The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament held press conferences, open locker room interviews, and open practices ahead of a Final Four game between No. 1 Iowa and No. 3 UConn at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday.
Iowa guard Caitlin Clark was awarded 2024 Associated Press Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year and South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley was awarded the Coach of the Year title. Clark also won the Wade Trophy which is awarded annually to the best player in college women’s basketball.
Iowa defeated No. 3 LSU, 94-87, on Monday at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y. Iowa guard Kate Martin talked about the keys to success her team will need to win over UConn.
“But really at this point in the season it’s really more about us than who we’re going against. We’re going to continue to focus on things that we focused on all year and play Iowa basketball. I think that’s the main thing is executing what we need to do,” Martin said.
UConn defeated No. 1 USC, 80-73, on Monday at Moda Center in Portland, Ore. UConn guard Nika Mühl spoke about the resiliency of her team while battling through injuries.
“I’m sure it made us tougher in the end. I mean, we’re here. And nobody expected us to be here. And that only means that we used all of those things to make each other tough,” Mühl said.
The Hawkeyes and the Huskies face off Friday at 8:30 p.m. CT.
