SPORTS

2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament: Top two players in each region including Caitlin Clark of Iowa.

Published

1 week ago

March 17, 2023

March Madness is officially recognized as underground, and it’s time for star players to shine on the biggest stage. Many talents are vying for this year’s Women’s Basketball Trophy, but some players have proven their ability all season long and are itching to lead their team to ultimate success.

Many players could have made this list, but those who were chosen played a huge role in their lists. Here are the two most influential players in each region:

Greenville 1

Alia Boston (FC, South Carolina)

Last season’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year is just as talented as ever, even if her stats aren’t as mind-blowing on paper. She led her team to a national title last year, leading in scoring, rebounding, blocks and steals. This year she is averaging a calmer 13.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and two blocks per game by her standards, but that’s because her team shares more responsibility, and also because opponents know that they should double or triple her crew.

Boston earned the SEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards for the second straight season. She has also been named an AP All-American. third year in a row. She is still the same player you can expect to help the Gamecocks finish a tough game. South Carolina enters the NCAA Tournament undefeated, but their biggest fear this season was against Stanford in November. The Cardinal led most of the game, but Boston landed a decisive blow that forced overtime. She led her team to a 76-71 victory over Stanford with a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Diamond Miller (G, MD)

Things looked shaky for Maryland during the offseason after two of the Turps’ top scorers, Angel Reese and Ashley Owusu, left the program. Meanwhile, a knee injury plagued Miller in the 2021/22 season and she underwent surgery last April. Eventually Miller decided to stay and became the key to Maryland’s success.

The All-Big Ten unanimous first-team selection is the Terpov’s most reliable scorer with 19.7 points per game, ranked in the top 25 in the nation. However, it has further improved against ranked opponents, averaging 24.3 points and 6.9 rebounds in eight games against the top 25 teams this season. Miller proved she could help her team succeed in the tournament when she helped Maryland upset the then No. 7 Notre Dame on the road in December. Miller famously won the game by jumping on one foot on cue, but she contributed a double-double all night with 31 points and 12 rebounds, as well as five assists.

Greenville 2

Maddie Siegrist (W, Villanova)

The Big East Player of the Year has been a major reason the Wildcats have risen to prominence, holding back-to-back Big East Championship games for the first time since 1986-87. They ultimately lost to UConn for the third time that season, but the Wildcats kept those three final scores to the single digits. With the help of Siegrist, Villanova became competitive and enters the NCAA Tournament as No. 1 in the tournament. 10th place in the AP Top 25 poll is the highest ranking in the history of the program.

Siegrist is the nation’s leading scorer, scoring 28.9 points per game on 51.8% from the field. Senior was Villanova’s all-time leading scorer earlier this season, as well as the Big East’s all-time leading scorer, both men and women, with 1,693 career points in regular-season conference games. Her ability to score both inside and out has helped her score 20-plus points in 34 consecutive games while having a near-average double-double with 9.3 rebounds per game this season.

Angel Reese (F, LSU)

Reese left Maryland as the top player on the transfer portal last year. The Tigers were lucky when she decided to join their roster as she led LSU to one of the best seasons in the program’s history. Reese is a confident player and she has established herself as one of the strongest national candidates for the title of “Player of the Year” because her stats reflect her dynamism. Reese is averaging 23.4 points on 54% shooting from the field. She also registers 15.5 rebounds per game.

The team is strong, with five players averaging over nine points, but Reese was by far the top scoring player. She’s double-doubled in all but two of her games this season: in South Carolina and Georgia. Against the Gamecocks – one of the top five defensive teams in the country – she had the lowest shooting percentage of the season when she went 5-for-15 from the field. However, Reese still managed to score 16 points against the world No. 1. 1 team per country.

Seattle 3

Azzi Fudd (G, UConn)

Fudd has only played 12 games this season, but she shouldn’t be overlooked. University of Connecticut fans’ hearts broke after Paige Buckers tore her anterior cruciate ligament during preseason while continuing to struggle with injuries the Huskies faced last season. However, Geno Auriemma’s team is full of talent and Fudd has shown she’s not afraid to take on a bigger role. Prior to injuring her knee against Notre Dame in December, she led UConn with 20.6 points per game on 53.3% shooting from the field and 42.6% from three-point range.

