The basketball rivalry highlighting racial double standards and the rising tide of superstar women athletes in the US

March Madness is aptly named.

While most American sporting phenomena can be compared to some sort of Australian equivalent, the college sports scene and the fervor surrounding the annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament is completely foreign to a culture whose biggest college sports contest takes place a couple of weekends. by OzTag.

But between the huge betting markets, the playoff format and the relative midseason lull in the NBA, March has long belonged to the college scene.

For decades that meant men.

Players like Christian Laettner, Donté DiVincenzo and Lorenzo Charles, who had middling or non-existent professional careers, were gods for a couple of months thanks to their exciting college exploits.

Women’s soccer had icons like Cheryl Miller, Sheryl Swoopes and Diana Taurasi but, thanks to a lack of media investment and the overwhelming dominance of one or two teams (Connecticut or Tennessee won 18 of 22 national championships from 1995 to 2016), it struggled. for prominence along with the men’s tournament.

That has changed in recent years thanks in large part to a new wave of superstars that arguably began with Sabrina Ionescu at Oregon in 2016.

Around the same time that Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors began winning NBA championships thanks to their devastating shooting from distances once considered fanciful, perhaps the most immediate impact was seen in players like Ionescu.

He showed similar range and fearlessness in his three-point shot, and although his Ducks never reached the championship game from 2016 until the canceled tournament in his senior year of 2020, the social media highlights were easy and also combined with more investment in broadcasting.

The baton was passed neatly to Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, who emerged after the COVID pause and established herself as the most prolific scorer in the history of Division I college basketball.

In addition to passing Pete Maravich as the all-time leading college scorer earlier this year, he has too many records to count, thanks mostly to a ridiculous streak in 2023 with multiple 40-point outings and 1,000-plus point scoring explosions .

But that brilliant tournament run ended in heartbreak in the championship game at the hands of the other shining star of the women’s college scene, Angel Reese, who is the other side of the story.

Reese and the rivalry

As mentioned above, overwhelming dominance, while commendable, can become boring and predictable to watch.

The University of Connecticut women’s team lost just one game from its 2013 championship game to its fourth consecutive title in 2016, led by future WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart.

Stewart and Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma were literally incomparable, winning 122 of 123 games in that time, adding to Auriemma’s undefeated seasons in 1995, 2002, 2009 and 2010.

That’s not the case for Clark, who has the perfect rival in Louisiana State University’s Reese.

Both have plenty of confidence and charisma to go with their immense skill levels, and while Reese’s inside scoring and rebounding game is completely different than Clark’s outside shooting prowess, there is a mutual respect between the two fierce competitors.

They led their teams to the 2023 national championship, where Reese’s Tigers dominated Clark and the Hawkeyes 102-85.

Clark scored a game-high 30 points but missed more than half of her field goals and had six turnovers in the loss, earning an ejection from Reese, who was named player of the tournament.

The images of her pointing the finger where her championship ring would reside as Clark walked off the court next to her were instantly iconic.

And although Reese was criticized for her lack of class, she identified a double standard in racial terms, as Clark, who is white, was not criticized for similar celebrations, including a John Cena-style “You can’t see me” gesture just a un couple of games before.

“I don’t fit into the box that everyone wants me to be in. I’m too hood, I’m too ghetto. Everyone told me that all year. But when other people do it, you don’t say anything,” Reese said, adding that “Clark is a great player”.

“This is for girls who look like me, who want to talk about what they believe in. It’s unapologetically you. It was bigger than me tonight.”

(It’s also worth mentioning that while the gesture is most famously associated with Cena, he has credited black rapper Tony Yayo’s move from 2005’s So Seduction music video as his inspiration.)

Clark also came to her defense, saying that Reese shouldn’t “be criticized at all.”

“We’re all competitive. We all show our emotions in a different way,” he told ESPN.

“Angel is a tremendous player. I have nothing but respect for her. I love her game… I’m a big fan of her and even the entire LSU team. They played an incredible game.

Reese was outspoken about First Lady Jill Biden’s casual suggestion that Iowa should join LSU for the customary White House visit, though she later attended and posed for photos with the Bidens.

The Reese and Clark rivalry will light the stage again tomorrow, with third-seeded LSU beating UCLA and top-seeded Iowa defeating Colorado to advance to a showdown in the Elite Eight stage of the NCAA tournament.

Reese said she and LSU were happy to play the role of “good villains.”

“We’re impacting the game a lot and we’re all super competitive and we want to win and do whatever it takes to win. We’re just changing the game,” Reese said.

Clark, meanwhile, said “it’s going to be a great game for women’s basketball.”

“We’re excited. Every time you get the chance to face someone you lost to, it gives you a little more energy,” he said.

It’s really hard to quantify how big this game could be.

At the top of the ratings

The women’s tournament has been regularly reaching new viewership highs in recent years, with This month’s tournament is the largest on record by several metrics..

Last year’s championship game was the most-watched women’s college game of all time, more than double the 2022 viewership, and the trend has continued this year, particularly for Clark’s games.

Since college players were allowed to make money off their name, image, and likeness (NIL), this has promoted their games and teams, and given us a good metric on the fame of the respective players.

Worth an estimated $3.1 million ($4.8 million), Clark ranks fourth among college athletes in the NIL rankings, behind LeBron James’ son Bronny, the Colorado quarterback, Shedeur Sanders (son of NFL Hall of Fame coach and Hall of Famer Deion Sanders), and LSU gymnastics sensation. Livvy Dunne.

In February, before the NCAA tournament, Clark’s jersey also surpassed Sanders’ as the best-selling merchandise for a college athlete.

Meanwhile, Reese ranks eighth on the list of NIL earners with $US1.8 million ($2.8 million), with the third most followers on social media behind Bronny James and Dunne.

The Bayou Barbie, a nickname she trademarked after a fan coined it upon her arrival in Louisiana, has been featured as one of the most influential people in the world of sports and pop culture by Time, Harpers’ Bazaar and Forbes .

So it’s easy to see how the resurgence of the LSU-Iowa rivalry will be a huge ratings winner (and a boon for betting agencies), but it’s also the end of an era.

Both players are in their final years of college basketball, meaning this will be the end of a notable period of college basketball.

But, as the ratings numbers have shown this season, there is a trickle-down effect from the biggest stars.

According to ESPNthe broadcaster saw a 74 percent increase from last year in games not featuring Iowa, continuing the broader trend.

Clark and Reese are special; Their athletic brilliance is combined with magnetic personalities and a compelling narrative between the two.

It’s unlikely to be a repeat right away as many of those fans become WNBA fans, but as we saw when Clark replaced Ionescu earlier this decade, there will be another superstar.

Maybe it’s Paige Bueckers, who is also still alive in the tournament with Connecticut and has committed for her senior year despite projecting as a top-three pick in the WNBA draft.

Or Reese’s teammate Flau’jae Johnson, or Arizona’s Jada Williams, or an exciting freshman we haven’t met yet.

The game is growing and while Ionescu grew up watching LeBron, Curry and Kobe, the next wave of girls had Ionescu, Clark and Reese on their backs and the game will be a better and more interesting place for it.