The 2024 Women’s Final Four boasts one of the most fascinating fields in recent memory.
On one side, there is a matchup of generational scorers in Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers. The Iowa-UConn showdown should receive a majority of the buzz leading up to Friday’s national semifinals because of Clark, Bueckers and the UConn name brand.
The other part of the bracket features the best team in the women’s game, the South Carolina Gamecocks.
One could argue Dawn Staley’s team has the ideal path to a championship since it has the easier matchup against NC State. The Iowa-UConn winner could be exhausted from one of the best games of the season.
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook.
South Carolina is -225 (bet $225 to win $100) to win the national championship. That number speaks to the overall dominance of the Gamecocks throughout their undefeated campaign.
South Carolina is unsurprisingly a double-digit favorite over NC State. That is a role the Gamecocks have been in four times in the NCAA tournament. Kamilla Cardoso and Co. produced a trio of double-digit wins and survived a Sweet 16 scare from the Indiana Hoosiers.
NC State was equally as impressive in its second-weekend wins over the Texas Longhorns and Stanford Cardinal. But beating those teams is a much different—and likely easier—task than taking down the undefeated Gamecocks.
The Wolfpack have the potential to stay within single digits. They went 7-3 against ranked opposition in the regular season.
However, it will take a perfect performance for the Wolfpack to pull off what would be one of the more extraordinary Women’s Final Four upsets.
Prediction: South Carolina over NC State, NC State covers +11.5-point spread.
The second matchup in Cleveland will be all about Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark.
Bueckers is averaging 28 points per game in the NCAA tournament and scored 28 points in the Elite Eight win over the USC Trojans. Clark eclipsed the 40-point mark for the third time in the last two NCAA tournaments in Iowa’s victory over the LSU Tigers.
Both superstars will be expected to reach the 30-point threshold in a showdown of the game’s top two scorers. Clark owns a slight edge because of the higher point totals and three-point range that she displayed throughout her Iowa career.
Iowa also holds a depth advantage over the Huskies, who are relying on 6-7 players per game due to a slew of injuries that hit in the first few months of the regular season. If Iowa gets UConn into any foul trouble, the Huskies could struggle to contain Clark.
An Iowa win would likely set up a colossal showdown between the best individual player in the sport against the gold-standard program of the last decade.
Prediction: Iowa beats UConn and covers spread.
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