The Guru Report: LSU and Iowa Punch Final Four Tickets While Columbia Makes Ivy-WNIT History

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

There won’t be any stars and storylines lacking when the NCAA Women’s Final Four convene in Dallas at the American Airlines Arena later this week for the national semifinals Friday night on ESPN and ultimately for the national championship Sunday afternoon on ABC-TV.

 

That was certified Sunday night when half the field punched their tickets as second seed Iowa, ranked third in the final Associated Press poll, rode Caitlin Clark’s historic triple double to a 97-83 win over fifth seed Louisville (26-12) in Climate Pledge Arena for the Seattle 4 Regional Championship.

 

That occurred after third seed LSU earlier in the evening completed Hall of Famer Kim Mulkey’s rebuild project in the unlikely time of two years with an ugly 54-42 win in Bon Secours Wellness Arena that ended ninth-seed Miami’s string of comebacks and upsets for the Greenville 2 Regional crown.

 

On Monday night action will return to the two venues as overall No. 1 seed and reigning champion South Carolina (35-0) targets second seed Maryland (28-6), seventh in the final AP poll, for the Greenville 1 Regional title at 7 p.m. on ESPN and third-seeded Oho State (28-7), ranked 12^th, meets top seed and fourth-ranked Virginia Tech (30-4) at 9 p.m. for the Seattle 3 bragging rights, also on ESPN.

 

On Saturday in semifinal play, Ohio State ended UConn’s string of 14 straight trips to the Final Four and Virginia Tech turned aside Tennessee.

 

With Iowa taking a spot, Maryland and the Buckeyes are looking to give the Big Ten Conference a threesome in Dallas, while the unbeaten Gamecocks who went wire to wire at the top of the AP Rankings are looking to join their Southeastern Conference rivals from LSU.

 

Virginia Tech won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

 

Meanwhile over in the WNIT Columbia at home became the first Ivy League school to reach the national semifinals with an 77-71 avenging win over Harvard (20-12) paying the Crimson back for an upset of the Lions (27-5) in the Ivy semifinals that deprived them of their first-ever NCAA bid.

 

Washington at home eliminated PAC-12 rival Oregon, 63-59, and Kansas downed Arkansas 78-64 to take two other WNIT semifinals berths while the fourth will be decided Monday night when Florida (19-14) visits Bowling Green (30-6) at 6 p.m.

 

“When I came here I said I wanted to take this program to the Final Four and all you’ve got to do is dream,” said Clark, who was trailing Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist (29.2) and Drexel’s Keishana Washington (27.7) in the national scoring race, after producing the first ever 40-point triple-double in tournament history.

 

Clark, an Iowa native, had 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds, had already set a tournament mark with her 30^th point for the Hawkeyes (30-6), who set a program record for wins and broke a three-decade drought with what will be their first Final Four since 2003.

 

“All you’ve got to do is work your butt off to get there. That’s what I did and that’s what our girls did and that’s what our coaches did and we’re going to Dallas, baby.”                                                   

 

If South Carolina wins its 42^nd straight game Monday night, the Gamecocks would play Iowa Friday night bringing their reigning national player of the year Aliyah Boston in a game with the top two candidates for this year’s honors.

 

Retired Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer guided the 2003 contingent.

 

Clark’s triple-double was her 11^th and 19^th in the tournament’s history.

 

“She is spectacular,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said of Clark. “I don’t know how else to describe what she does on the basketball court. A 40-point triple double against Louisville to go the Final Four? Are you kidding? I mean, it’s mind-boggling.”

 

Hailey Van Lith collected 27 points for the Cardinals and Olivia Cochrane scored 20 and grabbed 14 rebounds.

 

Louisville coach Jeff Walz praised Clark, saying, “She played great, she made some big shots. She passed the ball well. We turned her over at times. 

 

“I thought we had to score in the 80s. But you just got to tip your hat to them. They scored more.”

 

In the LSU game, Angel Reese had 13 points and 18 rebounds for the Tigers (32-2), whose coach Mulkey took Baylor to three NCAA titles and played for Louisiana Tech when the Techsters won the first one in 1982.

 

Alexis Morris, a transfer from Rutgers, scored 21 for the winning Tigers while Jasmyne Roberts scored 22 for the Hurricanes (22-13).

 

And that’s the report.