Iowa, LSU both seeking first NCAA titles in women’s final – American Press

Iowa, LSU each searching for first NCAA titles in girls’s last

Revealed 11:31 am Sunday, April 2, 2023

DALLAS (AP) — Caitlin Clark has captured the eye of basketball followers together with her historic efficiency within the NCAA Match.

Iowa’s sensational guard will attempt to end off the unprecedented run she’s led the Hawkeyes on with a championship after they face LSU on Sunday within the title recreation.

“I believe profitable a nationwide championship is how you place a last bow on it,” Clark mentioned. “I believe that’s the easiest way, however we’re going to offer it the whole lot we now have for 40 extra minutes. We all know that’s all we now have left of our season.”

The dazzling guard, who grew up in Iowa, grew to become the primary girls’s participant to publish back-to-back 40-point performances within the NCAA Match after her 41-point recreation lifted the Hawkeyes over beforehand unbeaten South Carolina within the Last 4.

Now she’ll attempt to etch her identify subsequent to a few of the best ever to win a title — like Cheryl Miller, Sheryl Swoopes, Chamique Holdsclaw, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson,

One other SEC crew stands in the way in which: LSU and coach Kim Mulkey, who was impressed watching Clark on Friday evening.

“That’s my first time to see her play in particular person, and I didn’t get to observe the sport as a result of I needed to take care of (the media),” Mulkey mentioned. “Once I did get on the market, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Gosh, she’s particular. She’s particular.”

Whereas her crew doesn’t have any title expertise, Mulkey has been on this place 3 times earlier than when she was teaching Baylor. Every time she got here away with the title.

To maintain that good file intact, LSU should discover a technique to decelerate Clark.

“Iowa is a superb crew and I’m going to offer credit score the place it’s due. They’ve the very best participant, the participant of the yr, Caitlin Clark,” LSU guard Alexis Morris mentioned. “She’s wonderful. I respect her recreation.”

It took Mulkey 5 years to get Baylor to the championship recreation. She did it in two with the flagship faculty in her dwelling state after beating Virginia Tech within the semifinals.

The Tigers made the Last 4 in 5 straight seasons from 2004-08 led by girls’s basketball greats Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles. LSU might by no means get to the title recreation till now. The boys’s crew additionally had by no means made it earlier than both.

“It’s so thrilling — I don’t even know the way outdated LSU is,” Mulkey mentioned. “I don’t even know after they began taking part in males’s or girls’s basketball, nevertheless it must be a very long time in the past. And to suppose all these nice gamers which have performed within the NBA and the WNBA, and so they by no means performed for a nationwide championship. That’s mind-boggling to me.”

BIG TEN HISTORY

Iowa is trying to turn out to be solely the second Large Ten crew to ever win the nationwide championship, becoming a member of Purdue, which did it in 1999 underneath Carolyn Peck. The final girls’s crew from the convention to play within the title recreation was Michigan State —and misplaced to Mulkey and Baylor in 2005.

BIG TEN CONNECTION

Angel Reese and Kateri Poole aren’t any strangers to Clark, having performed towards her after they had been within the Large Ten. Reese transferred from Maryland, Poole from Ohio State.

“Fortunately, me and Kateri have performed them earlier than within the Large Ten, so I do know what Caitlin brings to the desk for certain,” Reese mentioned. “Simply ensuring that third and fourth participant, ensuring they don’t go off and get their 20 factors, that’s going to be the distinction.”

PONYTAIL PETE

Clark has been in comparison with LSU nice Pete Maravich ever since she was in highschool. It’s a not far-fetched comparability, based on Iowa’s guard.

“I’m aware of his recreation. I’ve seen lots of his highlights,” Clark mentioned. “Clearly an amazing praise. I noticed someone known as me like Ponytail Pete or one thing like that. I assumed that was form of humorous. I believe only a large praise. Such as you mentioned, I take lots of satisfaction in having the ability to do lots of various things for my crew, whether or not it’s scoring, but additionally I believe the passing can get missed at instances.”