Colin Cowherd Podcast - INSTANT REACTION: Iowa beats LSU, “Caitlin Clark Isn’t A Star… She’s A Comet”, Why Women’s Basketball Is Exploding In Popularity

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so I'd say six and a half. Some are predicting eight. I'm not sure if it'll get there. Could but I mean dominating on social media tonight. And I think there's two reasons of why you're getting this explosion. Number one is the quality of play is better. You can go back and watch the nineteen seventies NBA and you can have Doctor J doing things that guys can't do now. I mean the athleticism in the NBA. You can go back to nineteen seventy five, nineteen eighty five men's college basketball.

I'd argue it was better. You had guys, like, you know, superstar players a team and Clyde Drexler staying for a third or a fourth year. Women's college basketball and the seventies and eighties did not look like this the players now, the distribution, the scoring, the finishing, the passing, the size, the speed of athletes, it's different. I YouTube tonight for fun. I YouTube nineteen eighty women's college basketball. It's just not the same sport. The passing, the ball movement, the cutting.

It's clever and it's Tonight's game wasn't shippy at all, but there's you know, some chippiness, some physicality, and it's enjoy to watch. I mean, folks, ninety four eighty seven, that's like a month. That's December scoring for Virginia men's basketball. How many games in this tournament have you watched on the men's side and thought, can we get to fifty? Can we get to fifty three? Even Duke was painful

to watch. But the quality of looks, the quality of shots, and just the quality of distribution and movement is terrific. And a lot of that's because we have multiple generations now of women being encouraged to go be athletes. Wasn't the case in the forties, fifties, maybe in the sixties seventies. So the quality is really good. That's the first part. And the second thing women's college basketball is delivering and producing.

What men's college basketball is not continuity. It's not a carousel great players and great rivalries year after year after year. People are creatures. I have it, I eat the same four things for breakfast the last fifty years. I'm having an oatmeal, I'm having a smoothie, I'm having an omelet.

You know, it's the same stuff, and people are creatures of habit, right, are patterns we like continuity, We like some predictability and women's college basketball, we get a rematch, we get Caitlin Clark for a second year, a third year, a fourth year, the best college men's players, it's a turnstile. Half of them don't even play college basketball. So this is why you can criticize the NBA, you can criticize pro sports. There's been a lot of mobility in the NBA,

but most of the Warriors have stayed. You know, the Jalen Brown and Tatum aren't going anywhere, Steph Clay, Draymond Green not going anywhere for a long time. Klay Thompson may move now. But I think it's delivering what men's college basketball doesn't. And there are a lot of people in this country that prefer the esthetic, the intensity, the competition and the rivalries of college basketball or for pro basketball. I like the quality of NBA basketball, but I will

say everybody plays the same way. There's not a lot of uniqueness. It's all dunks or threes, and I don't like load management. Caitlin Clark is going to show up for every game. Angel Reese is going to show up for every game. So Caitlin was the difference tonight in this game, and that's usually the way it works in big games with superstars. But I just when I watched it, you know, it's funny that LSU is sort of seen as the villain. Kim Mulky sort of seen as the villain. Listen.

She's a very conservative woman who has been at conservative, right leaning colleges, and the media mostly is moderate to left, sometimes severely left, and they don't like everything she's done. I don't agree with everything she's done. I did when she called out the NCAA and said stop testing players for COVID. I had friends who were not conservative that felt that way. The safest group of people in America were twenty two and under athletes. So sometimes I agree

with her, sometimes I don't. Sometimes the media tells in itself a little bit when it comes to figures that they don't agree with. But I don't look at LSU is sort of villains. I mean, Angel Reese and Caitlyn Clark both can play a little chippy in games, and then like tonight, it was classy and you didn't get to that point. I just thought Iowa frankly got better shots. I thought they first of all, LSU is long, Angel rees at the rim blocked several shots. But I didn't

think the perimeter defense was great for LSU. I thought, you know, Caitlyn Clark beat her person off the dribble every time, and that created mismatches, number mismatches in the half court game, in the full court game, and LSU felt like they were playing catch up. They just couldn't get stops. They couldn't stay in front of them. By the way, this is what happens in basketball at the highest levels. You know, without the hand check of the eighties,

you can't stay in front of anybody. Men are women. And you know, Caitlyn Clark very clever. Again the twelve assists, She's a scorer, the twelve assist, very clever passer, setting up teammates. And that's that's really the difference between you know, the great ones and the really good ones is the ability to elevate others beyond yourself, and I think Caitlin

Clark does that. I thought it was really enjoyable. I think sometimes when you have these big matchups, you know, the Chiefs play the Bills, you know, you have a big fight, there's this, you know, Super Bowls. Brady went the longest time without ever getting a touchdown in the first quarter of a Super Bowl. I'm still not sure if he finished with any of New England. He may have, but the first six or seven I don't think he did.

And it's a anxiety, you know, you don't you want to you don't want to put yourself out there, you don't want to take big risks. I thought the pace of this game was crazy. I mean, it was just I mean, these if these were fighters, they would have been taken knockout punches in the first five minutes of the game. It was a sort of a relentless, exhausting pace. And again you're talking about scores in the seventies and eighties and nineties. You're not getting that in men's basketball.

