It all came together the way basketball fans expected it to. Number 5 in Iowa and number 1 in Connecticut dominated the competition in the second round and will face off on Sweet 16 this weekend.
The game will be the first collegiate encounter between the sensations of friends and freshmen Caitlin Clark of Iowa and Paige Bueckers of UConn. They are two of the biggest stars in football and will look forward to the seasons to come for the two young teams they lead.
“I love Caitlin. I love their game. We are really big fans of each other and I’m excited to play that game,” Bueckers said succinctly to ESPN’s Holly Rowe after UConn’s 83-47 victory over No. 8 Syracuse on Tuesday night.
Passes through the back, long distance pull-up jumpers, a vision that seems unreal. Everything will be on display by both players in the River Walk region match. Although Bueckers receives most of the country’s attention and praise, Clark shares a similar talent. And a similar team view.
“I think Paige and I would give you the same answer: it’s not Caitlin Clark vs. Paige Bueckers; it’s Iowa vs. UConn,” said Clark after Iowa’s victory in the afternoon. “Facing her would obviously be a great opportunity. Obviously, a great friend of mine. An excellent player. But we would both say: we are not going to win alone, no matter who wins the game.”
Clark, ranked fourth in the 2020 recruiting class by ESPN’s HoopGurlz, did his half of the business with an impressive showcase against No. 4 Kentucky. She had one more bucket in the first half than the Wildcats had as a team and went on to score a tournament – the highest score of 35 points. In the first two games of the tournament, she scored 58 points in 56.8% of overall shots and a 9 to 20 mark in a 3-point streak, with 14 rebounds and 13 assists.
Bueckers, recruit # 1, and the Huskies found their rhythm later and more fiercely on Tuesday. Syracuse’s defense proved problematic in the first quarter, but UConn converted lost spins and layups into an insurmountable advantage. Naismith’s Player of the Year finalist scored the team’s best score 20 points, with five rebounds, four assists and three steals.
She set the record for most points in a UConn player tournament debut with 20 against High Point. In her two games, she has a 44-point stats line in 53.9 percent overall shots and 2 to 6 in the 3-point range. It is filled with 14 rebounds, 10 assists and seven steals.
The pair won the 2019 Fiba U19 World Cup together and were named Player of the Year Gatorade in their respective states (Minnesota for Bueckers, Iowa for Clark). Each of them has lived to date as college freshmen and March stars. It is not inconceivable to see the points guard chosen at the top of the same WNBA draft and face off in the next decade.
The Sweet 16 matchup is not putting the two together in a “which player is better?” declaration. It is the future of the game.
Was the Big Ten underrated in seeds?
Every week this season, the Big Ten conference launched a useful “Basketball Central” release full of praise, tip times, confrontation history and statistics. And almost every week included a line about the Big Ten leading all Division I conferences in scoring. As a whole, the conference led the others in percentage of field baskets, percentage of 3-point field baskets and assists.
Maryland, Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan and Rutgers were all among the top 25 scores in the country in the final weeks of the regular season. But when the first revelation of the first 16 teams in the tournament came out and the tournament key was finalized, doubts arose about those same teams having a very low rating.
The performances of Iowa and Michigan in the second round against SEC opponents indicate that the Big Ten was, in fact, seeded. Unlike the men’s side, these Big Ten teams were really good to start with, and the SEC competition may not have been.
Iowa seed number 5 took him to Kentucky seed number 4 at the beginning of the River Walk region. Iowa finished sixth on the Big Ten on 11-8 at the conference, while Kentucky was fifth on the SEC on 9-6.
It was undoubtedly the fairest comparison of confrontation between the two conferences. The Wildcats looked like a mess, while Iowa couldn’t lose in a frantically accelerated first half. The Hawkeyes almost reached their average of 86.6 points per game, which ranks second in the country, behind Maryland (91.5).
