Women's SEC Basketball

Angel Reese had only positives to say after her conference rival took home the 2024 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament.

South Carolina capped off an undefeated season with a 87-75 victory over Iowa. Following the game, Reese took to X to congratulate the Gamecocks and celebrate the season as a whole for the sport.

She also shouted out Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley specifically and thanked her for her kindness over the years.

Reese is very familiar with what South Carolina is feeling, as she was a catalyst for an LSU team that took home the title a season ago. Her Tigers fell to Iowa in the Elite Eight this season, but the Gamecocks victory ensured that the SEC would take home the title for the third consecutive season.

Staley is also very familiar with this stage. This was her third championship as the head coach of the Gamecocks, with the previous two coming in 2022 and 2017. Sunday's win capped off an undefeated season and Staley has geared South Carolina to a 109-3 record over the past three seasons.

While she grew familiar with Reese via conference play over the past few seasons, that is not set to continue, as Reese declared for the 2024 WNBA Draft.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley made sure to celebrate the individual contributions of Iowa's Caitlin Clark after the Gamecocks prevailed 87-75 in the 2024 national championship game of women's March Madness.

"I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport," Staley said on the championship podium.

She also called Clark "one of the GOATS of our game."

The biggest question heading into Sunday was whether Clark's individual brilliance could overcome the Gamecocks' collective strength. The answer was definitive.

The national player of the year had a game-high 30 points, but 18 of those came in the first quarter. She also shot 10-of-28 from the field and 5-of-13 from beyond the arc, with South Carolina guard Raven Johnson blanketing her for most of the contest.

Finishing runner-up for the second straight year will be a bitter pill to swallow for Clark and her teammates who were on the 2023 squad. The absence of a title could be important from a legacy perspective as well. It's bound to be a point cited when comparing her résumé with that of other legends.

As Staley's comments underlined, however, nothing about Sunday's result changes the impact Clark has made on the game.

Building on the contributions of those before her, she has unquestionably helped to bring more mainstream attention to women's basketball. The 2024 NCAA tournament has twice set a viewership record already and the ratings for the final could be even higher.

And it will take years to fully appreciate how the 6'0" guard's on-court approach influences the younger players to come.

South Carolina needed just one year to rebuild itself all the way to a title.

The Gamecocks fended off a late charge by Iowa to beat the Hawkeyes 87-75 in the national championship game of the 2024 women's basketball tournament in Cleveland, Ohio.

The victory caps a perfect 38-0 season. UConn in 2015-16 was the last team to go unbeaten in Division I.

Iowa couldn't have hoped for a better start as it jumped out to a 20-9 lead with star guard Caitlin Clark scoring 18 points in the first quarter. South Carolina proceeded to outscore the Hawkeyes by 10 points in the second frame and didn't look back from there.

Clark finished with 30 points as she struggled to carry over her hot shooting across the rest of the game. Gamecocks guard Raven Johnson, who had plenty of motivation coming in, did a great job of smothering the national player of the year.

Center Kamilla Cardoso anchored the paint on both ends of the court with 15 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks. The departure of Monika Czinano from last year's runner-up squad was glaring for the Hawkeyes.

Much like Jasmine Carson for LSU a season ago, Tessa Johnson was the wild card Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder didn't plan for. The South Carolina guard had a season-high 19 points off the bench.

In general, it was impossible not to marvel at what Dawn Staley accomplished. The Gamecocks lost all five of their primary starters along with Laeticia Amihere from the 2022-23 season. This should've been a bit of a transitional year for the program.

Instead, South Carolina is the national champion.

Staley and her coaching staff won't waste much time before they lay out the objective for 2024-25: going back-to-back.

Nearly the entire roster is due to return, with Cardoso the most notable player on the way out. Johnson and fellow guard MiLaysia Fulwiley, one of the most electrifying players in the country, are both just freshmen. Ashlyn Watkins and Chloe Kitts are sophomores.

Future success can never be assumed, but it's tough not to wonder how much more such a young squad can achieve.

Tennessee has hired Marshall's Kim Caldwell as its next women's basketball coach, the team announced Sunday:

ESPN's Andrea Adelson and The Next Hoops' Talia Goodman first reported the news.

Marshall athletic director Christian Spears confirmed her departure.

Caldwell, who takes over for Lady Vols legend Kellie Harper, spent her first seven seasons at Division II Glenville State and guided the Pioneers to their first-ever national title in 2021-22. She made the leap to Division I with the Thundering Herd ahead of the 2023-24 campaign.

