A new type of madness
Women’s basketball is having a moment as tournament set to begin
At John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville earlier this month, 11,975 fans created an incredible atmosphere as the Virginia Cavaliers defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies in the final regular season game for the longtime rivals. They also set a record: it was the largest crowd for a women’s basketball game in commonwealth history.
Similar records have fallen in arenas around the country as enthusiasm and excitement about the women’s game grows. Women’s basketball is undeniably having a moment, and the weeks leading up to the April 7 title game promise to be a thrill ride that will inspire the next generation of athletes — girls and boys — to reach for their dreams.
Though technically the NCAA men’s basketball tournament began with Tuesday’s play-in games, branded as the “First Four,” March Madness truly begins on Thursday as the 64 remaining teams vie for a shot at a national title.
Two teams from the commonwealth that made the full field of 68 remain alive: Longwood University in Farmville and James Madison University in Harrisonburg. UVa., which won the national championship in 2019, lost on Tuesday night to Colorado State.
But wait, there’s more.
Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Richmond and Virginia Tech earned bids to the National Invitational Tournament; the Hokies beat the Spiders on Tuesday. And Hampton Roads’ own Norfolk State University earned a No. 1 seed in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament and will host a semifinal game on Saturday.
Not so long ago, the headlines would have stopped there, with attention focused solely on the postseason tournaments featuring men’s basketball teams. But that time has passed.
This year, there may be as much, if not more, focus on Friday when the women’s tournament begins. The buzz around the women’s game is unprecedented and that’s reflected in countless ways, from attendance records like the one the Hokies and Cavs helped set, to the media coverage that will see the women’s title game on a national over-the-air network (ABC) while the men’s championship will be on cable (TNT). Last year’s women’s final drew more than 12.6 million viewers, slightly less than the 14.7 million who watched the men’s game.
Fans in the commonwealth will have rooting options in that tournament as well, as three schools made the field: Richmond; Norfolk State, which won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship at Scope Arena on Saturday; and Virginia Tech, which lost in the National Semifinal last season and comes into the tournament ranked 13th in the nation.
All eyes will be on the University of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, a superstar who this year became the Division I career scoring leader — not just for women’s basketball but all of college basketball. A preseason exhibition game this season featuring Clark’s Hawkeyes against DePaul University drew 55,646 fans to watch at the
Iowa football stadium. (Yes, the football stadium!)
But this year’s tournament is packed with talent, including the Hokies’ energetic Australian point guard Georgia Amoore and three-time Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley.
Lest we forget, the Old Dominion University women’s team will compete in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament and earned a bye to the second round. In no small way, that program is responsible for paving the way for the modern women’s game with its success in the 1970s and 1980s, winning national titles in 1979, 1980 and 1985.
Indeed, the women’s game has always enjoyed strong support in the commonwealth, and the attendance record broken in Charlottesville this month bested the 11,966 who attended the 1994 women’s Final Four at Richmond Coliseum.
The lazy criticism of women’s basketball is that nobody watches, but this year has blown that narrative to smithereens. Sports fans of all stripes — include those who’ve never really tuned in before — are hanging on every shot, every rebound, every buzzer-beater and every upset as this remarkable, historic women’s basketball season concludes.
It’s been a thrill ride and we can hope the best is yet to come.