SI:AM | LSU Didn’t Need Help from the Refs to Beat Iowa

Plus, the factors that will decide UConn-SDSU.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m still trying to wrap my head around Caitlin Clark’s technical.

In today’s SI:AM:

🐅 How LSU built its championship roster

🏀 Previewing the men’s title game

🌟 Takeaways from Night 1 and Night 2 of WrestleMania

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LSU was too much for Iowa

It’s never a good thing when the people who get talked about the most after a championship game are the officials, but that’s unfortunately the case after yesterday’s NCAA women’s title game between LSU and Iowa.

Fans who tuned in hoping to see Caitlin Clark continue to light it up from long range or Angel Reese and Monika Czinano duke it out down low for 40 minutes instead saw a game constantly halted by the officials’ whistles. Though the game was called tightly on both sides (19 fouls against Iowa and 18 against LSU), the Hawkeyes bore the brunt of those quick whistles. Foul trouble limited Czinano to 22 minutes of playing time before she fouled out with 6:25 to play. Clark was walking on eggshells defensively after picking up her fourth foul late in the third as a result of a controversial technical. McKenna Warnock, the only other Iowa player who averaged at least 10 points per game this season, also fouled out.

The officiating wasn’t the reason why LSU won the game. Even Iowa players and coaches were quick to recognize that.

“That's not why we lost it,” Iowa associate head coach Jan Jensen said. “LSU is a great team. It just … I wish we would have had more of a flow game both ways. The whistles, the stops—you didn't get to see what I think our team can do.

“We did not lose this game because of how it was called. It was LSU. They were great. They were better. They stepped up, and we didn't do that. But I just like when basketball is more of a flow. And I wish that was the type of game.”

But it’s still hard to overlook a couple of particularly galling examples of how poorly the game was officiated. LSU coach Kim Mulkey repeatedly strayed from the sideline and onto the court but was not penalized. In one instance, she even made contact with an official and was not issued a technical foul. Clark, meanwhile, was assessed a technical foul late in the third quarter for… well, tossing the ball behind her? Referee Lisa Jones told a pool reporter that Clark was called for the tech because she “failed to immediately pass the ball to the nearest official after the whistle was blown.”

Michael Rosenberg wrote that Clark’s supposed transgression “was so innocuous that most people in the arena probably didn’t even notice it, let alone think it was a technical. This game didn’t need that. The game of basketball doesn’t need that.”

The officiating risks overshadowing what was an excellent season and championship victory for LSU. In just her second season in charge of the Tigers, Mulkey assembled a championship-worthy team and led it to the best season in school history.

Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated

Emma Baccellieri’s story on exactly how this team came together is today’s Daily Cover. As she explains, the biggest challenge for Mulkey and her players was finding a way for the team to mesh. Four of the five starters in yesterday’s game were transfers, as was bench player Jasmine Carson, whose hot shooting (22 points on 7-of-8 shooting, including 5-of-6 from three) was the key to LSU’s victory. Add in the four freshmen, and that means nine of the team’s 12 players were newcomers. The Tigers tried a variety of team-building activities like volleyball and Topgolf but soon realized that the best way to come together would be on the court, so they started playing constant pickup games.

“Those chippy afternoons gave everyone a sense of the personalities around them,” Baccellieri writes. “And it helped them bond more than any structured, team-sanctioned activity could.”

The end result was a team capable of weathering any storm—even a tightly officiated championship game.

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Ahead of tonight’s men’s championship game, Pat Forde writes that this is a golden opportunity for UConn coach Dan Hurley, the oft-overlooked member of a basketball dynasty.
• Forde also explains how Lamont Butler’s buzzer beater for San Diego State on Saturday was the first of its kind.
• Kevin Sweeney has a thorough preview of tonight’s UConn–San Diego State men’s title game.
• Emma Baccellieri reflects on the college legacy of Aliyah Boston, whose South Carolina career ended in disappointment at the hands of Caitlin Clark and Iowa.
• And after Clark and the Hawkeyes fell short against LSU, Michael Rosenberg looked at what Iowa’s star player accomplished with her tournament performance.
• Rohan Nadkarni has five NBA story lines to watch before the playoffs begin.
• As if there wasn’t enough going on in sports, WrestleMania was this weekend. Check out Justin Barrasso’s analysis of Night 1 and Night 2 of WWE’s biggest spectacle.
• It was a busier-than-usual WrestleMania weekend for WWE, which has been sold to UFC’s parent company.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. North Carolina outfielder Patrick Alvarez’s bobbling home run robbery.

4. Alexis Lafrenière’s between-the-legs deke to set up his goal against the Capitals.

3. Luis Robert Jr.’s running catch deep in the left-center-field gap.

2. Giancarlo Stanton’s 485-foot home run.

1. Victor Wembanyama’s put-back dunk after his own missed three.

SIQ

On this day in 2019, which NBA coach set a record for the fastest ejection, getting booted from a game only 63 seconds after it started?

• Quin Snyder
• Nick Nurse
• Doc Rivers
• Gregg Popovich

Friday’s SIQ: After Wayne Gretzky, which NHL player has scored the most goals in a single season? (Hint: He scored his 86th goal in his final game of the season on March 31, 1991.)

• Teemu Selanne
• Mario Lemieux
• Brett Hull
• Alexander Mogilny

Answer: Brett Hull. He ranks third on the NHL’s single season goal scoring list with 86 goals in the 1990–91 season. Only Wayne Gretzky (87 goals in ’83–84 and 92 goals in ’81–82) has scored more goals in a single season. Mario Lemieux (85 goals in ’88–89) is the only other player to have scored more than 80 goals in a season.

Of the 14 individual 70-goal seasons in NHL history, four belong to Gretzky and three belong to Hull. No one has scored at least 70 goals since Alexander Mogilny and Teemu Selanne tied for the league lead with 76 in the 1992–93 season. Since 2004–05 lockout, only four players have even scored 60 goals in a season: Alexander Ovechkin (65 in ’07–08), Steven Stamkos (60 in ’11–12), Auston Matthews (60 in ’21–22) and Connor McDavid this season—he has 62 goals with five games left to play.

Editors’ note: The Saturday, April 1, edition of the SI:AM newsletter stated that the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball program had not won an NCAA tournament game since 1970. In fact, the Bonnies defeated UCLA as a No. 11 seed in the First Four of the 2018 men’s tournament.