Marshall went 26-7, winning the Sun Belt regular-season and conference titles before reaching the NCAA tournament for just the second time.

"From the beginning, our goal has been to find a dynamic head coach who can restore our women's basketball program to national prominence," Tennessee athletic director Danny White said. Kim Caldwell is the ideal person to lead us. Kim has a winning formula that she has successfully implemented everywhere she has coached, with a fast-paced, high-octane offense and pressure defense that has led to remarkable results.

"In this new era of college sports, it was vital that we found an innovative head coach with a strong track record of winning titles. We are eager to return the Lady Vols to a championship level, and we're confident that Kim Caldwell is the coach who can lead us back to the top."

Fans might feel a little underwhelmed with the conclusion to Tennessee's coaching search because one possible conclusion to draw from Harper's ouster was that the administration had a much bigger target in mind.

Beyond the goodwill she maintained from her playing career, Harper had a .675 winning percentage with Sweet 16 appearances in 2022 and 2023. It's not as though she presided over a major decline for the program.

Naturally, it felt fair to wonder whether Tennessee was plotting something akin to LSU's poaching of Kim Mulkey from Baylor. Duke's Kara Lawson was a trendy choice given her deep ties to the Lady Vols and early success with the Blue Devils.

Caldwell's hiring perhaps reflects how the job is viewed outside Knoxville.

The expectations are sky-high from year to year and every coach is compared against one of the greatest ever, Pat Summitt. LSU's resurgence under Mulkey and South Carolina's dominance with Dawn Staley at the helm only adds to the difficulty. There are compelling reasons to have reservations about taking the gig.

But this could've been the plan all along.

Going outside of the Summitt coaching tree was the right call after Harper and Holly Warlick didn't work out, and being an inexperienced Division I head coach hasn't stopped others from thriving in prominent jobs. Notre Dame's Niele Ivey hadn't ever been a head coach before succeeding Muffet McGraw. The same is true of Lawson at Duke and Cori Close at UCLA.

Tennessee went down the most straightforward path possible with its last two coaches. Warlick was a longtime assistant of Summitt, while Harper was a decorated player and seemingly a coach on the rise again after taking Missouri State to the Sweet 16 in 2019.

Selecting a coach who has spent only one season in Division I is an obvious risk, but thinking outside the box might be what's required for the Lady Vols to become a power once again.

After Dawn Staley claimed the women's college basketball GOAT needed to have a championship to their name, Iowa star Caitlin Clark shared her opinion on the matter.

Per ESPN's Andrea Adelson, Clark said earning that status doesn't come down to how many games you won, but rather the legacy that you left behind.

"I've played basketball at this university for four years, and for it to come down to two games and that be whether or not I'm proud of myself and proud of the way I've carried myself and proud of the way I've impacted people in their lives, I don't think that's a fair assessment," Clark said.

"I don't want my legacy to be, 'Oh, Caitlin won X amount of games,' or 'Caitlin scored X amount of points.' I hope it's what I was able to do for the game of women's basketball. I hope it is the young boys and young girls that are inspired to play this sport or dream to do whatever they want to do in their lives. For it to come down to 40 minutes and for me to validate myself within 40 minutes, I don't think that's a fair assessment."

Clark's comments came after Staley chimed in on the debate. The South Carolina head coach, who had an outstanding career at Virginia, said she believes a title is needed to earn GOAT status.

"I was really good in college, never won a championship," Staley said. "You've got to win a championship. That's me personally. I had a great career. But it's always, did you win a championship?"

Clark has made a strong case to be considered the GOAT, leading the NCAA in career points with 3,921, winning multiple Player of the Year awards and notching dozens more accolades across her career.

However, the one thing she is missing is a national title. She led the Hawkeyes to the championship game last year, but fell short against LSU. Now, she'll have another chance to claim a title as Iowa faces South Carolina on Sunday.

Clark and Iowa have a big challenge at hand against the undefeated Gamecocks. South Carolina cruised to a win in the Final Four and has plenty of momentum heading into the championship game.

But Clark is looking to close out her career on a positive note, and Staley's comments about needing a championship to become the GOAT could serve as motivation.

Sunday's national championship game will tip off at 3 p.m. ET at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.

The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament championship game is set. No. 1 South Carolina will face No. 1 Iowa after a pair of exciting Final Four matchups on Friday night.

The Gamecocks took down No. 3 NC State 78-59 to advance to the national championship game. The Wolfpack kept things close through the first half, but as it has done plenty of times this season, South Carolina used a huge run to pull away and win comfortably. The Gamecocks came out of the locker room on fire, outscoring NC State 29-6 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.