Number 6, Michigan, came after Tennessee’s third place in the same region and dominated in a 70-55 victory, even further than the 15-point margin indicates. The Wolverines, who finished fourth (9-4) in conference games, won both tournament games without a major offensive by striker Naz Hillmon. And Tennessee, who finished third (9-4), failed to go offensively in their talented defense court.
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico put the victories, specifically the Wolverines, in a broader perspective.
“It’s great for our university. It’s great for the state of Michigan,” she said in the post-game. “It’s great for the rest of the country to see that Michigan is not only a football and men’s basketball school, but also a women’s basketball school.”
No. 2 Maryland, No. 4 Indiana and No. 7 Northwestern are all in action on Wednesday.
Other notes from Day 3
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The defeat at Syracuse marked the end of an incredible university career for Tiana Mangakahia. She is at the top of Orange’s record for attendance and inspired the city and country with her fight against breast cancer last season. Mangakahia said he will make a statement for the WNBA draft.
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Michigan is on Sweet 16 for the first time in the program’s history and Tennessee is out of the regional round for the fifth time in 39 years of tournament history.
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Georgia Tech reached Sweet 16 for the second time in the program’s history, joining a trip in 2012. Hours before the second round game of Yellowjackets, trainer Nell Fortner issued a statement calling the NCAA for seeing women’s basketball “as an afterthought “. Fortner exposed this in the availability of post-game media.
“We played on a field tonight that doesn’t even look like an NCAA tournament. I think it’s a shame for our game.” – Nell Fortner of Georgia Tech #ncaaW #ACCwbb
– Mitchell Northam (@primetimeMitch) March 23, 2021
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The number 1 seed of South Carolina and Baylor crossed again in the second round. South Carolina climbed early at No. 8 Oregon State to win 59-42. Baylor smashed No. 7 Virginia Tech, 90-48, on the River Walk. Coach Kim Mulkey said it was “the most impressive defense I have ever put on the ground in an NCAA tournament game, perhaps in all of my training.” This is fun for everyone else. The Bears face Michigan next.
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The general No. 1 seed, Stanford, was tested early by the State of Oklahoma and injection blocking specialist Natasha Mack. The cardinal took off to advance with a 73-62 victory. Haley Jones, Cameron Brink, Kiana Williams and Anna Wilson, who is the younger sister of NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, reached double digits. Mack completed his season with a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds.
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The last No. 1 seed in action, the state of North Carolina, in the Mercado region, went through more difficult times. Eighth place, South Florida, had an advantage of one point in the range with accurate shots. Wolfpack won 79-67.
Day 4 TV Show
All ET times. (Region)
1:00 pm: No. 7 Alabama vs No. 2 Maryland, ESPN2 (Hemisfair)
3 pm: No. 6 Oregon vs No. 3 Georgia, ESPN2 (Alamo)
3:00 pm: No. 13 Wright State vs No. 5 Missouri St, ESPNU (Alamo)
5 pm: No. 12 Belmont vs. No. 4 Indiana, ESPNU (Market)
5 pm: No. 7 Northwestern vs. No. 2 Louisville, ESPN2 (Alamo)
19h: No. 11 BYU vs. No. 3 Arizona, ESPNU (Market)
19h: No. 7 Iowa State vs. No. 2 Texas A&M, ESPN2 (Market)
9:00 pm: No. 6 Texas vs. No. 3 UCLA, ESPN2 (Hemisfair)
What to watch in the second round
Maryland, Louisville and Arizona have reached the second round and after the first seeds have won the big Tuesday, it will be remarkable if they manage to do the same. The turtles were a bucket away from reaching three digits.
Oregon came out strong in the Ducks’ victory over South Dakota in the first round. They climbed, 25-8, in the first quarter with 77 percent pitches and kept South Dakota to a point in a free throw in the final 30 seconds of the second quarter. Georgia will be an entirely different matter. The Bulldogs are brave and had a strong defense in the second half of the season.
Texas A&M is on alert after being on the wrong side of history in the first round.
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