SC vs NC State 6:00 pm CST Iowa vs UConn 8:30 pm CST I have to pull for NC State and Iowa, then rooting for Iowa to win it all. Obviously I root for NC State as the underdog, plus I like how they play. Several years ago when they came to Austin for the first and second rounds, we beat them to advance to the Sweet 16. It just so happened that I was seated across the aisle from Wes Moore's wife and other family members. I can't even tell you how genuinely nice they were. Nope, not a big Caitlin Clark nor an Iowa fan... but I have always admired Lisa Bluder's coaching abilities. The main reason I would pull for them is motivated by recruiting. I don't see us them as serious competition for too many of the athletes we might pursue.
I’m with you on picks, I AM a Caitlin Clark and Iowa fan, they deserve to go out in a blaze of glory!!
UConn is playing a Great defensive scheme on Caitlin Clark. Completely shut her down so far! The rest of Iowa’s team has not been able to pick up the slack!!
UConn is just denying Clark. It’s hard to believe that strategy hasn’t been employed against her countless times, so she and the Iowa coaches must certainly have a counter-strategy to overcome that. But it appears nothing yet. Very strange to just accept the situation. Clark’s effort to get free by running around screens also appears to be really lacking. There is little effort to free herself from the denial by jab-stepping or at least threatening back-door cuts.
There are some possessions, I’d say about 1/3, where Clark is fighting to find the ball. But a pretty clear majority of possessions she’s just standing and watching.
Wow. I kind of feel like Iowa just buckled and gave this game away. An Iowa senior, fearing an over and back just threw it up for grabs prompting a UConn fart break three. Just eat the over and back and reset your defense. What a dumb move by a senior.
That offensive call against Edwards at the end was certainly suspect if you ask me. Oh well everybody got what they want in a rematch of Iowa and SC
It should be illegal that Lobo, Bird, and Taurasi are all over UConn games. Just like Hill and Bilas all over Duke games. It’s just over the top and I’m surprised there’s not pushback on the straight up homerism.
They played as one of last year’s semi-final pairings at the Final Four. Don’t think they’ve played since, until tonight.
Btw Roy Gulbeyan was on the reffing crew for the Iowa/UConn game. I went back and looked and he wasn’t the one who made the call at the end
No, he’s a notoriously bad referee both in WNBA and in college. He’s from Tulsa and the one that made the traveling call at the end of the game in Norman that took the Big 12 championship out of Texas grasp
Why has Dee Kantner been left off the officiating list for the final four? She's probably the best referee in WBB.
I was thinking the exact same thing about Dee. First name I looked for when I saw the list. My only thought is she turned it down or couldn’t for some reason. I’m always happy to see her on the crew for Texas games.
I was definitely relieved when I saw her outside the hotel for our teams send off to the championship game in Kansas City. I spoke to her and let her know how much I liked her an officiating style.
Uconn's defense on Clark was great, face guarding, complete denial, like a box and one. I thought that was an option for us to try on James against NC State. If we could have shut her down, the rest could not have beaten us. Admittedly, it would be a tall task. Don't know if we had a player as quick as the UConn player who guarded Caitlin.
Are you even capable of viewing anything through a non-political lens? Do you know how to start a thread on WM?