So I think the pace was fun. Tonight felt really really big. I mean I went home, I went to the gym. I came home and I was like, I'm watching this game and I wasn't disappointed at all. Although I did feel it was tied at half. I did feel even in the first half, you know, I kind of felt like I was getting better, easier shots. They're just getting more open looks, and LSU is getting some stuff put backs and rebounds. They were kind of they're

a long team, they're big. Some block shots, some rebounds, but they were really working for their shots. But Caitlin Clark breaking people off the dribble, getting open looks. And then I thought the second half, and it's almost always this way in all sports, whoever is scoring easier usually wins. It's just hard to have to work for every basket, and I just I really felt like LSU, even though they scored a lot of points, I thought they had

to work harder for their baskets. Some of that's just Caitlyn and Clark getting past people, getting a math advantage, numbers advantage. But I thought it was really really good. It's funny as I you know, through the years, I've obviously I kind of follow the lead of the audience. I've always had sort of a feeling, you drive the bus, it's my job to cover what you're talking about. So

I felt a responsibility tonight. We were going to get six, seven, eight, whatever they get million viewers for this game, and I don't think that's the story. Everybody is kind of wow, so many viewers. The game is the story. Pay respect to the women's basketball. The game was the story. The quality of play, the speed, the effectiveness, the shot making. But I felt like, you know, people are going to talk about this. I'm sure this will be my lead

tomorrow on the show, first or second story. And I've put women's basketball and Caitlyn Clark and at three or four times this year, two or three times. Minimm Yeah. I thought this kind of lived up to the hype. And I think it was kind of an exhilarating, fun night of basketball that everybody enjoyed. And I think it captivated social media, it captivated the country. And you know, it's another thing I've said this. I grew up an NBA fan, so I'm from the Northwest, and the Sonics

and the Blazers both got titles in the seventies. So in my area, college basketball wasn't as good. The Huskies had Marv Harshman, the Beavers had Ralph Miller. They were winning programs, but the quality wasn't very good. And the Onyx and the Blazers were great, they were winning titles. So I was an NBA fan. I've got little, you know, newspaper cut out things all over this corked wall in my bedroom, and I think the NBA and baseball were

my first love. But you know, one of the things about the NBA that I do think it's a bigger problem than anybody wants to acknowledge. The game is getting international. That's fine. Good basketball is good basketball. But I think load management's are real problem. And when I went to a Celtics Bulls game a couple of Saturdays ago in Chicago, three of the best players for the Celtics sat out.

If you're going to sit out a game, sit out a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Those Friday and Saturday night games, those are date nights. Those are big. That's when you know your son or your daughter don't have school the next day. And those are games that really really matter to a family. A lot of people, I'm one of them. I go to two NBA games a year just because of my schedule, maybe three the sure I've been to two. I'm going to a Knicks Bulls game this weekend or

this Friday in Chicago, but I think it matters. And watching the women tonight, I'm like, like I knew multiple starters for teams, continuity, repetition, predictability, storylines. That's why ninety percent of the revenue in cinema today is remakes and sequels. You know, people want to be invested in a plot, so this is the big rematch. I just I think it's really important. I think Adam Silver has been a bit two player friendly and accommodating. But I thought a

big part of tonight is we all knew who. We knew it was Angel Rees and Kim Moulkey and Caitlyn Clark, and we knew the rivalry and it got testy and chippy last year. It's a big part of sports, it's a big part of movies, remakes, sequels, and it was fun and the game flew by ress got out of the way. Mostly, I thought between Juju Watkin is at USC, Angel Rees, Caitlin Clark, the only men's basketball player that rivals that in terms of star power is Zach Edie

for Purdue, and I do think Yukon is. I don't know if they're historically great. They're great for twenty twenty four, they're great for men's basketball. But I think three of the four biggest stars in March have it on the women's side. And you know, we can talk about the purity of the game, and we love the game, America love stars. We're a very fast paced, frenetic society. We're all distracted. We've all got our phones. You know, we're doing a million things. We like stars. Stars get us

to a theater, they get us to a game. And Caitlyn Clark has that kind of power. I mean, now, Angel Reese is great too, but Caitlin Clark's kind of unique shooting range. I was joking on social media. Her shooting range is somewhere around Hey, I'm driving to the arena. I'll be there soon. Some of her shots are just insane, not even sure they're good shots, go in or not. They're just shots that she takes and with relative ease. So the star power matters. You can talk about the

quality of anything, but brands matter. Star power matters, and Caitlin Clark has it. I was trying to think during the first half of the game. I was kind of googling and thinking about the biggest stars in the history of college basketball, and that the first big star to me was Pat Summit, and then there was you know, Nancy Lieberman, and then Cheryl Miller, and then then the

Yukon was sort of a collective. I do think Maya Moore is about as good as players I've ever seen, so it was either coach or a program or Cheryl Miller Caitlin Clark. I think is is just a comment and like, you know, what's also great about it is it's almost like I was watching the Steve Martin documentary the other day, and you know, all movie stars have ups and down, even Marlon Brando, Tom Hankstanzel, good movies,

bad movies. The thing about Caitlin Clark is she just keeps delivering every time, Like every time I tune in, like tonight, you're like, okay, well she'll have thirty one, forty one, twelve assists, and she just it's like it would be like having, you know, six sequels to a movie and everyone's better than the next. So that's rare. Everybody has stinkers, Brady Mahomes, It's got kind of a Tiger Woods feel to it. She's got kind of like every time I watch and anticipate, she just delivers. And

women's college basketball this year has really done that. I had a blast for the last two hours watching that game, two and a half hours, and I hope you did as well. Congrats to IOWA and LSU's a hell of a team. Kim Molky can drive a lot of people in the media nuts, but doesn't she have two natties two different schools. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Coach listen. College coaches have a lot of power on a campus. They have a right to an opinions, even if I

don't agree with them. And as a sportscaster, you're always looking for big games. NFL season mondays are easy shows. I'm always looking for big games in the offseason. So thank you to women's basketball LSU and IOWA and Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese for delivering a great night of entertainment that was fun the volume. Thanks so much for listen. If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment, rate and review.