The sophomore appeared in two games in January but missed all of February. She’s back this month, which, even if she still looks a little rusty, will give the Husky a good chance of success in the tournament.

Ashley Jones (G/F, Iowa)

Two-time award winner Cheryl Miller decided to return for a fifth season with The Cyclones, a decision that helped the team immensely. The Cyclones won their first Big 12 tournament title in 22 years, defeating Texas in the title game after Joens’ 15th double-double of the season (28 points and 10 rebounds). Unsurprisingly, earlier this month Joens was named “Big 12 Player of the Year” and won the tournament’s “Most Outstanding Player” award. She averaged a double-double of 21.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.

Jones was key to Iowa State’s 81-78 victory over Baylor in a double-overtime thriller in February. She started this game scoreless in the first quarter as she missed all five of her field attempts. However, she showed her mental strength by not giving up and ended up finishing the night as the top scorer with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

Seattle 4

Caitlin Clark (G, Iowa)

Iowa has the best offense in the nation with 87.5 points per game. Although there are a few members on the roster, Clarke is the main spark with 27 points per game – the second best player in the country behind Siegrist. She also averages 7.5 rebounds per game and leads the nation in assists with a total of 267. Along with Boston, Clarke was a unanimous first-team All-American pick. This was her second consecutive year of receiving this honor.

Clarke helped Iowa to her second consecutive Big Ten Conference Tournament title with 30 points, 10 rebounds and 17 assists, the 10th triple-double of her career. It was only the third triple-double in tournament history, and also the first in a championship game. She ranks second in NCAA women’s history in triple-doubles, behind only former Oregon legend Sabrina Ionescu (26). Clarke is the only player in the country to record over 840 points, 230 rebounds, 250 assists and 45 steals this season. He has a double-digit streak of 84 games, the best in the NCAA Division I.

Cameron Brink (F, Stanford)

Tara VanDerveer is the best coach among women’s college basketball teams, and she has been able to succeed because she selects and develops the best players, one of which is Brink. The three-time Pac-12 regular season champion was named Defensive Player of the Year at this year’s conference, just a year after he was a finalist in the Naismith competition. Brink is ranked second in the nation in blocks with 111 total blocks this season, and is Stanford’s all-time career and regular season block leader.

However, Brink has proven to be reliable on both ends of the court as she leads the Cardinal with 14.9 points per game on 49% shooting from the field. She also makes 9.5 rebounds per game. Cardinal won the 2021 NCAA championship and wanted to repeat last year until he was stunned by UCLA in the Final Four. Stanford wants to reclaim the crown, and Brink, along with Hayley Jones and the rest of the roster, will have to fight to take it back from South Carolina.

Related Topics:basketball Caitlin Clark including Iowa NCAA players region top Tournament Womens

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SPORTS

Famous Coaches Want Separate TV Deal For NCAA Women’s Tournament

Published

1 day ago

March 25, 2023

Lynn Straub

GREENVILLE, South Carolina — As the NCAA nears a decision on what to do with its next media rights contract for its sports championships, South Carolina coach Don Staley and UCLA coach Cory Close are enthusiastically backing the women’s a basketball tournament with a separate television contract. .

The NCAA currently has a television contract with ESPN for the Division I championships, excluding men’s basketball and soccer. This deal is calculated until 2023-2024.

In an NCAA report commissioned in 2021 to examine the gender disparity between men’s and women’s tournaments, independent media pundit Ed Desser estimated that annual broadcast rights for women’s basketball would cost between $81 million and $112 million in 2025.

The report indicates that this figure is several times higher than the current deal, which pays $34 million annually for the championship package.

The NCAA is expected to make a decision by the fall so that negotiations can begin.

“It’s got to happen,” Staley said on Friday, the day before her Gamecocks play UCLA at Sweet 16, a huge income-generating sport that could, to a degree, do what men’s basketball has done for all other sports, all other Olympic sports and women’s basketball.

“I do believe that we were probably in the same place many years ago, but until we can get the decision makers to give us that opportunity … It is slowly approaching this, because that there is proof in numbers.

