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FINAL FOUR BOUND — If the 2023-24 season of college basketball has been Caitlin Clark's da Vinci career, then Monday evening in Albany may have been her Mona Lisa.
The projected No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft had 41 points, seven rebounds and 12 assists in Iowa's 94-87 win over No. 3 LSU in a rematch of last year's national championship won by the Bayou Bengals. But Clark's best dime may have been the one she sent to her brother in the front row.
Immediately following the Hawkeyes' win that clinched a Final Four berth for the second consecutive season, Clark emerged from a mass of her teammates near center court with the game ball.
The 6-foot guard who owns the NCAA scoring record and is averaging 29.4 points per game in the NCAA Tournament spotted her brother in the crowd, and uncorked a pass that sailed over press row and right to the waiting arms of her sibling, who was sitting with Clark's parents.
Still thinking about this absolute DIME from Caitlin to her brother. pic.twitter.com/wW7vLLzp1x
— Andy Behrens (@andybehrens) April 2, 2024
"I feel like it's amazing to be back in the Final Four," Clark said after the game that averaged 12.3 million viewers, the most ever for a college basketball game on an ESPN platform. "It's so hard to get there, especially with this region and how loaded this region was. We told ourselves we're the 1 seed for a reason. We've earned this. We deserve to be in these moments. We're prepared for these moments. I think we came out here and our second and third quarters we played really good basketball. And LSU is a really good team. They're hard to guard. They're such good one-on-one players. They break you down. They make tough shots. They killed us on the glass.
"But we were just resilient," she continued. "We never hung our head when things didn't go our way, and that can get you a long way. I'm just proud of this group to go back to the Final Four."
Monday's national title rematch lived up to the massive hype that equaled or exceeded that of any Elite Eight appearance in college basketball — in the men's or women's tournament.
LSU star Angel Reese had 17 points, 20 rebounds and three blocked shots as the Tigers (31-6) outrebounded the Hawkeyes 54-36 and led 31-26 after the first quarter.
But Iowa got 21 points, six rebounds and two steals from Kate Martin, the Hawkeyes held LSU guard Hailey Van Lith to 9 points on 2-of-10 shooting, and Reese fouled out in the fourth quarter to end LSU's comeback after going down 69-58 after three quarters.
On a night that also featured No. 3 UConn's thrilling 80-73 upset of top-seeded USC — and in a regional final that also included top-ranked South Carolina's 70-58 win over Oregon State and upstart NC State's 76-66 win over Texas — Clark and Iowa still earned the accolades, including from coaches on the other side of the country.
"It's pretty remarkable. Next weekend should be just as much fun as this weekend," said UConn coach Geno Auiremma after the Huskies got 28 points, 10 rebounds and six assists from Paige Bueckers. "Yeah, I hope Caitlin Clark had a personal agenda against LSU. I know there's nothing personal between me and her. I don't need to be seeing her drop 50 on us next weekend, you know?
"I love her. I think she's the best player," he added, before catching himself with a dose of good-natured self-deprecation. "Forget I ever said Paige is the best player in the country. I think she's the best player of all time. I don't know whoever said that I said that Paige is the best player in the country."
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