“March Madness”—the annual NCAA basketball championship tournament (which always ends in April, not March, but who cares?)—shone like a supernova over the American sports landscape this year with all the stars falling into an ideal alignment.
Both the men’s and women’s tournaments were classics. The women’s tournament, riding the crest of Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark’s soaring popularity, demolished TV ratings records. Viewership of the last three Iowa games in the tournament was larger than for every World Series game and NBA Finals games played in 2023. Move aside, professionals, and make room for the new media darlings in sports!
The Caitlin Clark phenomenon has been the biggest story in sports so far this year. Even before the gaudy TV ratings in the tournament, the hottest ticket in sports was for Iowa women’s basketball games. Sellouts were the norm, with resale prices for tickets going for multiples of their face value. The way she captured the imagination of American sports fans was rare in its intensity. It is reminiscent of how Secretariat won the hearts of millions way back in 1973. Just as Secretariat set records that still stand in winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes, Ms. Clark set a slew of records, many of which are likely to stand for a long time.
Ms. Clark is college basketball’s all-time leading scorer (men or women) as well as the NCAA tournament’s all-time leading scorer (men or women). She made the most three-pointers of any collegiate player ever, wowing crowds by making shots from spectacular distances that only a few male NBA stars can match with any comparable degree of success.
Ms. Clark isn’t just a gunner, though. She holds the Big Ten record for career assists, setting up teammates for baskets with brilliant passes. Ms. Clark’s excellence has already taken interest in women’s basketball to never-before-imagined heights. What will the long-term consequences be? Stay tuned.
While Caitlin Clark understandably drew a huge share of media attention, this year’s tournament was filled with stirring storylines. Often March Madness features intriguing “Cinderella” stories with a low-seeded team pulling off upsets of higher-seeded teams and advancing in fairy tale fashion to the Sweet Sixteen, or even occasionally the Elite Eight or Final Four. That wasn’t the case this year, although there were some surprises—perhaps the biggest being the unanticipated run of the NC State’s men to the Final Four, which created the unprecedented situation of two universities (NC State and UConn) having both their men’s and women’s teams advance to the Final Four.
There were no surprise teams in the finals. In both the men’s and women’s tournaments, the championship game featured two Number One seeds. In both cases, those matchups were between the consensus best team in the country (based on won-lost records)—Connecticut for the men and South Carolina for the women—and the team with the consensus best player in the country—Purdue’s Zach Edey and Iowa’s Clark.
The old question, “In a team sport, who wins: the best team or the team with the best player?” was answered in favor of “best team” in both tournaments. Both the UConn men and the South Carolina women harassed Mr. Edey and Ms. Clark enough so that, even though they ended up being the high scorers, they didn’t score enough to win the game. UConn and South Carolina had more depth, more weapons. The stronger team prevailed.
While Caitlin Clark’s excellence is the individual story of the year, the best team story belongs to South Carolina. Not only did Coach Dawn Staley lead her team to the tenth undefeated championship season in NCAA women’s basketball history, she did it with not a single starter returning from last year’s team. Remarkable! It shows that Ms. Staley had a deep bench last year, and it turns out she had a deep bench this season, too. In fact, in the championship game, South Carolina’s bench players outscored Iowa’s bench 37-0. With South Carolina losing only one starter this offseason, it portends another powerful team next year.
Speaking of Coach Staley, she once again shone with grace as she included high praise to Caitlin Clark in her post-game interview. It was Ms. Clark and her teammates who defeated South Carolina in last year’s semifinal that kept South Carolina from having a chance to win the 2023 championship, which, combined with championships in 2022 and this year, would have made her team champions for three years in a row. Yet, as much as that defeat must have hurt Ms. Staley, she magnanimously acknowledged Ms. Clark’s greatness and expressed gratitude for how much she has elevated the popularity of women’s basketball.
One last thought about this year’s women’s championship: One of the great attractions of sports is that a team and its fans always get another chance to win games and championships next year. Sometimes, rivalries develop. One of the big draws in this spring’s tournament was a rematch in the Elite Eight round between last year’s two finalists—the victorious LSU Tigers and defeated Iowa Hawkeyes. This year, Iowa won and achieved redemption. Alas, though, for the Hawkeyes: In last year’s semifinal, they eliminated South Carolina, and in this year’s final, it was the Lady Gamecocks’ turn to celebrate.
Now it’s reset time: Every team is 0-0 in the 2024–2025 basketball season. Opportunity beckons. The hard work, preparations, planning, and strategizing for next year have started already. Whichever two teams win next year’s March Madness tournaments, you can know that their efforts will be herculean, and they will deserve every accolade they receive.
