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You can feel it coming.
Basketball battles.
Between ambitious women.
Ballin’ on the court and ballin’ when they lose and ballin’ when they win.
Stirring this boiling cauldron is a superstar and incredibly popular Caitlin Clark. The shotmaking sensation, the newly crowned Queen of the Court, is stepping closer to a clash with another climactic clash on April 1st in the Sweet 16 with Angel Reese and LSU.
Not the best of friends are these two players; nor are these two teams.
Understatement.
The last time they met was in the national title game a year ago. Reese’s team won and she mocked Clark with a hand gesture, a similar one Clark used against another opponent last season. So fair is fair.
It went beyond viral. It became a societal discourse all across our nation in homes rural, urban, and everyplace else.
But competition and pride are competition and pride. And so is letting someone you beat know you beat them. Not the classiest thing but America likes winners.
These ladies don’t love each other nor, I’m guessing, like each other much. Not likely they’d hang out in the same nightclubs. Like Magic and Bird, they’re after the same things and each stands in the way of the other.
When Reese took Clark’s team down, that brought tears to Clark’s eyes during the post-game presser after the national championship. A repeat dual, if it happens, is going to be emotional on multiple levels, and not all of them pure.
Yet here’s the thing: The fierce competitiveness won’t end there – not even close. Let’s say Iowa wins so advances to the Final Four. It’s possible they’d play UConn.
While in high school as the best player in her class across the United States, Caitlin Clark figured she was going to play one day for UConn. But Geno Auriemma, the one guy just about all great high school girls want to play for in college, didn’t call her.
Didn’t want her. Why? Probably because he doesn’t like bad body language in players and Clark tends to be guilty of that from time to time.
So Clark will get a chance to show Geno he should have taken her, and won’t that be rich with a national championship being tangled for perhaps in Geno’s last quest going for national title number 12?
It gets richer. Paige Bueckers is UConn’s star player. Coming out of high school she, too, was touted as one of the best in America.
Who is better now, Bueckers or Clark? It’s a team game, and UConn has more stars so Bueckers doesn’t have to dominate the ball or game for her team as much as Clark, but still, these two players will be huge in determining who wins that game if it comes to be.
In the next few days and weeks, there’s so much to be settled on the court and there’s never been more interest in women’s college basketball than right now. It’s palpable and unprecedented, mainly because of the cast of compelling characters and the fact that these women play team basketball and shoot and pass with impressive skill; many shoot better than the men and I think it’s because they practice more. Good for the women – and shame on the men. Practice shooting more and maybe we’ll want to watch you more.
America wants to see this Broadway-quality theatrical drama. It will be much more captivating than anything going on in the men’s March Madness Tournament. Who cares if UConn wins again, or Carolina, or Duke, or Houston, or Purdue?
Almost no one else does either beyond the people who go to those schools or once did. The men’s brackets are as dull as dead dandelions.
Unlike the women’s brackets which are churning with oozing interpersonal tensions and women who want to win it all – ferociously. LSU coach Kim Mulkey is agitating and complaining to the world that the Washington Post is trying to write a negative article about her and she’s threatened legal action if they do. What’s she so concerned about? Hiding something?
Can this woman be trusted? Her game outfits are colorful and ostentatious though I couldn’t categorize them any better than to say they’re wild and daring and different and crazy. She’s getting reactions and I can’t criticize that because I’ve got that same questionable need.
Ok, fine. But she also wants to crush every team in the tournament and win another national title for herself. OK, fine. Ambition is good, an American ideal. She also wants to beat Caitlin Clark. Ok, fine. Competition is good.
But why all the howling about the newspaper article right now during the tournament? Personal brand at stake? This whole LSU basketball team is mostly about you, isn’t it? Or am I misreading you?
You still need to slide over, though. It’s also about Dawn Staley wanting to get rip-roaring revenge on Clark for knocking her South Carolina team out in the Final Four last year. She’s showing her emotional steadfastness and, arguably, inhumane judgment by allowing her team to win its first two tournament games by 52 and 42 points, respectively, a higher two-game total – by far – than any of the 136 teams who made the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments.
Why beat Presbyterian 91-39? Could you have let up? Wasn’t 70 to 39 emphatic enough? Sending a message to Clark that she’s not stopping you this year? What did Presbyterian do to get that dishonorable humiliation?
In the second round, you won 88-41 against North Carolina. Took it easy on them, huh? Nice sportsmanship.
If Caitlin Clark makes it to the national championship game, she’s likely to face your team again – now 34 wins and no losses — and I’m pretty sure if you get the chance you’ll try to beat her by 60 or 70 points. Won’t that be impressive? I’m sure you won’t mind. I think you’ll like that, actually.
What’s boiling are raw feelings of pride, jealousy, and competitiveness throughout the women’s bracket this year.
At the center of it all is Caitlin Clark. She’s full of pride herself, and is disappointed she didn’t win the title last year, and is said to be as maniacally competitive as Kobe Bryant was – Kobe with a ponytail.
Winning is all to her. And to all the other women. There will be plenty more tears flowing among those who don’t win it all.
And it’s about to all unfold right before our eyes. Cry with the losers. Celebrate with the winners. Treasure the drama.
And be grateful there’s a women’s tournament to watch because the men’s tournament doesn’t have nearly the same juice.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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