March Madness, occurring every March is one of the most watched and anticipated sporting events of the whole year. This NCAA basketball tournament is a single- elimination tournament occurring within 68 college teams that compete through seven different rounds to make it to the National Championship. This year’s 2024 March Madness tournament concluded with the South Carolina Gamecocks, led by Coach Dawn Staley winning the Women’s division and the UCONN Huskies, led by Coach Dan Hurley winning the Men’s division.
This year the women’s tournament made huge headlines.
This important women’s tournament started on Sunday, March 17, commonly known as Selection Sunday. This is when the selection committee reveals the full NCAA tournament bracket. The first four teams played on March 20 and 21. The first two rounds then lasted from March 22-25. After the first two rounds the sweet 16 played on March 28 and 29. The Elite Eight then was played on March 31 and April 1. After the elite eight, the final four was played on April 5. On April 7, the Iowa Hawkeyes and the South Carolina Gamecocks played in the Women’s National Championship.
Besides the actual games played on court there was some drama in the Women’s March Madness tournament. During the elite eight game of Iowa vs LSU, fans, reporters and Iowa players realized that the LSU team, along with LSU head coach Kim Mulkey, was not present on court for the national anthem. This sparked a lot of controversy on social media. When asked about this topic in a post game interview, Mulkey explained to the press that their absence was a product of the team’s regular game day routine, and she claims that they didn’t know when the anthem was played.
“If you ever go to an actual LSU game, you’ll see that they’re never on the court for the anthem. It’s that simple,” BRProud.com reporter Chessa Bouche posted on X. “I’ve covered them for three years, and they’ve never been.”
As a result of this, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry issued a policy requiring student athletes to be present during the national anthem in order to keep their scholarship.
During the tournaments, Iowa point guard Caitlin Clark stood out amongst all of the players in the college division with her natural agility and her record breaking shots. Throughout this previous season and tournament rounds, she broke multiple records held by basketball legends, including Steph Curry, Kelsey Plum and Pete Maravich. According to the NCAA, Clark became the highest-scoring player in college women’s basketball history after scoring her 3,650th point. She surpassed Kelsey Plum by becoming the player to score the most points in a single season with 1,113 points and she became the first NCAA Division 1 player (man or woman) to make 200 three-pointers in a single season. Clark is also suspected to be the first pick in the WNBA draft.
In her national championship speech for the Gamecocks, Coach Staley applauded Clark for the impact she has made to women’s basketball. “I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport,” the coach said. “She carried a heavy load for our sport and it just is not gonna stop here on the collegiate tour. But when she is the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, she’s gonna lift that league up as well. So Caitlin Clark if you’re out there, you are one of the GOATs of our game. We appreciate you.”
After all of the popularity of the Women’s March Madness tournament this year, it is suspected for women’s basketball viewership to increase by almost 20 percent, which is a big impact for the WNBA. It will be exciting to follow these girls and teams in the future.
