Women’s Final Four has star power in Dallas

AP photo by Darron Cummings / South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley watches as her team practices Thursday in Dallas, where they'll take on Iowa in the Final Four on Friday night.
AP photo by Darron Cummings / South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley watches as her team practices Thursday in Dallas, where they'll take on Iowa in the Final Four on Friday night.

DALLAS — In one of the most highly anticipated Final Four matchups in the history of the NCAA women's basketball tournament, the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks will test their defensive-minded approach against the Iowa Hawkeyes and dynamic guard Caitlin Clark, a prolific scorer who can do more than make shots.

Coach Dawn Staley's team is trying to become the 10th NCAA Division I women's basketball team to go through a season unbeaten and the first to repeat as champion since Connecticut won four in a row from 2013-16.

Overall No. 1 seed South Carolina (36-0) and its nation-leading defense is anchored by Aliyah Boston, who was the AP women's basketball player of the year in 2022. Clark was announced as the winner of this season's honor Thursday, giving the Hawkeyes (30-6), a No. 2 seed, another moment to celebrate in a standout season.

Those teams face off in Friday's second semifinal, with No. 3 seed LSU (32-2) and No. 1 seed Virginia Tech (31-4) meeting in the first semifinal at 7 p.m. Eastern. Both games will be televised by ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.

Despite the buzz, Staley said her team is focusing on the task at hand.

"The juice is in the winning the national championship," she said. "Our players don't really care about anything besides that. So we are — again — we're strong in our beliefs and what we do and how we've done things. And at this point, we just want to win, and that's their approach.

"I love them for that. They're not letting any one thing or any one person distract them from the goal at hand."

Clark also downplayed the talk around the individual matchup between her and Boston.

"It's going to be Iowa versus South Carolina, and that's who's going to win the game," Clark said. "It's not going to be one player who's going to win the game. I'm lucky enough to have four really good teammates on the court with me at the same time."

Clark, a 6-foot-junior, has put on quite a show since coming to Iowa. She has led the nation in scoring twice and last weekend had a game for the ages, recording the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA history to lead the Hawkeyes to their first Final Four in 30 years.


They meet again

This Final Four is a first for both Virginia Tech and Hokies coach Kenny Brooks, and he's set to match wits with a counterpart who beat him by 42 points the last time the two met in March Madness.

LSU coach Kim Mulkey won three national championships in four trips to the Final Four with Baylor University, where she coached from 2000 to 2021 before returning to her native Louisiana, but she doesn't have the bevy of veterans carrying a No. 1 seed into a national semifinal Friday night.

That would be Brooks' bunch. The Hokies are on a 15-game winning streak, matching the longest under Brooks from his first 15 games in 2016-17.

"The No. 1 seed means we belong here," he said.

Brooks might not have been thinking that two years ago after a 90-48 loss to Mulkey and Baylor's Bears in the second round. However, Georgia Amoore is a confident junior now, not the freshman who said she was shaking when Baylor's DiDi Richards gave her a fist bump to try to boost the young Australian's spirits after the rout.

And Elizabeth Kitley is a dominant senior, Virginia Tech's all-time leader in points and double-doubles who's preparing for a high-profile showdown with LSU post player Angel Reese.

"To play against them taught us a lot," Amoore said. "They were a mature group. They were a confident group. I think it's translating now because we're mature and confident and we're playing on this stage that they did."

Things are quite different for Mulkey, too — and yet the same.

The decorated Louisiana Tech point guard immediately ended LSU's three-year tournament drought with a 26-win season in 2021-22 before this season's 32-2 run. Now the Tigers are where the Bears frequently were.

"I'm the only one in our locker room that has done this, but I'm not going to shoot, dribble, pass, guard any of them," Mulkey said. "So it's not a matter of what I have done."


Clark's big honor

Clark's eye-popping offensive numbers have done a lot for her team, but she's also being recognized for one of the greatest individual seasons in NCAA history.

The Iowa star received 20 votes for player of the year from the 28-member national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week. South Carolina's Boston received the other eight votes. Voting was done before the NCAA tourney began.

"It's a huge honor," Clark said. "I picked a place that I perfectly fit into, and that's allowed me to show my skill set. I'd be lying if I said it didn't mean something. It's not the reason you play basketball, it's just something that comes along with getting to do what you love."

Hawkeyes coaches surprised the Iowa native by sharing that she won the award while they were visiting the Iowa Children's Hospital — a place near and dear to her. It also has huge ties to the school's athletic department.

They put together a video of some of the children in the hospital congratulating Clark on an outstanding season, and in the middle of it, head coach Lisa Bluder popped on the screen to tell her she won.

"I'm there for inspiring the next generation and being there for the people that you know are going through a hard time," Clark said. "Being able to give joy to people that watch you play and watch your team play is amazing."

Clark averaged 27.0 points, 8.3 assists and 7.5 rebounds during the regular season. With postseason play included, she has 984 points — which ranks sixth for a single season by any player in D-I women's history — and more than 300 assists.

"She is spectacular. I don't know how else to describe what she does on the basketball court," Bluder said.


Moren top coach

Indiana's Teri Moren was named AP coach of the year for the first time, completing a Big Ten sweep of the women's basketball awards with Iowa's Clark.

Moren's Hoosiers won the program's first Big Ten regular-season championship in 40 years — after being picked to finish third in the league, she pointed out — rose to No. 2 in the rankings and earned the school's first No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney.

Moren received 12 of 28 votes, South Carolina's Staley was second with eight votes, Utah's Lynne Roberts received five and Virginia Tech's Brooks received three.

The Hoosiers, so long overshadowed by the Indiana men's program and its five NCAA championships, raised their profile this season. They drew NCAA tourney crowds of more than 13,000 in the first round and 14,000 for the second round, when a shocking loss to No. 9 seed Miami ended their run.

"It stings right now," Moren said, "but that last game doesn't define our season."

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