NFL
By: Jeffrey Newholm
In UConn coach Geno Auriemma’s Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection, the bitter coach opined that, due to the parity in college basketball, UConn’s 70-game winning streak from 2002-2003 would not happen again.
To steal a line from Martin Luther King, “parity too long delayed is parity denied.”
The Huskies recorded 90- and 111-win bursts in future seasons. Earlier this week, in a rout-
Don’t adjust that monitor. Syracuse was within three of UConn on the road with the shot clock off?!?
Although the top teams escaped the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, the margin between the best teams and the almost-best has never been slimmer in women’s basketball. Iowa, Stanford, and UCLA narrowly avoided upsets. Ohio State experienced no such mercy.
By examining the debris left from the explosive first two rounds and analyzing the remaining paths for the remaining 16 schools, team NBS Media will demonstrate that dominance’s hourglass, although it diminishes slowly, is finally facing the last horn.
Albany One Regional
South Carolina predictably boasted too much talent on the roster and in the coach’s box to face peril. The Gamecocks routed Presbyterian and North Carolina to advance to Albany, where Indiana awaits.
The Hoosiers routed Fairfield 89-56, proving that the Big Ten boasts more talent than “just” Iowa and Caitlin Clark. Then, Indiana outlasted Oklahoma, whose Sooners lost focus in front of the Hoosiers’ raucous Assembly Hall.
Could Indiana pull an upset over this decade’s best and most beloved team?
Any event can happen. Alas, Gamecock surprises are less likely than others.
Joining USC and Indiana in their Albany quarto are Oregon State and Notre Dame. OSU handily dispatched Eastern Washington and Nebraska, but faces a foe that women’s basketball fans knew, forgot, but are pleased to meet again:
The Irish.
As detailed by the IndyStar, Note Dame has had no luck with injuries this season. ND is down to a six-woman rotation. However, when one of those players is the country’s second-best freshwoman (more on the top hooper in a few moments), the Irish bring up déjà vu from their 2018 championship season.
Yes, Hannah Hidalgo, the ACC rookie of the year and tournament MVP, provides sufficient optimism for fans craving another Cinderella run.
And remember, life turned out beautifully for the fairy tale hero.
Albany Two Regional
Per Sports Media Watch, Clark and her Hawkeyes set a pre-Final Four viewership record despite being stuck on ESPN. (What could be so important on ABC? The news can wait.)
Correct, Iowa’s triumph over an assertive West Virginia foe averaged 4.90 million viewers on the cable network. Clark works harder now for the same result. Pressure from expectations, and whacking opponent’s arms, mar the red carpet to Cleveland.
More reason, then, for Colorado to pray that the horn sounds before Clark buffaloes Colorado in an improvement to her “average” excellence.
Colorado slid after a quick start this season, falling to a five seed and sentence to Manhattan, Kansas. After Colorado impounded the Drake Bulldogs 86-72, the Buffalos proved that earnest efforts could provide early parole from dismissive five seeds.
Colorado tamed the Wildcats 63-50, earning front-row seats to the Clark cacophony in Albany.
(Usually, Team NBS Media’s line is to get your popcorn ready, but that would mean leaving the TV room. So please wait for the snack.)
LSU, which joins Colorado and Iowa in the second Albany pod, experienced unusual turbulence for a national champion. Star Angel Reese took a two-week break from the college basketball whirlwind to concentrate on her mental health, as she explained after a gazillion rumors swirled over her absence.
Days ago, legend Tiger coach Kim Mulkey took to the podium with a fiery fury, announcing that a defamation law firm proudly stands between her team and an allegedly libelous article pending from the Washington Post.
However, who had the most reasons to worry as LSU prowled into March?
Their opening opponents.
Rice, sure, put up a surprising fight in the first round. Then, Middle Tennessee State shockingly burst to a four-point halftime lead in Baton Rouge…
…only for the Tigers to roar back for an 83-56 victory. LSU faces UCLA, who passed the eye test down to the finest line in a 78-67 collaring of UConn on Grand Cayman in November. However, after UCLA denied Cal Baptist’s prayers in the first round, Creighton surprised the Bruins. The Bluejays held a ten-point lead after halftime, but UCLA clawed back and timed out Creighton with stout defense, 67-63.
