The path of totality and some rising stars

The path of totality went through Cleveland yesterday afternoon as South Carolina completed a perfect season by beating Iowa 87-75 in a game that saw rising stars, the bigs bang and the happy ascension of women’s basketball on a global stage.

Even a genuinely outstanding performance by the deep-space-nine Gamecocks could not eclipse the accomplishments of Caitlin Clark, who scored an NCAA record 18-first-quarter points, the most ever scored in one quarter of a title game. Those hoops also earned her the record for most points scored in an NCAA tournament. She is the NCAA men’s and women’s all-time leading scorer.

But she and her fleet-footed teammates could not penetrate the inside, thanks to South Carolina’s fireballs. Kamilla Cardosa, a 6-7 legend also headed for the WNBA, scored 15 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and dared Iowa to step into her lane.

As a measure of their depth, South Carolina’s leading scorer came off the bench. Freshman Tessa Johnson scored 19 points and the Gamecock bench outscored Iowa’s bench 37-0.

Our family watched these games from airport terminals, laptops, cabins, living rooms and sports bars, texting updates and observations throughout. We had a lot of fun following Iowa through the tournament.

If you ask me, one measure of Caitlin Clark’s impact on women’s basketball is the number of poets and writers who bellied up to an Iowa City sports bar on a Sunday afternoon to cheer her on.

I hope she and the rest of the athletes heading to the WNBA have the same impact on that league.

I also hope the Caitlin Clark effect trickles down through all kinds of girls sports leagues across the country and that, following that excellent NCAA tournament, a whole bunch of young athletes headed outside to shoot hoops with the concentration and perfect form she did.

The future looks bright for all of these NCAA stars and I’m looking forward to the show.

In another example of how opponents can battle hard on the court and still build each other up off it, here is what legendary South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley took the time to say during her well-earned (and third!) NCAA Championship ceremony: