The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament “may have been the last time for fans to see many of the talented college women players compete,” according to Doug Feinberg of the AP. Players’ options for professional basketball careers are “limited, whether in the U.S. or overseas -- the jobs just aren’t there.” There are only 12 WNBA teams and 144 roster spots with “most of those being filled by returning players.” Over the past six seasons, 64% of players drafted "made WNBA rosters.” The “high mark” was 28 of the 36 draftees in 2019. The “low was only 20 the year before.” Only “60% of players drafted got on the court to play minutes their first year since 2017.” There has been talk of WNBA expansion, but “nothing has come to fruition yet.” Players “often turn to playing professionally overseas, working on their games and looking for another shot to play at home.” While the overseas job market is “shrinking,” there are start-up leagues “looking to fil the void.” Athletes Unlimited just completed its second season with “over a dozen WNBA players competed last month in it.” Staying in the U.S. is “becoming more important with the WNBA now requiring players to be present at the start of training camp” (AP, 4/3).
BREAK OF DAWN: In N.Y., Talya Minsberg noted the title game between LSU and Iowa “will be called a moment in women’s basketball, a turning point in the college game.” The depth of talent is “so great that many of the best players in college basketball will have no roster spots waiting for them in the WNBA,” which has “long been in talks of expansion.” After falling to LSU, Iowa C Monika Czinano “discussed playing professionally abroad -- not in the United States.” Now that college athletes are allowed to earn money through NIL deals, top collegians are “sticking around longer and are more visible.” Stanford G Haley Jones and Iowa G Caitlin Clark “have Nike contracts,” and LSU F Angel Reese has been “signed by more than a dozen brands, including Coach” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/3)
ONE SHINING MOMENT: A Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE editorial featured the header, “This year's March Madness was a milestone moment for women's sports.” This women’s national championship game “feels like a milestone moment.” For the “first time in memory, the NCAA women's championship is casting a long shadow over the men's game.” Yesterday morning, it was the women's game, “not the usual previews of the men's championship, dominating newspaper home pages.” That is “progress, long overdue and a tribute to the caliber of the players who battled Sunday afternoon in Dallas.” It was an “epic faceoff,” one that “left no doubt that the women's tournament offers the same compelling mix of talent and drama that has made the men's tournament a rite of spring” (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 4/3).
BREAKING THE MOLD: In Indianapolis, Gregg Doyel wrote fans are “watching the takeoff of women’s college basketball.” Clark is “part of that bigger picture” and her rise ‘tied inexorably -- tied wonderfully -- to the rise of women’s college basketball.” Women’s college basketball has been a “big deal -- well, a decent-sized deal -- for a while now.” But this is a “whole other thing we’ve been watching in the last few days, the last few weeks” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 4/3).
