Many of us come to March Madness for the upsets, for the chaos. We want the underdog to win, and we want the best-in-show favorite to have an accident in front of the judge. It’s the American Way. Root for rags-to-riches stories. Sneer at established wealth.
The power of the men’s tournament is its ability to shock, but maybe we’ve all gotten a little too high off of that over the years. Our drug of choice has become the No. 12 seed.
There’s nothing wrong with the best playing the best, and the women’s final Sunday reminded us how good that can be. Two No. 1 seeds, Iowa and South Carolina, went at it, and one of them let everyone know what perfection looks like. It looks like an 87-75 South Carolina victory. It looks like the Gamecocks “holding” Hawkeyes superstar Caitlin Clark to 30 points on 10-for-28 shooting.
It looks like a 38-0 record.
If the ultimate idea of watching sports is to witness the best it can be at a particular level, this is what we wanted. We wanted Clark, the biggest star in the game, men or women. We wanted Sunday, a battle of hoops heavyweights.
We’ll get that in the men’s national championship game, as well. The matchup Monday night between No. 1 seeds Purdue and Connecticut is good and right and fitting. Along with Houston, they were the best teams in the country this season.
They’ll have a hard time matching the women in terms of excitement. Iowa jumped to a 10-0 lead. Slowly but surely, South Carolina started leaning on the Hawkeyes with their height. Size won.
Going into the tournament, there had been a loud debate about whether Clark needed to win a national championship to be declared the best player in history. The mere argument was definitive proof that the women’s game — or at least Clark — had entered “mainstream’’ sports. You know you’ve arrived when enough people care to take a side with the energy and decibels they bring to the eternal Michael-LeBron debate.
Same with the moving screen called on UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards in the waning moments of the Huskies’ semifinal game against Iowa. The many loud voices on social media were outraged about the foul, saying it never should have been called at such an important moment in the game. Take a bow, women’s college basketball. If people are screaming, they care.
Were we watching greatness in the tournament?
With the women, yes.
With the men, no.
The women’s game hasn’t experienced the talent drain the men’s game has. The minimum age for entering the NBA Draft is 19. For the WNBA, it’s 22. Thus, we’re seeing women mature and improve in the college lab before they go pro.
The men’s game is a shell of what it used to be, thanks to a steady stream of young players jumping to the NBA and thanks to more-lax transfer rules. That’s part of the reason why the NCAA Tournament has gotten so zany.
The talent isn’t what it used to be. The tournament is as good as it has ever been because it’s our communal participation sport.
The men’s final will feel like a throwback event, with actual big men doing big-men things, the way it was way back when. The Boilermakers are led by 7-4 Zach Edey, the Huskies by 7-2 Donovan Clingan. Should we wear bell bottoms while we watch? I don’t mean to paint a picture of a college game devoid of talent. Both centers are good players. UConn also has freshman Stephon Castle, who could be a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft, so it’s not as if we’ll be watching a talent show at the local Elks Club lodge.
I loved the joy and skill that North Carolina State’s DJ Burns Jr. brought to the tournament. I loved the 11th-seeded Wolfpack’s run to the Final Four. But on Saturday, Edey and Purdue showed them what a very good college team looks like these days.
Once in a while, it’s OK if the movie is a slave to the script.
It was in the women’s final. The better team won. Clark had helped bring women’s college basketball to new heights, and plenty of people would have liked to see her get a title. But she learned something: This is the year of the favorite.
