With the calendar turning into April, sadly the madness of March ends alongside the passing day. Both men and women ended their basketball season and they crowned their champions. 

LSU took down Iowa on the women’s side of things and UConn beat down San Diego State. With how the brackets turned out and fan interest, for potentially the first time ever, the women’s game brought near-equal viewership and more post-game discourse than the men’s. 

Quite frankly, the Women’s Tournament as a whole was far more entertaining, and outside of the FAU run, the men’s side had better basketball being played late. 

For the Championship games, LSU and Iowa drew in 9.9 million viewers, doubling the 2022 Championship and shattering the record for most ever, according to Sports Media Watch.

The men drew in 14.69 million viewers, the least-watched game on record, according to The Athletic. 

Despite record high and record low viewership, the men still had more viewers, which is incredibly disappointing to see with how good the action on the court is in the women’s game headed in 2023.

Viewership for women should have been even better than the nearly 10 million they had. The game started at 3:30 p.m. ET and could have easily been slated several hours later in a primetime slot would theoretically have boosted the numbers significantly. 

While it is also on the fans to actually watch the game, the network needs to give the women the platform and time to showcase their talent to a wider audience. 

Iowa vs. LSU 

Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese. Clark, the 2023 Wooden Award Winner, AP Player of the Year and Naismith Player of the Year among other awards broke several records during the Hawkeye’s run to the Championship Game. Still, it was not enough against Reese’s Tigers. 

Reese scored 15 points and added 10 rebounds and five assists, getting help from Alexis Morris’ 21 points and Jasmine Carson’s 22 points. 

Despite winning the Title, Reese has been in the headlines catching flak from various fans due to her celebrations and taunting of Clark with her own celebrations at the end of the game. 

The criticism is unwarranted and unnecessary, as at the end of the day it is in the nature of competition. There is nothing wrong with celebrating your victory however you please. Calling Reese classless does nothing more than damage the women’s game and take away from their greatness. 

Clark agreed, saying that she does not think she should be criticized at all for her celebration. 

With both Clark and Reese returning in the 2023 season alongside other stars such as Paige Bueckers of UConn and WSU’s very own Charlisse Leger-Walker, women’s basketball has all the talent in the world and fans need to pay attention. 

UConn vs. San Diego St. 

Building a 12-point lead into the half, the Huskies never looked back en route to a 76-59 win where two players recorded double-doubles as Adama Sanogo had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Tristen Newton had 19 and 10. 

UConn’s Jordan Hawkins had 16 points, but something cooler is the fact that he and Reese are cousins, both bringing a Championship back for their family. 

The win continues the Huskies’ domination at the end of the Tournament. They are 10-1 in Final Four games (Semi-Finals and Finals), 5-0 in Title Games and won five titles in their last six Final Four appearances, according to ESPN. 

Dominance is not a recent history for them either, as they joined North Carolina as the only school men’s program to win a title in each of the last four decades, according to SportsCenter. 

March Madness as a whole was pure dominance for UConn, winning every game they played by double-digits and proving they were the best team in college basketball in 2023. 

Men’s basketball has top-end talent similar to the women’s game, so college basketball as a whole is in good hands for March 2024.