March Madness: UConn and South Carolina reign supreme

A courtside view of the Big 10 Tournament game between Iowa and Michigan State. Women’s basketball grew exponentially in popularity this year due in large part to Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who was drafted first overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA draft.

The 2024 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments have concluded, marking the end of another chapter in the story that is March Madness. A surge of excitement in women's basketball has driven its popularity, while the men's tournament saw more predictable results.

For the men’s tournament, the UConn Huskies became the first back-to-back national champion since the Florida Gators in 2006 and 2007 when they defeated the Purdue Boilermakers 75-60 in the national championship on April 8th at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The Huskies steamrolled through the tournament with convincing routes over Stetson, Northwestern, San Diego State, Illinois and Alabama before beating Purdue. This meant that the Huskies won their sixth national championship and tied with North Carolina for the third most national championships ever. However, it wasn’t as much of a surprise as many brackets predicted UConn to go back-to-back. 

PBL student Elliot Wechsler was skeptical of the amount of competition in the tournament compared to previous years because of the upsets that occurred weekly.

“I think that UConn has officially cemented its status as a blue-blood school with this championship,” Wechsler said. “I also think that there wasn’t as much competition in this year’s tournament because of schools like Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan State bowing out early.”

For the women’s tournament, the South Carolina Gamecocks captured their third NCAA championship and their second win in three years when they defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes, 87-75 on April 7th at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. Like the Huskies, the Gamecocks convincingly ran the gauntlet of the tournament, beating Presbyterian, North Carolina, Indiana, Oregon State, and North Carolina State before their victory over Iowa. Gamecocks center Kamilla Cardoso took home the Most Outstanding Player award for her 15-point, 17-rebound performance in the national championship. However, the women’s tournament increased in popularity this year because of the superstar on the other side of the confetti. Iowa point guard Caitlin Clark, who became the Division One all-time leading scorer in both men’s and women’s hoops earlier this year, took the sports world by storm throughout the tournament, continuing to shatter records despite the loss to South Carolina in the national championship. 

Isaiah Fernandez (‘24) reflects on how this year’s iteration of the women’s tournament may have changed the game forever.

“I think the women’s tournament this year was far more entertaining than the men’s tournament,” Fernandez said. “Obviously people like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and it was fun watching the tournament play out.”

While the dust has settled on March Madness 2024, the fun is only beginning for these young college hoopers. The 2024 NBA Draft will occur on June 26th and June 27th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The draft is expected to have a lot of depth as it will feature the likes of UConn center Donovan Clingan, Kentucky point guard Robert Dillingham, and USC point guard Bronny James among others. Likewise, the 2024 WNBA Draft occurred on April 15th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. To little surprise for many fans of women’s basketball, Clark was selected first overall by the Indiana Fever, officially ushering in a new era for women’s hoops. The hometown Los Angeles Sparks selected Stanford small forward Cameron Brink second overall and Tennessee small forward Rickea Jackson fourth overall. 36 women in total were drafted, six coming from different parts of the world such as France and Australia.

“In terms of the NBA draft, I don’t think there’s as much talent this year as there was in the past,” Wechsler said. “ I also think there will be more eyes on the WNBA now that Caitlin Clark is with the Fever.”