancers, who completed their transition to Division I in the 2007-8 season, struggled through years of losing seasons before making the tournament. Just three seasons ago, they finished 3-27.Now, behind the Big South Conference player of the year Akila Smith, who is tied for third in Division I in blocks with Kansas State’s Ayoka Lee, the Lancers (21-11) will get a chance in a play-in game against Mount St. Mary’s. A win on Thursday would earn them a date with No. 1 North Carolina State. More

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      N.C.A.A. Tournament: South Carolina Is Locked at No. 1 Ahead of Shuffling

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      The Gamecocks have only one loss, but parity across the Power 5 leagues, especially the Big Ten and Big 12, should make for intense jockeying ahead of the tournament.As the spring approaches, women’s college basketball is inching closer and closer to a symbolic milestone. It’s one many people might never have noticed, and one that won’t have any impact on the quality or intensity of games.But for the first time since its debut 40 years ago, the N.C.A.A. Division I women’s basketball tournament will be officially called “March Madness” — the popular term that, until last fall, the N.C.A.A. had technically reserved exclusively for the men’s tournament.The start of the first official women’s March Madness is just a few weeks away. Many of the teams at the top of the heap are familiar, yet plenty of questions remain.Can anyone — besides Missouri, which managed to hand South Carolina a loss, by a single point — challenge the Gamecocks? Will Connecticut, long the front-runner, emerge in the postseason after its worst regular season in recent memory? Will the reigning champions, Stanford, earn longtime coach Tara VanDerveer her first repeat?As the regular season draws to a close, here’s what we know — and what’s next.Aliyah Boston is the front-runner for player of the year.Aliyah Boston has recorded 20 consecutive double-doubles, breaking a Southeastern Conference record set by Sylvia Fowles.Tracy Glantz/The State, via Associated PressSouth Carolina has been the top-ranked team in The Associated Press poll since the preseason thanks in large part to the efforts of the 6-foot-5 junior forward Aliyah Boston. Despite being the focus of every opposing team’s defense and getting persistently double-teamed by their most physical players as she fights to get in the paint, Boston has been nearly unstoppable. She leads the nation in win shares, according to Her Hoop Stats, and has recorded a double-double in points and rebounds in 20 consecutive games, breaking a Southeastern Conference record set by the highly decorated W.N.B.A. star Sylvia Fowles at Louisiana State.A top recruit out of high school, Boston has been a contender for national honors since she was a freshman. Last year, though, her stellar sophomore season was overshadowed by the prolific scoring and preternatural talent of Connecticut’s Paige Bueckers, whose national player of the year awards as a freshman were unprecedented.This year, Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, who in January became the first Division I player to record back-to-back 30-point triple-doubles, has drawn some attention away from Boston’s dominance — and that of her own team. Clark’s gaudy point totals and splashy hot streaks — she’s hit at least four 3-pointers seven times this season — make for irresistible highlight reels and have sparked conversation about her place in the player of the year race.Boston, though, has the numbers with 16.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, and South Carolina (26-1, 14-1 Southeastern Conference) has the wins.“It’s hard for me to imagine not having her and her contributions in so many different areas outside of the stat sheet,” South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley told reporters last week. “She’s a communicator, she’s a captain, she’s a leader, she’s a great teammate, she’s a great competitor on top of the stats.”Some top seeds could have a particularly tough road to the Final Four.With Paige Bueckers, second from left, set to return from an injury, UConn could have a more complete team and a quasi-home-court advantage during the N.C.A.A. tournament. Jessica Hill/Associated PressBarring a massive upset loss in the SEC tournament, the Gamecocks appear to be firmly in control of the top overall seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament. They’re better poised than ever to win Staley’s second national championship, with the South Carolina faithful — who have posted Division I’s best home attendance since 2015 — ready to pack the stands should they end up in the Greensboro, N.C., region.The most recent top-16 reveal from the N.C.A.A. Division I Women’s Basketball Committee, on Feb. 10, projected that the rest of the No. 1 line would fill out with familiar faces. After losing to South Carolina in December, Stanford (23-3, 14-0 Pac-12 Conference) has cruised through conference play with relative ease — only Arizona, its championship game