Star center Kamilla Cardoso led the way for South Carolina with 22 and 11 rebounds. The senior has had an outstanding postseason showing and is looking to close out her career on a positive note.

Now the Gamecocks will look for their second national championship in the last three seasons and their third in program history.

They will have to get through a tough Iowa team first.

The Hawkeyes' 71-69 win over No. 3 UConn was much less comfortable than South Carolina's win. The Huskies did a tremendous job containing Caitlin Clark for most of the game and held her to single-digit scoring through the first half.

Clark found some life in the second half and ultimately propelled her team to the win behind 21 points. Her co-star Hannah Stuelke also had a big performance with 23 points on an efficient 9-of-12 from the field.

Now, Iowa will play in the national championship game for a second year in a row, and it will be looking for different results this time around.

No matter who South Carolina would have been matched up with, it would have been the Gamecocks' game to lose. South Carolina has been dominant all year and hasn't let up in the tournament, winning each of its games by double digits aside from the Sweet 16 matchup with No. 4 Indiana.

The Gamecocks are a defensive powerhouse, allowing just 56 points per game, which ranks second among Power 6 schools. But as most champions, they possess a strong offense as well, scoring 85.6 points per game, which trails just Iowa and LSU.

South Carolina doesn't necessarily have a player that can take over the game the way Clark does, but the Gamecocks rely on the committee and stout defense to win games, and it works.

For Iowa, its X-factor is clearly Clark, who has been the best player in the country this year and is hungry for a championship to close out her tremendous career. Clark's scoring has been undeniable throughout the tournament, but UConn showed that she can at least be contained on Friday.

The Huskies often looked to double teams and face-guarding Clark 30 feet from the basket, which limited her to her lowest point total of the postseason. If South Carolina can replicate that defense it could walk away with a championship.

But luckily for Iowa, Clark is a gifted passer as well. If her teammates can get open when the Gamecocks inevitably bring the double team on Clark, she likely will find them.

Friday's Final Four matchup was promising for Iowa. Stuelke's ability to step up with Clark having a slow start paid dividends, and the Hawkeyes will need some assistance from her again in the national championship.

The Hawkeyes have the best offense in the country by a long shot, scoring 91.9 points per game. Their defense is a different story, though, giving up 71.5 points per game. It's unlikely Iowa will be able to fully contain South Carolina's offense, but it will need to play its best defense of the season while hitting shots at the other end to hand the Gamecocks their first loss of the year.

Ultimately, Sunday's contest should be one of the most exciting games of the year. Clark is looking to put the cherry on top of her legendary career, while South Carolina is looking to continue its new tradition of hanging national championship banners. It's the final women's basketball game of the season, and fans are in for a show.

Sunday's game will tip-off at 3 p.m. ET at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The matchup will be broadcast on ABC.

LSU guard Hailey Van Lith has entered the transfer portal, per The Athletic's Chantel Jennings. Van Lith has one more year of collegiate eligibility.

Van Lith spent the first three seasons of her college career with Louisville, joining Kim Mulkey and LSU this season. After she averaged a career-high 19.7 points per game with the Cardinals, Van Lith's scoring dropped off in the 2023-24 season, when she averaged 11.6 points.

Van Lith's LSU career ended Monday when the third-seeded Tigers fell to No. 1 Iowa in the Elite Eight. Van Lith struggled in the loss, scoring nine points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field while also failing to contain Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark, who had 41 points.

LSU star Angel Reese declared for the WNBA draft Wednesday, so the Tigers will have another talent to replace next season. Reese averaged 18.6 points and 13.4 rebounds per game last season and is the projected No. 7 pick in ESPN's mock draft.

The WNBA draft likely would have been an option for Van Lith, but her name did not appear on the list of draft entries. With her entering the portal, it seems clear she won't test the draft waters.

Van Lith's best season came with Louisville when the offense ran through her, but having to share production at LSU saw her game take a dip. She was the Tigers' sixth-leading scorer behind Reese, Aneesah Morrow, Flau'jae Johnson, Mikaylah Williams and Sa'Myah Smith this past season.

Now transferring, Van Lith is looking to return to being the dominant scorer she was with the Cardinals.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley has won the Associated Press women's college basketball Coach of the Year award for a second time.

Staley has led the Gamecocks to a 36-0 record despite losing all five starters from last year's team. The Gamecocks are searching for their third national championship under Staley, who also led South Carolina to victories in 2017 and 2022.