South Carolina’s 64-49 win over UConn in last year’s national championship game attracted 4.85 million viewers, making it the most watched college basketball game on ESPN (male or female) since 2008. The Final Four weekend was the most popular.

Earlier this year, 1.5 million viewers tuned into ESPN to watch South Carolina beat LSU, the most watched regular season women’s basketball game since 2010.

This year, the national title game will be broadcast on ABC for the first time since 1995.

In addition to wanting this tournament to be discussed as a separate package of rights, Close advocates a unit allocation model similar to what men receive for playing in the NCAA tournament. Close, who is also the president of the WBCA, said other coaches she spoke to also support the model.

“I think it should go hand in hand,” Close said. “That was one of the main parts of the Kaplan report a few years ago. As the NCAA works on a new media rights deal that will hopefully be a separate deal with women’s basketball in this space, I think there should be a meaningful division. distribution associated with it.

“I don’t think any of us are asking for it to be the same as men. Obviously they are ahead of us in this deal. But I think this is the next right step.”

SPORTS

No. 4 Villanova v. No. 9 Miami Live Updates TV Results

Published

1 day ago

March 24, 2023

Lynn Straub

Villanova’s Maddie Siegrist is the nation’s leading scorer as the Wildcats face Miami in the Sweet 16. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) #

The NCAA Sweet 16 Friday Women’s Tournament begins at two regional venues: Greenville, South Carolina; and Seattle with four games. The first game between No. Villanova with 4 seeds and No. 9 Miami starts at 2:30 pm ET on ESPN in the Greenville 2 region. Villanova’s Maddy Sigrist is the nation’s leading scorer with 29.2 points per game. She is also the universal leader of the Wildcats. Miami advanced to the Sweet 16, eliminating top seed Indiana.

How to watch

WHO: No. 4th seed Villanova vs. No. 1 9th in Miami (FL)

When: 2:30 pm ET, Friday

TV: ESPN

Region: Greenville 2

Follow Villanova-Miami to Sweet 16

More about the NCAA Tournament

SPORTS

March Madness: schedule, games, TV information about the NCAA men’s tournament

Published

6 days ago

March 20, 2023

Lynn Straub

The 2023 NCAA Men’s Tournament kicks off March 14 in Dayton, Ohio and continues through the Final Four and the national championship game in Houston.

You can check out the complete bracket here.

Here is the full March Madness schedule below:

Sunday, March 19 (Round of 16 All Times ET)

No. 3 Xavier 84, No. 11 Pitt 73
No. 3 Kansas State 75, No. 6 Kentucky 69
No. 7 Michigan State 69, No. 2 markets 60
No. 4 Ukonn 70, No. 5 St Mary 55
No. 6 Creighton 85, No. 3 Baylor 76
No. 9 Florida Atlantic 78, No. 16 FDU 70
No. 5 Miami (FL) 83, No. 4 Indiana 69
No. 3 Gonzaga 84, No. 6 TCU 81

Saturday, March 18 (Round of 16 All Times ET)

No. 5 San Diego State 75, No. 13 Furman 52
No. 4 Tennessee 65, No. 5 duke 52
No. 8 Arkansas 72, No. 1 Kansas 71
No. 15 Princeton 78, No. 7 Missouri 63
No. 1 Houston 81, No. 9 Auburn 64
No. 2 Texas 69, No. 10 Penn State 66
No. 2 UKLA 68, No. 7 Northwestern 63
No. 1 Alabama 73, No. 8 Maryland 51

Friday, March 17 (Round 64 All Times ET)

No. 7 Michigan State 72, No. 10USC62
No. 3 Xavier 72, No. 14 Kennesaw State 67
No. 3 Baylor 74, No. 14 UC Santa Barbara 56
No. 5 St Mary 63, No. 12 VCU 51
No. 2 Marquette 78, No. 15 Vermont 61
No. 11 Pitt 59, No. 6 Iowa 41
No. 6 Creighton 72, No. 11NC State 63
No. 4 Ukonn 87, No. 13 Jonah 63
No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson 63, No. 1 Purdue 58
No. 6 Kentucky 61, No. 11 Providence 53
No. 5 Miami (FL) 63, No. 12 Drake 56
No. 3 Gonzaga 82, No. 14 Grand Canyon 70
No. 9Florida Atlantic 66, No. 8 Memphis 65
No. 3 Kansas State 77, No. 14 Montana 65
No. 4 Indiana 71, No. 13 Kent State 60
No. 6 TCU 72, No. 11 Arizona Street 70