foe last season, and Oregon stand as other Pac-12 teams ranked in The Associated Press poll.The Cardinal are currently projected as the No. 2 overall seed. That would likely place them in the Spokane, Wash., region, close to home and with limited upset potential.With the third and fourth overall seeds, the action is concentrated in the Atlantic Coast Conference. North Carolina State (25-3, 16-1) and Louisville, who have both been top seeds in recent tournaments, are neck and neck. The third-ranked Wolfpack are holding onto a narrow edge over the fourth-ranked Cardinals (24-3, 15-2) in the conference. One will likely play in the Wichita, Kan., regional, and one in the Bridgeport, Conn., regional.What both of those teams are hoping to avoid is something of a perfect storm brewing in Bridgeport. If UConn, projected as a No. 3 seed, is assigned to Bridgeport, either North Carolina State or Louisville — which has already beaten the Huskies once this year — could face what will essentially be a fervent home crowd at a purportedly neutral site.But even if UConn (20-5, 14-1 Big East Conference) winds up in Wichita, it will likely be playing with its healthiest team since the start of the season. Bueckers, who was sidelined after suffering a tibial plateau fracture and a lateral meniscus tear in her left knee on Dec. 5, is expected to return to the court on Friday against St. John’s.The Big 12 and Big Ten are deeper than ever.Caitlin Clark, left, had 32 points in a win over Rutgers on Thursday. Clark has gotten some national player of the year consideration along with Boston. Greg Fiume/Getty ImagesThis season’s parity has been remarkable, especially across the Power 5 conferences, where upsets have kept even the top teams from going on cruise control. Nowhere has that been more apparent than in the Big Ten and the Big 12, which are crowding the national rankings and positioned for exciting conference tournaments.In the Big Ten, where Maryland has won five of the past seven tournaments, the top teams — No. 6 Michigan, No. 17 Ohio State, No. 21 Iowa, and No. 13 Maryland — are separated by just a win or two, and their position is still changing by the day. Seven of the league’s teams are projected by ESPN to make the N.C.A.A. tournament, a group that now includes Northwestern, which fought to a double-overtime win over Michigan this month.In the Big 12, Baylor’s grip on the conference has been even tighter: The Bears have won nine of the past 10 tournaments. Yet right now, the fifth-ranked Bears (22-5, 12-3) are fighting for the top spot with No. 9 Iowa State.Close at their heels are No. 20 Oklahoma, which is second in the country in points per game with 84.9; No. 11 Texas, which managed one of the N.C.A.A. tournament’s biggest upsets last year by knocking off Maryland in the round of 16; and Kansas, which is in the mix despite landing 10th in the conference’s preseason poll.The last week of the regular season will be a tightly contested window into March.Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith, left, scored 13 points in a win Thursday against Pittsburgh. Van Lith leads the fourth-ranked Cardinals in scoring.Rebecca Droke/Associated PressThe final matchups of the regular season should offer some intrigue as teams jockey for seeding in conference tournaments and the national tournament.On Friday night, an overperforming No. 10 Indiana (19-6, 11-4) faces an underperforming Maryland at home (8 p.m. Eastern time, Big Ten Network).The Hoosiers beat Maryland in January, and now are just one win behind the Terrapins in a crowded field at the top of the Big Ten. If Maryland wins, there’s a chance it’ll be able to eke out its fourth-straight regular-season conference title and the top seed in the Big Ten tournament; if it loses, it’ll fall to the middle of the pack.On Sunday, Louisville and North Carolina State will each close the regular season against ranked opponents whom they have already beaten. The Cardinals will face No. 14 Notre Dame (noon, ESPN2), and the Wolfpack will take on No. 23 Virginia Tech (6 p.m., ACC Network). An upset loss for either team could take them out of the top four overall seeds and create a steeper road toward the A.C.C. title.In the Southeastern Conference, South Carolina’s stranglehold on the top spot has quieted some of its usual competitors. But new-look Louisiana State has sneaked into the top 10 for the first time in 13 years with Kim Mulkey at the helm, and is looking to make a run in the N.C.A.A. tournament despite not having qualified since 2018.On Sunday, the eighth-ranked Tigers will play No. 16 Tennessee (2 p.m., ESPN2), a team that started strong but has been bullied recently, losing four of six — albeit to a difficult group of opponents that included Connecticut and South Carolina — before winning Thursday.Mulkey’s former team, Baylor, is hardly languishing in her absence, though. The Bears will play Iowa State on Monday (7 p.m., ESPN2), with NaLyssa Smith, one of the best players in the country, center stage as she tries to pull the Bears atop the Big 12. More

