(NCAA)—(Ladies first): Nobody saw this one coming. Oh, we knew the LSU-Iowa matchup for the women’s NCAA basketball championship probably would be special. But 187 points was not seen as a likely thing for most folks, and 102 points by LSU was equally unexpected and it overpowered Iowa by 17 points. .
But LSU gets the big trophy and Iowa gets the experience of playing in a championship game. And Iowa’s Caitlin Clark has a year of eligibility left if she wants it after scoring a record 191 points in Iowa’s six games. That is a record for boh men and women; Glen Rice scored 184 for Michigan in 1989 and Cheryl Swoops had 177 for Texas Tech in 1993.
(Men): San Diego State University met the same fate that Iowa did in the men’s championship game—also a 17-point loss. Number four seed Connecticut beat the number five seeded Aztecs 76-59.
It’s the fifth championship for UConn, tying them with Duke and Indiana for the fourth-most NCAA championships. UCLA has 11. Kentucky has won it eight times. North Carolina has six titles.
(BASEBALL)—The St. Louis Cardinals have split their first four games with shaky starting pitching a lowlight so far. Jack Flaherty’s five hitless innings against the Blue Jays has been the only solid performance in the early going. The other starters, Miles Mikolas (13.50 ERA in 3.1 innings), Jordan Hicks (13.50, also in five innings) and Jake Woodford (12.46 in 4.1 innings) have given the hitters plenty of work to do just to stay even. The Cardinals have scored 26 runs in their first four games nd are batting .329 as a team in their break-even start.
One piece of solid news is rookie Jordan Walker who has gone five for 16 has struck out only once.
The Kansas City Royals have only 22 hits as a team in their first four games, which helps explain why they’re off to a 1-3 start. Ten of those hits came last night in a 9-5 win against the Blue Jays in Toronto’s home opener. Royals pitching has been solid except for Dylan Coleman who lasted only gave up four runs in his 3.1 innings to start the season.
(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR driver David Malukas might have described the weekend race at the Texas Motor Speedway best: “beautiful chaos.”
Eight drivers, 482 passes for position, 26 lead changes, with Josef Newgarden slipping past Pato O’Ward just before a final caution flag came out on the last lap, freezing the running order to the end made for one of the most exciting open-wheel racing in recent memory and started some observers suggesting the race made a strong case for more oval races on the INDYCAR schedule.
Seven of the 28 starters finished on the lead lap in a race that saw O’Ward rip off the fast lap of the day, just over 221 mph. Twenty-two of the starters were still competing when the checkered flag fell.
“There were parts when we were good, parts when we were weaker,” Newgarden said after the race. “But when we needed to be good, the car was there at the end.” He and O’Ward dueled inches apart for more than ten laps before Newgarden inched ahead just before Romain Grosjean’s late crash brought out the final yellow. “Pato gave me all the respect in the world when he was racing next to me. It was really hard to fight those guys,” said Newgarden. “There are just no gimmies. It was packed up today, very difficult to get away.”
O’Ward’s second-place finish, puts him in the points lead after two races ahead of Marcus Ericsson, the winner of last year’s Indianapolis 500, and Scott Dixon. Ericsson finished eighth and Dixon was fifth in the race.
O’Ward has finished second in both of the races in the series this year. “That’s a great start to the championship year,” he said, “and that’s what we need.”
(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson’s mediocre season so far—only two top ten finishes in the first six races—took a turn for the brighter at Richmond during the weekend. Larson beat teammate Josh Berry to the line by a second-and-a=half after leading the last 25 laps. Berry is filling in for defending Cup champion Chase Elliott, who is expected to be out of the car for several more weeks after surgery on his broken leg.
Larson took advantage of a late caution and pit stop to move in front for the last 25 laps on the three-quarter mile track. Ross Chastain chased the two Hendrick Motorsports drivers to the flag with Christoher Bell and Kecin Harvick fillingo out the top five.
NASCAR runs its only dirt track race next weekend at Bristol. The track is a little more than a half-mile long but has sharply banked turns. It is this country’s fourth-largest sports venue and the tenth largest sports venue in the entire world with seating for as many as 153,000 people.
(FORMULA 1)—Carnage and confusion marred the Grand Prix of Australia although the usual winner these days won again.
Only twelve of the twenty starters finished with Max Verstappen taking his third win in three races this year. The race was red-flagged three times and the safety car hit the track two other times. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso claimed the other two podium slots, both finishing withing one second of Verstappen.