Results of the first round of Thursday

No. 8 Maryland 67, West Virginia 65
No. 13 Furman 68, No. 4 Virginia 67
No. 7 Missouri 76, No. 10Utah State 65
No. 1 Kansas 96, No. 16. Howard 68
No. 1 Alabama 96, No. 16Texas A&M CC75
No. 5 San Diego State 63, No. 12 College of Charleston 57
No. 15 Princeton 59, No. 2 Arizona 55
No. 8 Arkansas 73, No. 9 Illinois 63
No. 9 Auburn 83, No. 8Iowa 75
No. 5 duke 74, No. 12 Oral Roberts 51
No. 2 Texas 81, No. 15 Colgate 61
No. 7 Northwest 75, No. 10 Boise State 67
No. 1 Houston 63, No. 16 Northern Kentucky 52
No. 4 Tennessee 58, No. 13 Louisiana 55
No. 10 Penn State 76, No. 7Texas A&M 59
No. 2 UCLA 86, No. 15 UNC Asheville 53

Thursday, March 23 (Sweet 16. All East Times)

TBD vs. TBD | 18:15 | TBS
To be confirmed against To be confirmed |19:00| CBS
TBD vs TBD |20:45| TBS
TBD vs TBD |9:30pm| CBS

Friday, March 24 (Sweet 16. All times ET)

TBD vs TBD |18:15| TBS
To be confirmed against To be confirmed |19:00| CBS
TBD vs TBD |20:45| TBS
TBD vs TBD |9:30pm| CBS

Saturday, March 25 (Elite 8. All times ET)

TBD vs. TBD | 18:00 | TBS
TBD vs TBD |20:30| TBS

Sunday, March 26 (Elite 8. All times ET)

TBD vs TBD |14:00| CBS
TBD vs TBD |16:55| CBS

Saturday, April 1 (Final Four. All times ET)

TBD vs. TBD | 18:00 | CBS
TBD vs TBD |20:30| CBS

Monday, April 3 (national championship game).

TBD vs. TBD |9pm ET| CBS

Last year, no. 1 Kansas seed beats no. North Carolina with the 8th number in the national championship game. Also, don’t forget the great Cinderella story at St. Peter’s. The school gained many new fans as the 15-seed Peacocks made it all the way to the Elite Eight round, losing to the Tar Heels and ending their historic March Madness run.

This year the tournament will take place in 15 different locations.

2023 Men’s NCAA Tournament Schedule

2023 DATES	ROUND	CITY, STATE	LOCATION
2023 DATES	ROUND	CITY, STATE	LOCATION
March 14-15	first four	Dayton, Ohio	UD Arena
March 16 and 18	First/second round	Birmingham, Alabama	heritage arena
March 16 and 18	First/second round	Des Moines, Iowa	Wells Fargo Arena
March 16 and 18	First/second round	Orlando, Florida	Amway Center
March 16 and 18	First/second round	Sacramento, California	Golden 1 center
March 17 and 19	First/second round	Albany, New York	MVP Arena
March 17 and 19	First/second round	Columbus, Ohio	National Arena
March 17 and 19	First/second round	Denver, Colorado	ballroom
March 17 and 19	First/second round	Greensboro, North Carolina	Greensboro Coliseum
March 23 and 25	Western Regional	Las Vegas, Nevada	T Mobile Arena
March 23 and 25	Eastern Regional	New York, New York	Madison Square Garden
March 24 and 26	Midwest Regional	Kansas City, Missouri	T Mobile Center
March 24 and 26	Southern Regional	Louisville, Kentucky	KFC Yum! center
April 1 and 3	Final Four	Houston, Texas	NRG Stadium

A total of 68 teams will enter the tournament field. Of those 64, 32 automatically qualify as winners of the conference tournaments. SB Nation has made predictions for each league.

Current NCAA tournament bracket predictions can be found at SB Nation’s best source for Bracketology. Blogging. You can bet on the NCAA Tournament at Bookmaker Draft Kings.