Arena Third Time's a Charm: The Arena's New Official Attempt at WNBA/NCAA Women's Basketball Discussion

Ha! Not that I, a 46-year-old man, would be into competing for girls with 13-year-olds. Paige Bueckers is definitely very talented and beautiful. Your son sounds like a fantastic kid with quality taste and mindset! One of my nephews, while he was playing basketball in high school, had a "non-girlfriend girlfriend" who had a "full" basketball court outside her house. Throwing the ball around is great! My dad and I were at my sister's house on Easter and we all went on a walk...my nephews were sure to bring a football and baseball to toss around.

As for LSU...yes, you can feel both of those things.

 

12.6 million watching that Iowa-LSU game (peaking at 16 million) is a crazy number. Not only the 2nd highest number for either tournament so far this year (the only one higher was Duke-NC State and that was available on broadcast TV, not on cable), but the highest basketball game of any level on ESPN since LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers took on the Boston Celtics in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals. The NBA Conference Finals last year averaged 7.6 million viewers (a number boosted by games available on ABC, by the way). The highest rated individual game in those conference finals hit 12 million. Those should be the highest value cable basketball games. For another point of reference, this year's Iron Bown in college football drew 11.4 million viewers.

I know we've got two games to go on Friday and I don't want to jinx anything, but if we get South Carolina vs. Iowa on Sunday? We could be talking about 20 million

 

That interview of Dawn Staley by Aliyah Boston after the game just now is one of the most wholesome things I’ve seen in basketball.

Up next: UConn vs. Iowa

 

that third quarter from South Carolina was nuts

not sure if I'll be able to stay awake for the next game, will probably have to just re watch it tomorrow

 

UConn apparently didn’t get the memo this is supposed to be the Caitlyn Clark invitational.

 

Clark 0-for-6 from deep. Unbelievable. Credit to the UConn defense for sure. But you gotta think at some point, she isn't gonna start hitting shots

 

That was a really exciting game.

 

That game was nuts.

 

South Carolina rolled! Iowa pulls it out...Impressive response to UConn blanketing Clark. As for the foul, it looked like a foul, but a close call--I didn't notice a sell, but it's possible.

 

It wasn’t a foul but it is what it is.

Screen was set clean, and even if it wasn’t completely clean, you don’t stop the final possession of a semi-final ball game because of it.

 

There’s a slightly conspiratorial side of me that wonders if that referee didn’t want to be on the hook for Iowa not making it to the title game.

 

Well, the pattern won't hold this year...

2004: both UConn men and women win title.
2014: both UConn men and women win title.
2024: not this year, at least for the UConn women.

 

To me, one of the absolutely worst arguments in sports is that referees should not call fouls in the closing minute(s) of a game because "they don't want to decide the outcome". This is a false dichotomy that implies a choice is not being made to have the referees impact the game, as a decision by the referees that impacts the game is made either way. If the referee is going to allow one side to gain an advantage by not following the rules of the game - in the case, the offense - then they are impacting the game by not calling the foul and allowing that unfair advantage. If something is against the rules, the referee sees it happen, and the referee doesn't do anything about it, then the referee is doing more to impact the result of the game than if the referee were to enforce the rules of the game. If the referees "decided" the game by calling the illegal screen, they would have also "decided" the game by not calling it and allowing UConn to get off a potential Game Winning three, which was only made possible by an infraction (as judged by the referee).

I honestly don't know how I feel about the call. In real time, it looked like a foul to me, and in replays, you can certainly see elements of a foul. Was it a slam-dunk, open-and-shut case of an illegal screen? No. We're talking UConn, not the Golden State Warriors here.

But even beyond that, UConn could have still given themselves a chance to win by grabbing a single rebound. Caitlin Clark missed a free throw, and UConn got boxed out and Iowa grabbed the rebound.

And even with that ... none of that should detract from what a great, exciting, back and forth game. Beyond the missed call, beyond the lack of a rebound. Do you want to know why UConn lost this game? Because they had a 12 point lead in the National Semifinal and couldn't hold onto it. Simple as that. If you are a team with championship aspirations and you have a double digit lead in an elimination game, you have no one to blame but yourself for giving all those points back and even putting yourself in a position to lose. That was one of the most exciting, most dramatic, high stakes basketball games I have ever seen.

And in the end, the better team won, and we have one hell of a National Championship game tomorrow.

 

@Psych_Jedi The thing is his girl pal (or whatever you want to call it when you are in seventh grade and you hang out with someone you like quite a bit but don't want to call each other girlfriend and boyfriend, which I think is a good thing because they are too young for that, but that is a different topic) is a massive Iowa fan due to Clark so it was interesting when they were all over watching the game last night (again why do junior high kids like to hang out at the house of their former principal and perhaps future high school social studies teacher I don't know, but they always seem like our house is the place they want to hang out hence why I talk my wife into not only upgrading our TV for the downstairs family room which is where we do most of our TV watching even though we really didn't technically need it but also a ping pong table since it just seems like everyone is just going to be showing up at our place ten plus years) and it was very divided. I don't think any of the UConn, including our one son who has a massive crush on Bueckers, are upset that it is in the title game; they just preferred UConn.

