Possible foes include Kansas State, LSU, UCLA, Southern California and South Carolina, which beat Iowa earlier this season.
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If Caitlin Clark left Iowa with a national title, she’d have it all.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee did Clark and the Hawkeyes no favors. Women’s bracket Released on Sunday night. Of course they are the No. 1 seed as expected. They will host the first and second rounds at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, where they have lost both games the past two seasons. They’re in the Albany region, which is an easier trip for their diehard fans than their other region in Portland, Oregon.
But the actual games? A bird.
Iowa has played twice this season in a Sweet 16 matchup with Kansas State, losing at home and winning on a neutral court. A rematch of last year’s national championship game against LSU was featured in the regional final. If not Angel Reese and the Tigers, maybe second-seeded UCLA, which has been tested after a bruising Pac-12 season.
And that’s just before the final four!
If Clark and the Hawkeyes head to Cleveland, Southern Cal and freshman JuJu Watkins will be waiting. Earn a spot in the title game, and their opponent will likely be No. 1 overall South Carolina, which will be itching for some payoffs after last year’s Clark Gemcox in the final four.
So yes, enjoy this.
“In my opinion, they found the most difficult way. This is the most difficult way,” ESPN analyst Andrea Carter said that Rebecca Lobo agreed during the selection show.
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This at least answers the question of whether the committee is playing favorites. If that happens, the committee will make sure Clark and Iowa shoot straight to Cleveland — and I don’t mean Interstates 80 and 90.
“We’re not trying to find specific matchups,” said Lisa Peterson, chairwoman of the selection committee, after the bracket was released. “I know what it’s like now, but we don’t see them like that when we’re there. We are putting them in numerical order.”
Frankly, no one would have blamed the committee if it had tried to give Clark and Iowa the easy way out.
Clark is the most exciting player in all of college basketball this season. She captivated hop heads and casual fans alike with her assault on the record books, and they continue to stay tuned to see what else she can pull off. Each of her last four games drew more than 1 million viewers.She passed Pete Maravich as college basketball’s all-time leading scorer in the regular season finale and won the Big Ten regular season with more than 3 million viewers.
Celebrities want to see her, little kids want to be her. Why doesn’t the committee want it to continue as long as it can?
Because he couldn’t, first. The top-four seeds from the same conference must be in different brackets, and the Pac-12 is skewed by having four: No. 1-seeded Southern California; No. 2-seeded UCLA and Stanford; Three-seeded Oregon State. This was a big issue for the committee on how to put all these pieces of the jigsaw together to make a bracket.
More importantly, the women’s game does not need to be supported. Clarke is a guaranteed supernova, but there’s a lot more compelling about the game than just her.
There are many storylines and stars in this year’s field. South Carolina is – again – trying to complete an undefeated streak. There’s the next generation, with Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, South Carolina’s Milesia Fulwiley and Texas’ Madison Booker joining Watkins as new junior phenoms. UConn and Paige Bueckers have been under the radar due to injuries and inconsistency, but they scrapped it in the Big East.
And don’t forget Kim Mulkin and the LSU team, the walking soap opera.
Yes, the buzz around the tournament will be a little muted without Clark and Iowa in Cleveland. But there is a very easy way around that. Clark and Iowa just have to win.
It’s largely forgotten now, but few gave the Hawkeyes a chance against South Carolina last year. The Gamecocks carried a 42-game winning streak into the Final Four, all but a handful of which came by double digits. South Carolina was bigger and more experienced, having won the national title last season.
Clark wasn’t the least bit shocked. She scored 41 points and had eight assists against South Carolina. Iowa scored or assisted on all but five of its 28 field goals. She played 38 minutes, though she picked up her second foul with 8:17 left in the second quarter. Whenever South Carolina tried to pull away, Clark made a monster play to get the Gamecocks back.
Iowa also wasn’t the favorite in the Big Ten tournament this month, finishing second to Ohio State in the regular season. But in the final against Nebraska, the team that beat Iowa a month ago, Clark single-handedly chased down the Cornhuskers to force overtime, and Iowa went on to win its third straight championship.
She’s got ice in her veins, that one, and for the most part, Clark plays better. The road to the title in Iowa will not be easy, so she will have to participate in the NCAA tournament again. But it is something else.
Email Nancy Armor at narmour@usatoday.com or follow her on social media. @nrarmour