LSU and UCLA don’t have the best odds to win the title or even the regional. They’re still elite teams, however, and their matchup promises great intrigue.
Portland Three Regional
Freshwoman JuJu Watkins, with the sincerest and slightest of apologies to Hidalgo, proved the greatest newcomer to college hoops this season. Her South California school is normally known for its Hollywood glamor and football pizazz. But Watkins showed that even thirty years of waiting is worth it for a suitable sequel.
The Trojans’ dominance in the 1990s seemed a forgotten dream remembered only in a misplaced notebook.
Watkins spoiled that lousy script.
The rookie dazzled in her Los Angeles playoff openers, giving her the director’s seat as Baylor approaches as her next opponent.
Do note that a reputable outlet would never count out the Bears or excellent coach Nicki Collen. (Pay no attention to the hack writer who wrote otherwise on this site last week.)
Self-deprecating jokes aside, the Bears, after sinking the Vanderbilt Commodores in the first round, faced Virginia Tech. A rocking Blacksburg crowd rooted fervently as Collen:
Watched furiously during a needless video review?
Ten billion years, give or take a century, later, the Hokies had time for another play. With a chance to force overtime, the Tech inbounder’s pass bounced away from the intended target. With intense Baylor defense swarming the ball, Tech could only try a clumsy behind-the-back shot that was not close. The Trojans will be a sterner test still than an already sterling Hokies team. However. Baylor can at least rejoice in being back where it belongs: the Sweet 16.
Duke and, yes, yes, UConn again, make up the rest of the quadrant. It surprised few to see the Blue Devils defeat Richmond in the first round. It was a stab more surprising, at least to those outside Durham, for Duke to foil an expected Ohio State-UConn rematch. Happily for the Devils, the Huskies will not have their usual de facto home-court advantage in Portland.
A centimeter to the left of right, however, and this postseason’s story would have a different name on its copyright page.
With the seconds ticking in Storrs on that fateful Monday night, however, KK Arnold’s dagger three did, indeed, circle through the net’s bottom. 30 seconds and 0 Orange points later, the Husky dynasty secured success, or avoided tragedy, again.
The clock neared midnight on an oligopoly era, only for the second hand to cruelly stop short of its last tick.
Portland Four Regional
Texas and Gonzaga are no apprentices on the main stage of the Big Dance. Both schools have pounded fists furiously on the Final Four curtain, however, without gaining entry.
A reminder about the problem of scarcity: hoopers have unlimited wants. With a limited amount of glory available, however, only four teams can advance to the biggest theater. The Longhorns may seem the likelier squad to reach the Elite Eight. The school has built momentum for four years under wizard coach Vic Schaefer. Gonzaga, though, stands for both itself and the hundreds of mid-major schools who refuse to have their chances prematurely dismissed.
The last two teams reaching the tournament’s second act are NC State and Stanford. The Wolfpack continued Tennessee’s bafflingly poor fortune with a prompt stoppage. With the Vols pressing after making a basket, Tennessee seemed a moment away from reducing its deficit to two. In a decisive split-second, to coach Kellie Harper’s horror, the officials granted State a timeout. State escaped with a 79-72 decision, vindicating Wes Moore’s reputation as a supposedly poor timing strategist.
Stanford easily defeated Norfolk State (quelle surprise!), but Iowa State proved a stouter foe. The Cardinal’s collective heart stopped last postseason in a rare home postseason loss. History seemed destined to repeat Sunday. The large and lovable Cyclone Audi Crooks had just blasted Maryland with an unthinkable 40 points, a tournament freshwoman record.
The Cardinal defense needed every tint of its colorful defense to deter Crooks. Although Stanford, unthinkably, held Crooks to 3 of 21 from the field, it still needed overtime to reach the Regional.
Again, an underdog left the court to the sound of cheers for the favorite and an occasional jeer to the vanquished.
Happily, the smirks on favorite’s faces, and those on the jaws of women’s hoops skeptics, continue to recede. It took overtime in Stanford, and a fateful roll in Storrs, for the shredder to have its usual break.
In 2025? Call the electrician and get your credit card ready. An age of excellence in women’s basketball beckons, promising to properly trash brackets forevermore.
