Women's hoops title game outdraws men's in viewership

South Carolina's 87-75 win over Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the women's NCAA championship game has achieved a pair of milestones.

It is the first time the women's title game outdrew the men. It also was the second most-watched nonOlympic women's sporting event on U.S. television.

The Sunday afternoon game averaged 18.9 million viewers on ABC and ESPN while UConn's 75-60 victory over Purdue in Monday night's men's final on TBS and TNT averaged 14.82 million.

Monday's audience was a 4% increase over last year's final between the Huskies and San Diego State on CBS. The number likely dropped off during the second half when UConn took control to become the first repeat champion since Florida in 2007.

The audience for Sunday's game — where the Gamecocks capped an undefeated season by winning their fourth national title and denied Clark's Hawkeyes

their first — peaked at 24.1 million during the final 15 minutes. The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup final between the U.S. and Japan averaged 25.4 million on Fox. That also was on a Sunday and took place in prime time on the East Coast.

Nielsen's numbers include an estimate of the number of people who watched outside their homes, which wasn't measured before 2020.

The audience for the women's title game was up 90% over last year when Clark and Iowa fell to LSU. That also was the first time since 1995 that the championship was on network television.

Clark and Iowa have the three biggest audiences for women's college basketball. The Hawkeyes' victory over UConn on Friday averaged 14.2 million, and their April 1 win over LSU in the Elite Eight drew 12.3 million.

Iowa's six NCAA Tournament games on ESPN and ABC averaged 10.07 million.

• Clark won the John R. Wooden Award for the second straight year as the nation's top women's college basketball player.

The other finalists were Cameron Brink of Stanford, Paige Bueckers of UConn and freshmen Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame and JuJu Watkins of Southern California. All five women have been invited to Los Angeles for the award presentation on Friday.

Clark led the nation in scoring at 31.6 points per game and in assists with an average of 8.9 per game, becoming the first player to finish No. 1 in both categories in consecutive years.

• John Calipari is stepping down as Kentucky's men's basketball coach after 15 years, saying that the “program probably needs to hear another voice” amid reports that he's closing in on a deal with Arkansas to take over that SEC program.

Calipari posted a video on X in which he said that after talking with his wife, Ellen, he decided a change was needed. He added, “We've loved it here, but we think it's time for us to step away and step away completely from the program.”

Calipari leaves a Wildcats program he guided to the 2012 NCAA championship among four Final Four appearances. He went 410-123 in 15 seasons. The past few seasons have been disappointing by Kentucky standards, with a 1-3 mark in its last three NCAA Tournament trips, including firstround losses to No. 14 seed Oakland last month and No. 15 seed Saint Peter's two years ago, despite being a top-three seed both times.

• Tara VanDerveer, the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history, announced her retirement Tuesday night after 38 seasons leading the Stanford women's team and 45 years overall. The 70-yearold VanDerveer surpassed Mike Krzyzewski for the wins record in January. The Hall of Famer departs with 1,216 victories at Idaho, Ohio State and Stanford.

• UConn finished atop the first Associated Press Top 25 men's college basketball poll to be released after

March Madness following its run to the first back-toback national championship in 17 years.

The Huskies (37-3) topped all 58 ballots.

Purdue (34-5) was next at No. 2 as it nearly matched Virginia in 2019 with an incredible turnaround. The Cavaliers became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed in UMBC in 2018 before winning the title the next year. Purdue has the only other 16-vs-1 upset loss, to Fairleigh Dickinson last year, but followed that by coming within a win of the title, too.

Houston and Alabama — which reached its first Final Four — were next in a tie for No. 3, followed by Tennessee at No. 5.

UConn ultimately spent eight weeks at No. 1 this season, while its lowest ranking was sixth in the preseason poll.

The Huskies spent six straight weeks from midJanuary into late February at No. 1, fell to No. 3 on Feb. 26 after a loss at Creighton, then had two weeks at No. 2 before returning to No. 1 for the final pre-tournament poll on March 18.

U.S. tops Canada to win SheBelieves Cup

Alyssa Naeher made three saves in a penalty shootout and converted her own attempt to lead the United States past Canada Tuesday night in the final of the SheBelieves Cup in Columbus, Ohio, the Americans' fifth straight title in the event.

The U.S. won the shootout 5-4 after the rivals played to a 2-2 draw in regulation. Emily Fox scored the decisive goal in the seventh round of the shootout after Naeher stopped Evelyne Viens.

Sophia Smith scored both U.S. goals. Her first tied the game at 1-all in the 50th minute. Her second put the Americans ahead 2-1 in the 68th off a cross from Trinity Rodman.

Adriana Leon scored twice for Canada. She made it 1-0 in the 40th minute, and tied it at 2-all when she converted a penalty in the 86th.