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Kim Mulkey and Lisa Bluder are on top of the media scrutiny with the historic repeat of the rematch exactly a year ago. Lisa Bluder's Iowa enters the Elite Eight by beating Colorado. Whereas LSU surfed past UCLA to match-up with Iowa in the Albany 2 regional finals at the Times Center in Albany, New York.
The head coaches were not happy about the rematch happening in the Elite Eight instead of the Final Four. LSU caoch Kim Mulkey resonated with the thoughts of Iowa coach Lisa Bluder in the an interview, as she said:
“This is not to take away from any other team remaining but I understand her point,” said Mulkey. “We talk about growing the game. Didn’t that national championship game have the highest ratings ever in women’s basketball? You’re probably going to anticipate this one will too but it needs to be at the Final Four.”
Since both teams have been placed in the same region, they could not compete against each other at the national championship. Lisa Bluder addressed this at her pre-game press conference.
"I think they’re really trying to just seed the tournament as best they can, and they felt this was the best way.
"Do I wish we were facing LSU in the Final Four? I just want to be playing in the Final Four, so do I play LSU here or there? It doesn’t matter. We just want to play our best game tomorrow and try to get there."
It is evident that the LSU-Iowa title game last year drew a record 9.9 million viewers. It will be interesting to see if an Elite Eight game can fetch the same number of views this year.
Kim Mulkey praises Caitlin Clark
LSU coach Kim Mulkey admitted that stopping Clark was not an easy task for them. Considering the dominant basketball prowess of the Iowa guard this season, Mulkey said:
“You’re not going to stop (Clark). You can only hope to contain her."
Mulkey mentioned that Alexis Morris was primarily responsible for defending Clark in most instances, but this season, there will be a more frequent rotation.
“Each of us are a new team. We’re not the same team we were last year, nor are they, but you certainly have some key pieces," Mulkey added.
Mulkey then heaped praise on Clark and said:
"You can be very good defensively, and she’ll still score on you. She’s that good."
Clark's performance in the NCAA tournament this year, includes an impressive average of 29.3 points and 9.33 assists per game.