Staley earned 27 of a possible 35 votes from a national media panel that also decides the AP's Top 25 poll.

USC's Lindsay Gottlieb, Syracuse's Felisha Legette-Jack and Oregon State's Scott Rueck each had two votes apiece, tying for second. All votes were tallied before the NCAA tournament began.

Staley is now just the fifth coach to win the award on multiple occasions, with the other four being Geno Auriemma, Muffet McGraw, Kim Mulkey and Brenda Frese. Auriemma has won the award nine times since its inception in 1995.

Staley is a former superstar point guard who has won the Naismith Award as both a player and a coach. A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2013, Staley has also won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA (1996, 2000, 2004). In the pros, Staley earned WNBA All-Star honors on six occasions.

Staley coached Temple from 2000-2008 before moving to South Carolina. She's led the Gamecocks to a 438-106 record and six Final Fours, including four straight. South Carolina also had the nation's top team in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the NCAA tournament.

Now Staley and the Gamecocks are focused on winning another national title. Up next is a Final Four date with North Carolina State on Friday. The winner will head to Sunday's national championship to face either Iowa or UConn.

LSU star Angel Reese removed any doubt regarding her status for next season and announced in an interview with Vogue that she's entering the 2024 WNBA draft.

The 6'3" forward made a major breakthrough after transferring to the Tigers ahead of the 2022-23 season. She averaged 23.0 points and 15.4 rebounds and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA tournament as the program won its first national title.

In the immediate aftermath of that triumph, Reese looked like a surefire lottery selection for 2024. As this year unfolded, however, her stock began to dip a bit compared to its apex last spring.

Reese's production didn't match that of her junior campaign. She averaged 18.6 points on 47.1 percent shooting along with 13.4 boards and 1.0 block.

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey strengthening her roster with Aneesah Morrow and Hailey Van Lith out of portal and getting one of the best players in the 2023 recruiting class (Mikaylah Williams) had something to do with that. Reese's 26.9 percent usage rate was a personal low, per Her Hoop Stats.

More importantly, there continued to be some noticeable flaws in Reese's game. She offers limiting scoring range, shooting 5-of-32 on threes for her career, at a time when WNBA teams are prizing floor-spacing more than ever. On defense, FanSided's Ian Levy wrote how she's "a strong defender" but "more of a disruptor than a pure rim-protecting anchor."

Reese should have a high floor in the WNBA thanks to her elite rebounding and ability to score inside. The lack of evolution to her game made it tougher to argue she's a foundational cornerstone, one warranting a top-four pick.

That raised the question of whether the Maryland native would return to college for one more year. She's part of the last graduating class that received an additional year of eligibility amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reese leaned into the speculation in February on X:

Staying in Baton Rouge would've allowed her to continue refining her game, and her sizable off-court profile meant she wasn't sacrificing much financially. On3 projects her to have the eighth-highest NIL valuation ($1.8 million) in all of college sports.

But Reese ultimately had little else to achieve at the team and individual level in college. Her status as a first-round draft pick is all but assured as well, and slipping out of the lottery could be a blessing in disguise because of the less pressure to perform that would come with it.

When it comes to draft night, Reese might be the biggest wild card on the board thanks to the wide variance with where she could realistically land.

Angel Reese is already a national champion, three-time All-American and SEC Player of the Year, and her career with LSU may not even be over despite Monday's 94-87 loss to Iowa in the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA women's tournament.

"I'll make a decision when I'm ready," the junior told reporters after the loss when discussing potentially entering the 2024 WNBA draft.

If Reese does go pro, she will likely be an early pick.

Michael Voepel of ESPN projected the Tigers forward as the No. 7 overall selection in a mock draft last month and highlighted her rebounding and defensive ability in the frontcourt.

That was on full display during Monday's loss even after Reese suffered an apparent ankle injury and limped to the bench before returning. She finished with 20 rebounds, three blocks and two steals, which helped her make an impact even as she struggled with her shot at 7-of-21 from the field.

It was yet another double-double for someone who hasn't finished a game without one since January.

Ultimately, LSU couldn't contain Caitlin Clark.

The Iowa star finished with 41 points, 12 assists, seven rebounds, two steals and one block while connecting on nine three-pointers in yet another incredible performance in a season filled with them.

Clark prevented the Tigers from winning a second straight title, but the SEC team will still be poised to make another deep run in 2024-25 even if Reese heads to the WNBA. Hailey Van Lith, Flau'jae Johnson, Aneesah Morrow and Mikaylah Williams could all return, which would be quite the boost for one of the sport's best programs.