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      Lusia Harris, ‘Queen of Basketball,’ Dies at 66

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      She was the only woman officially drafted by the N.B.A. and the first Black woman inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.Lusia Harris, a powerful center who led the Delta State University’s women’s basketball team to three consecutive national championships in the mid-1970s, died on Tuesday in Mound Bayou, Miss. She was 66.Her daughter Crystal Stewart Washington confirmed the death at a therapy facility, but did not know the cause. She lived in Greenwood, Miss.Ms. Harris was one of women’s basketball’s most accomplished players. She averaged 25.9 points and 14.4 rebounds a game at Delta State in Cleveland, Miss.; scored the opening points when women’s basketball was first played at the Olympics, in Montreal in 1976; was the only woman officially drafted by an N.B.A. team; and was the first Black woman inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.Pat Summitt, her Olympic teammate who went on to a Hall of Fame career as the women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, described Ms. Harris as “the first truly dominant player of modern women’s basketball, 6-foot-3 and 185 hard-muscled pounds of pivoting, to-the-rim force,” in her book, “Sum It Up” (2013, with Sally Jenkins).Ms. Harris, known as Lucy, played at Delta State before the N.C.A.A. held a women’s basketball tournament (its first one was in 1982) and before major universities began to dominate the sport.But there was a title for the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, and the Delta State Lady Statesmen won their first in 1975, defeating Immaculata University. During the next season, Ms. Harris scored 46 points against Queens College before 10,032 fans at Madison Square Garden.“She was just a giant,” said Donna Orender, who played for Queens College and later became president of the W.N.B.A. “There just weren’t that many women of that size and skill then. Down low, she was effective and efficient.”Ms. Harris scored the opening points when Olympic women’s basketball was first played, at the Montreal Summer Olympics, in 1976.ABC Photo Archives/Disney, via Getty ImagesDelta State soon after defeated Immaculata again to win the A.I.A.W. championship. Then, in 1977, the Lady Statesmen won the title over Louisiana State University.“The men’s team didn’t sell out as well as the women’s team,” Ms. Harris said in “The Queen of Basketball” (2021), a short documentary about her directed by Ben Proudfoot that premiered at the Tribeca Festival. “We began to travel on airplanes. As a matter of fact, the men didn’t fly. I guess the women were bringing in the money.”A few months after her final game at Delta State, Ms. Harris was chosen in the seventh round of the N.B.A. draft by the New Orleans (now Utah) Jazz. Only one woman before her, Denise Long, then a high school senior, had been drafted — by the San Francisco (now Golden State) Warriors, in 1969 — but Walter Kennedy, the N.B.A. commissioner, disallowed the pick.Ms. Harris declined to join a Jazz rookie camp; she was already married to her high school sweetheart, George Stewart, and pregnant. She also doubted that she could play successfully on a men’s team.“I knew that I couldn’t compete on that level,” she told The Undefeated last year.Born on Feb. 10, 1955, Lusia Mae Harris grew up in Minter City, Miss. Her parents, Willie and Ethel (Gilmore) Harris, were sharecroppers. Lusia picked cotton but also played basketball with her brothers in their backyard. She molded her game, especially her defensive skills, at Amanda Elzy High School, in Greenwood, before attending Delta State.By the time she was chosen for the 1976 United States Olympic team, Ms. Harris was a star. In addition to Ms. Summitt, the squad included Nancy Lieberman and Ann Meyers, two future Basketball Hall of Famers, and Gail Marquis. Ms. Harris scored the first points in women’s Olympic history in the opening game against Japan, which the United States lost.One of her biggest challenges was playing against Juliana Semenova, the Soviet’s 7-foot center.“She is so much taller, so much bigger and she didn’t jump,” Ms. Harris told the Kentucky Women’s Basketball Oral History last year. “All she had to do was extend her arms. And I mean, I’m only 6-3. The thing I figured out is that I would beat her down the court because she wasn’t that fast.”The Soviets routed the Americans, 112-77, with Ms. Semenova scoring 32 to Ms. Harris’s 18. The United States team nonetheless departed Montreal with a silver medal after defeating Czechoslovakia.In five games, Ms. Harris averaged 15.2 points and 7 rebounds.Ms. Harris graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and recreation. But she had few opportunities to play professional basketball. The W.N.B.A. was two decades away. The men got the opportunities she craved. “Yeah, they’re millionaires, famous,” she said in “The Queen of Basketball.” “But I wanted to grow up and shoot that ball just like they would shoot it, and I did.”She worked as an admissions