I want to join the chorus of people harrumphing over the nonsense that came out of the women’s national title game, but I can’t.
I think it’s a good thing that we’re arguing back and forth over “you can’t see me” taunts.
If 9.9 million people weren’t watching on Sunday afternoon at 3:30, we wouldn’t be talking about Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.
And First Lady Jill Biden wouldn’t be getting herself into hot water for suggesting that the president should invite LSU and Iowa to the White House to celebrate the occasion.
I get what she was getting at when she said that. Jill Biden was at the game; it was a great showcase, as were Friday night’s Final Four games, for women’s sports.
Why not celebrate everybody involved, was her point.
Reese didn’t like it, but that’s Angel Reese.
That the likes of Stephen A. Smith are calling out Reese’s “you can’t see me” critics as being racists is also good for women’s basketball.
I mean, I say that while also thinking, nothing Stephen A. Smith has to say on his TV shows and podcasts amounts to anything important, but millions of people hate-watch the guy for a reason.
The reason: society is in decline.
But he picks and chooses his spots for generating nonsense controversy, and that he chose a women’s basketball game to get self-righteous about means women’s basketball is relevant.
ESPN, for the first time, treated this year’s NCAA Tournament like it was important. Instead of just begrudgingly broadcasting the games, the Worldwide Leader gave the women’s tourney the treatment it gives to college football in the fall and men’s basketball in the winter, with detailed pregame shows and wall-to-wall coverage on “SportsCenter,” and go figure what happened.
The ratings went though the roof, and we’re taking sides on Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese.
I have a Caitlin Clark Iowa jersey on order, by the way. She’s my favorite player now.
I wish the ACC/Big Ten Challenge was still a thing, on the off chance that Virginia could get a game with Iowa out of it.
I’m gearing up for the rematch between Iowa and LSU next year. We can all only hope that it happens.