Aliyah Boston v Caitlin Clark could become one of US sports’ great rivalries

Rivalries propel athletes into superstardom, transform leagues, and redefine mainstream culture. Joe v Max; Wilt v Bill; Ali v Frazier; Magic v Bird; and Serena v Venus were compelling rivalries in which the antagonists pushed each other to excel at the highest level on the world’s greatest stages.

When the South Carolina Gamecocks and Iowa Hawkeyes face off in the NCAA Women’s Final Four on Friday night, fans will witness a battle that has the potential to become the next great sports rivalry of this generation.

South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark stand as the two most prolific players in women’s college basketball. Just days ago, Clark edged out Boston to become the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year, an award Boston won in 2021 and 2022. Boston would reclaim the Women’s College Defensive Player of the Year, an award she also won in 2022. Then, on Thursday, Clark won the AP Women’s Basketball Player of the Year. Predictably, Boston came in second.

Both players possess the talent to overwhelm opponents, using different skill sets to dominate in ways that are rarely seen in women’s college basketball.

Boston, a 6ft 5in power forward, uses power and a nimble low-post game to carve through defenses that often need double- and triple-teams to stop her. Defensively, she’s a force, snaring rebounds as if she’s the only person in the paint and blocking shots as if she were defending kids half her size and age. In January, Boston set a Gamecocks record with her 73rd career double-double. She didn’t stop there: on Monday she recorded her 82nd, with 22 points and 10 rebounds, to lead the Gamecocks to victory over Maryland to reach the Final Four.

Clark is a different type of player. At 6ft, she uses her quickness and lethal shooting to keep defenders honest. The point guard has a knack for Steph Curry-like flair, shooting logorange three-point bombs and dropping triple-doubles with ease.

In an Elite Eight match-up against Louisville on Sunday, Clark recorded her 11th career triple-double and became the first men’s or women’s player in NCAA Tournament history to achieve a 40-point triple-double. She’s averaging 30 points a game in the tournament after finishing the regular season averaging 27.3 points and 8.6 assists.

The Boston-Clark duel has become NCAA basketball’s most anticipated draw, even outpacing the men, as another unpredictable March Madness comes to a conclusion. Ticket prices for the men’s Final Four have reportedly declined while ticket prices for the women’s Final Four surge on the secondary market. The Gamecocks v Hawkeyes’ battle is also expected to garner massive TV ratings.

“Boston and Clark are helping to usher in record ratings, bumps and increased viewership, as well as new calls for a larger piece of the financial pie for women’s basketball,” says Aaron L Miller, the author of Big Time Women’s College Basketball and the Future of College Sports. “It is exciting to witness. Anytime you have two teams each with a player who dominates not only their position but also their sport, with the chance to meet on the biggest stage, you are likely to generate more interest. That, coupled with the new time slots for the Women’s Final Four and the fact that the championship will be televised on ABC for the first time, means that there is likely to be increased attention for women’s basketball.”

Clark agrees. “There’s so many great players, more than just me and [Boston],” she said on Thursday. “You can go on and on and list the tremendous players. I think that’s really good for our game when there’s a lot of great players. That’s what is going to help this game grow more than anything else.”

Clark’s eye-popping offensive num