counselor and assistant women’s basketball coach at Delta State; played briefly for the Houston Angels of the short-lived Women’s Professional Basketball League during the 1979-80 season; and coached the Texas Southern University women’s basketball team from 1984 to 1986.Ms. Harris, pictured at the 2021 Tribeca Festival Premiere Shorts, made history when she was enshrined at the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.Cindy Ord/Getty ImagesShe earned a master’s in special education from Delta State in 1984, taught special education and coached high school basketball in Mississippi. She retired nearly 20 years ago.In addition to Ms. Stewart Washington, she is survived by another daughter, Christina Jordan; two sons, George Jr. and Christopher; her brothers Clarence Harris, Kendrick Blossom and Ronnie Blossom; her sisters Ethel James, Ella Harris, Darlene Lindsey and Linda Washington; and 10 grandchildren. Her marriage ended in divorce.Ms. Harris’s enshrinement at the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992 — where her presenter was Oscar Robertson, whom she idolized — was a reminder of how much impact she had as a player.“Lucy was mean underneath the boards,” Margaret Wade, her coach at Delta State, told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss. “When she wanted to score, she could score. But the thing I liked about Lucy was, she was a team player. She did what the team needed and that’s why we were successful.” More

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      5 W.N.B.A. Draft Hopefuls to Watch

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      A deep run in the N.C.A.A. tournament isn’t required for a basketball player to become a star or make it to the pros. These five women aim to prove it.W.N.B.A. teams covet versatile, two-way play, and scores of players in the N.C.A.A. women’s basketball tournament displayed the skill, basketball I.Q. and strength to thrive in the professional ranks on both ends of the floor.Several players who hope to be picked in the W.N.B.A. draft on Thursday night made deep tournament runs and had the big stages of the later rounds to prove their readiness. The players whose teams made early exits, however, were left to hope that their individual performances were strong enough to be remembered — or that one subpar outing would not overshadow an otherwise impressive collegiate career.Here’s a look at five players who either didn’t make or didn’t last long in this year’s tournament but may still be one of the 36 drafted Thursday night. With the league’s 12 teams allowed just 12 roster spots each, an even slimmer number will make opening day rosters.Chelsea Dungee, ArkansasDungee set the Arkansas women’s career record for free throws made in just three seasons.Sean Rayford/Associated PressThe Razorbacks’ first-round exit from the tournament was not a reflection on the 5-foot-11 guard Chelsea Dungee. Her game-high 27 points mirrored her high-scoring collegiate career, but they came in a game in which the opposing team, Wright State, hit 50 percent of its 3-pointers (to the Razorbacks’ 31.8 percent) in a 66-62 win.During her 2020-21 senior season, Dungee scored in double figures in all 27 games. She scored 30 points or more in 12 games in her career, the most in team history. Free throws are an important part of her offensive repertoire; she exploits mismatches, draws fouls and makes 80.2 percent of her shots from the line.Against Wright State, she made 14 free throws on 18 attempts — fitting for the leading free-throw shooter in Arkansas history. That she set the record for made free throws (552) in just three seasons — Dungee sat out the 2017-18 season because of N.C.A.A. transfer rules — emphasized her sharpshooting game. The record had been 485, by Bettye Fiscus in the 1980s.N’dea Jones, Texas A&MJones averaged a double-double over her last three seasons at Texas A&M and helped her team reach the round of 16 in this year’s tournament.Dawson Powers/USA Today Sports, via ReutersIf a dogged defender who made a name for herself by gobbling up rebounds and otherwise converting defense into offense is what a W.N.B.A. team seeks, it should look no further than N’dea Jones.Setting aside a freshman season in which she averaged only about six minutes per game, Jones was Texas A&M’s biggest double-double threat, averaging 10.1 points and 11.1 rebounds a game in her final three seasons. Jones’s offensive production climbed year over year, including in the 2020-21 season that was shortened by the coronavirus pandemic. She pulled down her 1,026th career board as a senior, becoming the team’s career leader. She finished with 1,056, after just 33 as a freshman.Jones’s double-double effort against Troy to open this year’s tournament was followed by a 9-point, 14-rebound performance that helped the Aggies advance past Iowa State to the round of 16 in overtime. Texas A&M’s tournament run ended there, against a formidable opponent: Arizona, the eventual tournament runner-up, which was led by point guard Aari McDonald.Kasiyahna Kushkituah, TennesseeKushkituah reliably forced Tennessee’s opponents into sloppy possessions, leading to turnovers.Brianna Paciorka/Knoxville News Sentinel, via Associated PressSometimes the box score does not reveal the full truth, and so it goes for the 6-4 center Kasiyahna Kushkituah, who averaged 6.8 points and 6 rebounds per game as a senior at Tennessee.Even while starting just 23 of her 100 career games, Kushkituah began to carve out a niche for herself as an agile big. Her quickness was central to her ability to disrupt opponents’ offensive schemes; if she failed to record a steal or a block, she could reliably force opponents into sloppy possessions, leading to turnovers. And if the ball ended up in her hands, she could use her impressive speed to score on the break.The 3-point shot is not in her arsenal, but she made half of her field goals. If she can improve her 47.5 percent free-throw shooting and maintain an appetite for offensive rebounds — which accounted for more than a third of her total career rebounds — she could become an important paint presence for any W.N.B.A. team seeking depth at center. In Tennessee’s first-round win against Middle Tennessee, Kushkituah scored 10 points and grabbed eight boards, five of them off the offensive glass.Lindsey Pulliam, NorthwesternPulliam finished her college career averaging 16.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2 assists per game.Ronald Cortes/Associated PressCommonly referred to as Pull-Up Pulliam because of her smooth and reliable midrange shot, Lindsey Pulliam was the fastest player to reach 1,000 points in Northwestern women’s basketball history. A 5-10 guard, she finished her college career averaging a well-rounded 16.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2 assists per game. Her career shooting averages of 37.9 percent from the field, 26.6 percent from 3-point range and 75.6 from the free-throw line may not be the best in her draft class, but she has increasingly demonstrated that she can sizzle in the biggest moments, in whichever way her team needs:With a game- and season-high 28 points, Pulliam carried the Wildcats to a double-digit win on Jan. 21; one week later, in a road game against Iowa, she helped Northwestern to a 7-point victory by converting 12 of her 16 free-throw attempts.On defense, Pulliam secured 10 rebounds in early February against Ohio State (to go with 15 points) to help power Northwestern to a 12-point win. Her four steals against Eastern Kentucky in December helped the Wildcats score 40 points off turnovers and 28 on fast breaks on the way to a 29-point victory.Unique Thompson, AuburnThompson grabbed 43 percent of her rebounds on the offensive side of the floor.Butch Dill/Associated PressOvercoming an 18-point deficit but ultimately losing to Florida in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament kept Auburn from being invited to the N.C.A.A. tournament, denying the 6-3 forward Unique Thompson a national stage.Despite the loss, Thompson, with 14 points and 10 rebounds, made her standard double-double contribution in her final collegiate outing. In 2020-21, she was one of two players in the nation to record two games of 20-plus points and 20-plus rebounds. As a junior in the 2019-20 season, she tallied her 21st double-double of the season and the 41st of her career, surpassing the three-time W.N.B.A. All-Star DeWanna Bonner for the most in team history.If Thompson can improve her 66.3 percent free-throw shooting, she will solidify an otherwise stalwart game that features 52.8 percent shooting from the field. With a proficiency for cleaning the offensive glass — Thompson gathers 43 percent of her rebounds on the offensive side of the floor — she is ready to contend in the most competitive league in the world. Even without a national tournament run, Thompson seems poised for a first-round draft selection. More

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      Women’s Basketball Makes Room for New Stars, and New Contenders

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.C.A.A. Basketball TournamentsMen’s PreviewWomen’s PreviewAn Unusual BracketLatest Virus CasesDuke Ends SeasonAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWomen’s Basketball Makes Room for New Stars, and New ContendersThe usual elites are still great, but the rest of the college field has a real shot to win the championship this year. Star power isn’t concentrated at the top anymore.The UConn Huskies celebrating after winning the women’s Big East tournament.Credit…David Butler Ii/USA Today Sports, via ReutersMarch 14, 2021, 12:01 a.m. ETThere are few more compelling diversions than N.C.A.A. tournament basketball, and after the postseason was canceled last March because of the coronavirus pandemic, plenty of the best players in women’s basketball are hungry for the bright lights of the big stage. Their passion for the game will, at least for the next few weeks, become our own as we become immersed in the bracket’s glories and heartbreaks.Before the tournament begins in San Antonio on March 21, here are a few keys to understanding the past season in women’s college