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Women rule the week |
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From marchmadman Updated 04/04/24, 9:00pm |
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Caitlin
Clark can claim another record the most-watched women s college basketball
game in history. Iowa s 94-87
victory over LSU in the Elite Eight of the women s NCAA Tournament on Monday
night averaged 12.3 million viewers on ESPN. That
makes it one of the most-viewed games in any sport other than NFL football
over the past year. Iowa-LSU
outdrew all but one of the five games in last year s
NBA Finals, along with the clinching game of last year s
World Series (11.48 million). LSU's 102-85
victory over Iowa in last year's title game was the previous ESPN record,
drawing 9.9 million viewers. The viewership
surpassed the previous record of 11.84 million who watched the 1983 NCAA
championship game on CBS between Southern California and Louisiana Tech. ***SIDE
BAR*** Current LSU
coach Kim Mulkey played for Louisiana Tech in that 1983 NCAA championship
game and was matched up against USC great Cheryl Miller. The
game came down to the final seconds. USC had a
two-point lead with six seconds left in the game and freshman star Cheryl
Miller at the line for a one-and-one attempt. In that era
before the three-point shot was used in the tournament, simply making the
foul shot would virtually guarantee the win. But
Miller missed the free throw, and the Lady Techsters grabbed the rebound and
ran up the court. The 5-foot-4-inch Junior point
guard Mulkey took the final shot, but it failed to go in (and may have been
late), and USC won their first National Championship, 69-67.
The Lady Techsters finished the season 31-2. [I recommend
watching the first couple of
minutes of the 1983 game and
then jumping to 1:17:00 to watch
the final seconds.] Although LaTech lost in the 1983 championship game, Mulkey's Lady
Techsters won the National Championship the year before in 1982 (the very
first year for the NCAA women's tournament). The
then-sophomore Mulkey was the most valuable player in that championship game. That year the Lady Techsters finished the season 35-1. The year
before that, as a freshman, Mulkey and her Lady Techsters won the 1981 AIAW
women's basketball tournament, finishing undefeated (34-0), becoming the
third undefeated national champion. The AIAW women's
basketball tournament was organized by the Association for Intercollegiate
Athletics for Women from 1972 to 1982. The winners
of the AIAW tournaments from 1972 to 1981 are recognized as the national
champions for those years. ***Deep
rabbit hole: The 1976 AIAW tournament was held at Penn State University over
four consecutive days where Penn State lost their first
round game and then lost their first round game of the consolation
tournament. Nothing like getting kicked off your home floor in the tournament
you are hosting.*** Before
college, Mulkey won four Louisiana state championships in high school where
she was also the valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA. In Mulkey's
senior college season, the Lady Techsters lost in the 1984 Final Four to USC,
finishing the season 30-3. She was also an Academic
All-American. In her four
years playing for LaTech, Mulkey went to four Final
Fours, three Championship games, and was the National Champion twice,
finishing 130-6 (0.956) over those 4 seasons. Oh, she was
also part of the 1984 Olympic gold medal team. In her
college coaching career, Mulkey became the first person in NCAA women's
basketball history to win a national championship as a player, assistant
coach, and head coach. ***END SIDE
BAR*** The Iowa-LSU
game was also the most-watched men s or women s college basketball game ever
on ESPN, more than doubling the prior largest audience. According
to ESPN, the 2002 women s national championship game between UConn and
Oklahoma had the old mark at 5.68 million. ESPN s
most-watched men s game was the 2008 regular-season matchup between Duke and
North Carolina, which drew 5.61 million. Only one men
s NCAA Tournament game this year had bigger viewership: North Carolina State s win over Duke on Sunday in the men s Elite Eight
on CBS averaged 15.1 million. [People really like
watching Duke lose.] UConn s
80-73 win over Southern California, which was on after the Iowa game, was the
second-most watched college game in ESPN history at 6.7 million. Although
Caitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese was what most people came to watch. Maybe we should give some credit to Kim Mulkey. I am not at all
a fan of how Mulkey embraced the trash-talking by her players. But after watching some of her playing footage and
learning about her unbelievable basketball successes, she generally produces
results. She's a
Tiger. When it's time to fight, look out! Women's
Final 4 is Friday night on ESPN. 7:00pm #3 NC
State vs #1 South Carolina 9:00pm #3
UConn vs #1 Iowa I believe
ratings will continue to soar. |
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Contact Us Mailing Address: Brian Baldwin | 200 S
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