As many of you may or may not know, the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament recently wrapped up this past Sunday. Surpassing previous records, the viewership of the tournament reached an all time high as the final game recorded 9.9 million viewers with a peak at 12.6 million viewers. This set a new all-time audience high for a men’s or women’s college sports event on ESPN+, where the game was streaming. Regardless of the previous lack of interest in Women’s sports, it is clear that women’s basketball is changing the game and growing the sport for the better. 

The Final Four of this year’s Women’s March Madness Tournament was held in Dallas, Texas. The Final Four teams of this year’s tournament were #1 seed Virginia Tech, #1 seed South Carolina, #2 seed Iowa, and #3 seed LSU. Teams traveled to Dallas after winning their respective regional bracket and advancing to the semi finals.

Virginia Tech earned their spot in the Final Four after securing the Seattle 3 Region of the tournament. They defeated Chattanooga (58-33), South Dakota St. (72-60), Tennessee (73-64), and Ohio St. (84-74) on their road to the Final Four. The Hokies’ run was put to an end after falling to LSU 79-72 in the semifinals. This was the first Final Four appearance for the Virginia Tech Women’s basketball team in program history, so this run was definitely an accomplishment. Despite leading going into the fourth quarter, LSU went on a run putting them ahead to a point Virginia Tech was never able to catch up to. Apart from the loss, this run from the Hokies will always be remembered as their first final four appearance. Elizabeth Kitley had 18 points and 12 rebounds for Virginia Tech while Georgia Amoore and Kayana Traylor each had 17 points, and Cayla King had 14 in their semifinal game. Additionally, Georgia Amoore set a record for the most 3-pointers in single NCAA Tournament history with 24. Although she was projected to be a top ten draft pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft, Elizabeth Kitley recently announced that she will be returning to Virginia Tech for a fifth season, so the Hokies have more to look forward to next season.

South Carolina secured a spot in the Final Four after winning the Greenville 1 Region of the tournament. They defeated Norfolk St. (72-40), South Florida (76-45), UCLA (59-43), and Maryland (86-75) to advance to Dallas. Despite clear dominance all season and a perfect record leading up to it, the Gamecocks ultimately fell to Iowa in the semifinals after losing by a score of 73-77. The Gamecocks were the defending National Champions and this was their third straight Final Four appearance. After a few spotty calls on both sides in the first quarter of the semifinal game, star Aliyah Boston was forced to sit out the entire second quarter due to picking up 2 fouls in the first. This definitely put a damper on the production of her usual numbers, but, as always, the South Carolina bench was able to keep the momentum alive for the majority of the game. South Carolina got within 69-68 on Raven Johnson’s 3-pointer and then neither team scored again until Aliyah Boston was fouled with 1:37 left. With such little time left on the clock and the ball in Iowa’s possession, the Gamecocks were forced to foul with hopes to get the ball back and score down on their end. Unfortunately, Caitlin Clark consistently hit her free throws and led the Hawkeyes to a huge victory for the program. This loss was unfortunate as the Gamecocks were highly favored to win it all and their monumental class of 2023 would go out with another championship. Since the loss, Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, Laeticia Amihere, and Victaria Saxton have all declared for the 2023 NBA Draft. This season will definitely go down in history with the women’s basketball program at South Carolina, but with many of the top talent returning and Coach of the Year, Dawn Staley, the Gamecocks will be back. 

Iowa made their way to the Final Four after winning the Seattle 3 Region of the tournament. They defeated Southeastern Louisiana (94-43), Georgia (74-66), Colorado (87-77), and Louisville (97-83) to earn their spot in Dallas. In their semifinal matchup, the Hawkeyes rallied together under the leadership of Caitlin Clark to defeat defending National Champions South Carolina by a score of 77-73. This victory was put on the back of Iowa junior, Caitlin Clark. Clark single handily scored 41 points to set a record for the highest-scoring NCAA Tournament semifinal and ending the perfect season of South Carolina to put her Hawkeyes into the championship game. The Hawkeyes then faced LSU in the final game where they ultimately could not do enough to stop LSU and lost the game 85-102. Although one more win would have been the icing on the cake, this run was monumental for the Hawkeyes and women’s basketball in general. The performance by the Player of the Year, Caitlin Clark, throughout the whole tournament broke records left and right and put the Hawkeyes on the map. In the Elite Eight game, Clark recorded the first ever 40 point triple double in tournament history thanks to her logo range three point shot. She is truly unstoppable from the three point line and with one more season for the Hawkeyes, they are not going away anytime soon.

The LSU Tigers road to their Championship started with winning the Greenville 2 Region of the tournament. On their way to the Final Four, they defeated Hawaii (73-50), Michigan (66-42), Utah (66-63), and Miami (54-42). The Tigers then defeated Virginia Tech 79-72 in the semifinals to secure their spot in the final game on Sunday. After overcoming, once again, spotty reffing, LSU began to soar past the Iowa Hawkeyes. Jasmine Carson was 5-5 on three pointers to go into halftime as LSU led 59-42. The Tigers were able to keep their momentum going and won the National Championship 102-85. This was the first ever, men’s or women’s, National Championship in LSU Basketball history. In addition to this, this was only the second year under Kim Mulkey with 9 portal players on this years roster. The Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament went to LSU star Angel Reese. Reese has had a big spotlight in the media the entire season and continues to use her platform to try and better the game and the assumptions surrounding the game. Angel Reese broke the NCAA record for double-doubles in a single season with 34 double-doubles in 36 games. With Reese and many other key players returning, the future is bright for the Tigers. Congratulations to LSU!