basketball.The full scope of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact is unknown — but huge.A worker sanitized the George Mason gym before a game in January.Credit…Patrick Smith/Getty ImagesIt’s impossible to overstate how much the women’s college basketball season has been defined by the pandemic. At least nine games have been canceled this month because of coronavirus health and safety protocols. Nearly every top program has missed games because of either contact tracing or positive virus tests, meaning most teams have not played a full slate of games.In December, The New York Times reported that there had been at least 6,629 cases of the coronavirus within college sports; it’s hard to know how many more athletes and staff members have tested positive since, because the N.C.A.A. doesn’t track testing results. But at least one women’s basketball player, Vanderbilt’s Demi Washington, learned that she had acute myocarditis, which doctors believed was a side effect of the coronavirus.Blue-chip programs still rule, but more of the others at last have a real shot at the title.Stanford players celebrated in confetti last week after they won the Pac-12 Conference tournament championship game. Credit…Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports, via ReutersSix of the top 10 teams in The Associated Press poll have won at least one title; only two have never been to a Final Four. But the high rankings of perennial contenders like Stanford, Baylor, Louisville and, yes, UConn obscure the fact that there’s a much more level playing field at the top of the game than there has been in years, as evidenced by the split votes for the No. 1 spot. (UConn has the top ranking with 22 first-place votes, Stanford is in second place with five, and North Carolina State in third with two.)UConn is the only team in the top 25 with just one loss, but the Huskies played a relatively easy schedule. Among their peers at the top, there is no clear front-runner, which sets the stage for tight Elite Eight matchups.The SEC tournament showed us what madness might be in store.Kentucky and Georgia faced off in the SEC Tournament, with Georgia emerging victorious.Credit…Dawson Powers/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe pandemic has changed the way conference tournaments and the N.C.A.A. tournament are seeded. Because the teams in each conference haven’t played the same number of games, most tournaments have been ranked using win percentage. At the SEC tournament, for example, Tennessee was the No. 3 seed and Kentucky was No. 5, even though Kentucky won as many conference games as the Lady Vols and had more wins over all. The result of this seeding system was enticing matchups for two strong upset candidates — No. 11 Ole Miss, which came tantalizingly close to beating Tennessee in the quarterfinals, and No. 4 Georgia, which battled to a 5-point loss against South Carolina in the championship game.Similar unpredictability may be on the way at the N.C.A.A. tournament, which will be using a true S-curve to seed teams for the first time: Because the games are all taking place in San Antonio, geographic considerations won’t be taken into account as the selection committee creates the bracket, removing one variable and potentially creating stronger competition.The 3-point revolution is steering many potential underdogs.Aisha Sheppard, Virginia Tech’s 3-point specialist, in a game against George Washington this season.Credit…Pool photo by Matt GentryDuring the 2020-21 season, more teams than ever averaged at least eight 3-point baskets made per game, according to data from Her Hoop Stats. The 3-point revolution has clearly made it to the women’s game, and has created a path for mid-major programs either to have their first shot at making the tournament, like the High Point Panthers (10.2 per game), or to fuel genuine upset potential, as is the case with Florida Gulf Coast (11.8 per game) and Stephen F. Austin (8.6 per game). Power 5 schools are no stranger to splash, either — Virginia Tech is averaging 9.8 per game, thanks in large part to the sharpshooting senior guard Aisha Sheppard (3.7 per game), and Arkansas is averaging 9.6. Any one of these teams could easily live (or die) by the 3.There are stars all over the place.Natasha Mack, a top W.N.B.A. prospect, in a game against Baylor earlier this season.Credit…Sue Ogrocki/Associated PressBeyond the top teams, women’s college basketball used to have a talent vacuum, with the best high school recruits drawn to extending the reigns of dynasties instead of aiming to lead deep postseason runs with programs accustomed to watching the Final Four from home. No longer, though: Charli Collier of Texas and Oklahoma State’s Natasha Mack, who are top W.N.B.A. prospects, represent the Big 12. The best shooter in the country is Monika Czinano, a junior center at Iowa. It’s hard to turn on a women’s college basketball game without seeing at least one truly compelling player capable of willing a team to victory — and bringing some madness to March.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More