Women’s college basketball continues to attract national attention. Interest in the game peaked last yr, especially with the rise of athletes like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.

While it needs to be noted that South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley’s impressive run in Columbia, which has resulted in two championships to date, has helped spur the game’s newfound popularity, much of the credit goes to stars like Reese, Clark and Student USC freshman JuJu Watkins. in your unprecedented attention.

Some have even argued that girls’s college basketball has surpassed the lads’s game. The second round of the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament concluded on Monday, with a median of greater than 800,000 viewers watching the primary two rounds of play. According to data compiled by Sports Business Journal, these viewership numbers represent a 108% increase over last yr’s viewing figures.

Earlier this month, Clark became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I men’s and ladies’s basketball and continues to break virtually every college basketball record. She led the Iowa Hawkeyes to one other stellar regular season and is widely viewed as the best women’s college basketball player of all time.

Iowa and LSU won their separate Sweet 16 games against Colorado and UCLA, respectively, on March 30, organising each teams for an intriguing Elite Eight rematch in the 2023 NCAA Championship Game.

Clark racked up name, image and likeness (NIL) deals and attracted an unprecedented amount of attention to Iowa City.

But amid her success on and off the basketball court, some seem to forget that Reese led the LSU Tigers to victory over Iowa in last yr’s national title game on April 2. named MVP of the NCAA Tournament last season and in addition received unanimous All-American honors.

Overtaking Clark and the Hawkeyes in the championship game took Reese, also often called “Bayou Barbie,” to recent heights. She currently boasts 2.7 million followers on Instagram and has gotten a tattoo surety agreements with fast food chain Raising Cane’s and Caktus AI technology, to name a number of.

Angel Reese’s on-court behavior has come under heavy criticism

However, Reese’s rise to fame was not without controversy. During the fourth quarter of last yr’s championship game between LSU and Iowa, Reese was seen waving his hand in front of his face. The move seemed to be an ode to wrestler John Cena, who popularized the “You Can’t See Me” gesture and catchphrase.

Reese looked toward Clark, pointing to her ring finger to symbolize the championship ring LSU would soon receive.

Angel Reese talks trash and mocks Caitlin Clark👀👑🏆🔥🦾 Call me 💍😂😂😂 #Turn it off #COUNTRY CHAMPION #LSU pic.twitter.com/t076qKPamj

—HarrietEve9 (@HarrietEve9) April 2, 2023

Some disagreed with Reese’s actions, with some arguing that Reese’s harsh criticism seemed to be based on her race and gender.

“I don’t fit this narrative. I don’t fit into the box you all want me to be in. “I’m too hoody.” “I’m too ghetto” – Yall has been telling me this all year, but when others do it, you don’t say anything. This is for girls who look like me,” Reese said at a news conference after LSU’s win.

Former sports and political broadcaster and current podcaster Kieth Olbermann didn’t hesitate to call Reese an “idiot” during his time on social media. Other social media users said Reese’s gesture was “classless.”

It needs to be noted that the response Reese received apparently didn’t keep in mind the undeniable fact that Clark did something eerily similar during Iowa State’s victory over Louisville in last yr’s tournament. However, it seems that marketing executives and enormous corporations were quicker to embrace Clark, a white woman from Des Moines, Iowa, but were more cautious when it got here to Reese.

The Black community actually honors Reese as she has turn out to be a cultural icon, but Middle America wasn’t entirely on board. Reese’s comments about her refusal to adhere to certain “narratives” speak to the double standards that Black athletes face – even those that are amongst the very best in their sport.

Reese also faced criticism throughout the current NCAA Tournament on March 24. She was accused of taunting Anastasia Boldyreva, a middle Tennessee player, by waving goodbye after Boldyreva was sidelined.

Did I just see Angel Reese flop, get fouled, after which start laughing and waving?

— Kirk’s evil twin (@tory4heisman) March 24, 2024

Cailtin Clark’s seven-figure Big3 offer

Hip-hop artist, actor, film producer and Big3 co-founder Ice Cube recently raised eyebrows when he made a “historic offer” to Clark in an attempt to persuade her to join the favored 3-on-3 league.

“But I won’t deny what already exists: BIG3 made a historic offer to Caitlin Clark. Why wouldn’t we? Caitlin is a generational athlete who can achieve great success in the BIG3.” Cube wrote on X.

TMZ initially reported that Big3’s offer was for as much as $5 million. Cube didn’t deny the reports when he appeared on ESPN’s “Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday.

The $5 million figure could be significantly higher than any base salary Clark could earn in the WNBA. According to Spotrac data, the utmost salaries of the 12 teams in the league are an estimated $1,463,200 per team entering the season. No women currently play in the Big3 basketball league.

While Cube accurately rates Clark as a “generational athlete,” Cube’s criticism of Cube’s offer to Clark appears to be less about who’s less talented than who is perhaps viewed as the very best American college athlete.

So if Clark was invited to play in the Big3, the query stays whether Reese, Watkins and other black college athletes received the same offer.

Reese, Watkins and other Black female athletes deserve recognition

You can actually argue that Clark’s background has created a somewhat built-in level of privilege that Reese and other black players don’t profit from. However, it appears that evidently the aforementioned Watkins is taking advantage of the trail set by Reese.

The 18-year-old broke nearly every University of Southern California women’s basketball record this season and helped bring the Trojans program back to life. Watkins has averaged 27 points per game this season, second in the nation behind Clark’s average of 31.7. (Reese’s season average of 18.7 points per game ranks forty fifth in the country).

USC’s resurgent season has attracted a protracted list of superstar athletes and Hollywood stars, from LeBron James to Kevin Hart. Reese’s success on the court and her decision to be an unapologetic black woman likely gave impetus to emerging black athletes.