Every year basketball fans tune into college basketball for the annual championship games. Both men’s and women’s teams from DI schools across the country compete head-to-head to earn the glory of winning it all. Going into the event this year the women’s showdown featured the LSU Tigers and the Iowa Hawkeyes, the men’s featured the San Diego State Aztecs and the Connecticut Huskies.
The women’s championship between the LSU Tigers and the Iowa Hawkeyes occurred first on April 2. Kim Mulkey lead the LSU Tigers to take home the championship title that night, with an ending score of 102-85.
How many people expected the record-breaking views of the game, which had over 9.9 million viewers tune in to watch. That barely scratched the surface because after the game aired it became viral on social media due to the actions of two-star players. As a result of the virility of the game, college women’s basketball may now have its own ESPN deal next year.
Caitlin Clark who is a junior at Iowa State and the star forward for LSU, Angel Reese, went viral after the game due to their taunting antics, which came with severe backlash after the game. The brunt of the criticism for these taunts was placed on Angel Reese, however, after comments began to flood in, Caitlin Clark defended her. Even with the criticism they have faced they both performed outstanding games with Clark gaining her 11th career triple-double and 30 points total in the championship game, and Reese scoring 15 points.
The men’s championship game between the San Diego State Aztecs and the Connecticut Huskies occurred on April 3.
Leading up to the game the UConn Huskies were favored to win as they had averaged 78.6 points per game and the San Diego Aztecs only had 71.5 points per game.
This standing held strong in the championship game as the Huskies took the title with a final score of 79-59. This championship win is the fifth title for the Huskies and the first win since 2014 for the team, making them the sixth program that has ever reached this mark.
Even though they did not come home with a championship title, the San Diego State Aztecs still had something to be proud of. This is because before this season San Diego State had never even reached the elite eight, let alone making it to the championships.
Standout names from the men’s championship were Keshad Johnson, Lamont Butler and Darrion Trammel who all had within the double digits by the end of the game.
The game itself was led by UConn the entire time, with the gap between scores shrinking and growing the entire time. UConn led with a score of 14-10 with 11 minutes still left in the first half and by the time 2:55 was left in the first half UConn was up 36-20.
Things finally started to look up for San Diego with 6:58 left in the second half when the scores jumped to 58-50, however the change happened too late, leaving UConn with a 20 point lead at the end.