I had no dog in the fight, as I just wanted to see a good game. However, my claim to fame with UConn is I saw them practice during the 1996 tournament, as the regional was in Rosemont (just outside Chicago), and our high school, for whatever reason, was picked to host their practices. I remember one of their grad assistant or someone being honked off that some of us students were allowed to watch. Still, we were told beforehand we could watch as long as we were quiet throughout, which we were, and I will say someone else came up afterward, thanking us for coming but also for being respectful. I hated to tell them that while we wanted to watch the defending national champs practice, we were also trying to get out of class a bit. Hey, second-semester seniors, they will try to get out of class in any way possible!

And I am 46 y/o, so I know the feeling of seeing everyone just getting younger around you while you get older. A lot of my friends tell me, "Well, you teach high school, so that keeps you younger being around teenagers all day," and I am like, "Not really."

As far as the call goes, I think there was some flopping going on, but ultimately, as @DarthIntegral said, they had a double-digit lead. You need to slam the door and win that game outright, not down with only a few seconds to go, even with the ball. To their credit, UConn did not say that it cost them the game, even though they disagreed with the call. They put the blame on themselves for blowing a double-digit lead as it's everyone else who seems to be making the stink about it.

 

just finished watching the second half this morning, great game

on the call at the end, both things can be true, it didn't necessarily cost UConn the game, a number of things did, and it was also a bad call in the sense that you don't want to end a game on a 50/50 call like that, just let the game play out unless it's a blatantly obvious foul

 

For my part, I don’t think the call itself was incorrect, technically speaking. My problem is that calls like that are so inconsistent, so it stands out more at the end of such a huge game like this one. Similar to starfish, I tend to be of the mentality that when there’s that much on the line, you let them play and only blow the whistle for obvious infractions. (And I say all this as someone who wanted Iowa to win last night!) But maybe I’m wrong.

Nevertheless it was a really great game, and kudos to the UConn players for being so mature about it and not blaming the game’s outcome on one call.

 

and regardless South Carolina is going to win the final anyways

 

Yeah, it's almost certain SC is going to win and complete a perfect season. But being runner-up in the nation is still a huge honor and, frankly, is a lot bigger than just bowing out in the semifinals, especially since there is no consolidation game. Plus, Bueckers versus Clark, I am willing to bet dollar to donuts is going to be a thing for quite a long time; therefore, Clark edging her out in the college semifinals the last year they both were in college is one notch up she has over Bueckers.

 

Wow. What a game.

On UConn:

• Hell of a strategy & execution with little depth, and Geno showed off his greatness with the early fouls-to-give to force inbound opps (getting a needed steal).
  
• #10 Nika Mühl was a demon on defense. Demon. Hit some clutch 3's, all despite being banged up. I'd hope the WNBA gives her a look, there's just only so much roster space there.
  
• Paige Buckets made some great decisions, handled the loss like a pro. She'll be exciting to watch next year.

On Iowa:

• Gabbie Marshall (#OhiosOwn) was a demon herself on Paigey B.
  
• Stuelke, who had trouble against LSU inside, showed out on both ends. She has a lot of agility at her size, and how she uses that/how Iowa deals with South Carolina's length could determine the game.
• Caitlin Clark taking Iowa to 2 straight natties is more impressive than winning 4 on a roster stacked with future WNBA players/champions. It just is. I say this as a season ticket holder to Stewie's Liberty. Caitlin's the GOAT regardless of tomorrow.

On the call:

It's a foul in multiple ways...

• Steps and slides completely over at the point of contact
• Feet are WAY farther apart outside of shoulder length-- this is the vertical "cylinder" you have to maintain on a screen, unless you're like David Lee or Andrew Bogut or Draymond Green, then you can do whatever the hell you want I guess
  
• Extends the elbow to bump her further during contact

The argument "but there were only 4 seconds left" doesn't hold.

What are you supposed to do as a defender there? Gabbie Marshall busted her ass for 39 minutes to guard Paige, she's supposed to just get blasted off her assignment's hip and watch a game-winner go through? Why, so the game has a more "traditionally sensationalistic" last-shot ending? Nah. Great call by the official. Like Inty said, UConn even had their chances from there. And it still ended on A TUSH PASS BY CAITLIN ON THE OTHER STAR PLAYER, that's great drama.

Hope the finale is as fun.

 

it's a foul in multiple ways, except it's not always called, every basketball game has several similar plays, some are called a foul and some are not, it's the consistency that's the issue

 

Speeding isn't cited 99% of the time. It's still speeding.

 

Oh I'm aware it's not always called, I watched a lot of Golden State Warriors vs. the Cavs in several NBA Finals.

But it should be called, and I'd argue in a big moment you should be less likely to get away with what is literally against the rules.

 

I watch plenty of basketball as well

I'm saying, if the refs want to say that's a penalty then they have to establish that early in the game to develop some sort of consistency, this game had several similar plays that were not called