Iron sharpens iron. A common mantra used by ultimate competitors to make themselves better by facing each other.
Angel Reese is a competitor. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark is a competitor. They’re competitive to the point where sometimes, they get ridiculed for it.
Two of women’s college basketball’s brightest stars take center stage on Monday night. In the rematch everyone wanted. It’s here.
Almost a full year since Reese and her Tigers and Clark and her Hawkeyes met in the national championship in Dallas, Texas, the two leaders meet again.
It’s not for the ultimate title of national champion this time around, but to get past each other is a major step in getting there.
“Any time you have the chance to go against somebody you lost to, it brings a little more energy,” Clark said. “I think overall it’s going to be a great game for women’s basketball.”
Reese wants her team back in that spot. Clark wants to get her team past the ones who halted them from that honor.
Just when the most eyes are on women’s college basketball, the rematch everyone wanted will get to show that.
The two have taken college basketball by storm. Not just women’s college basketball, all of college basketball.
Clark broke Pete Maravich’s NCAA basketball scoring record on March 3, as she made a free throw in a 10-point win over Ohio State to make history. She needed 18 points to break the record going into that game. She scored 35.
The senior guard is as advertised. She leads the country with 31.8 points per game, and also leads the country in assists per game with 8.8.
In every game but one, Clark led her Hawkeyes in scoring. And in every game but one, she led her team in assists. In 15 games this season, Clark led the team in points, rebounds and assists.
Clark takes consistency to a new level. It’s almost guaranteed she will be as close to her best against the Tigers if she’s not at her best.
In last season’s national championship, Clark scored 30 points along with eight assists, shooting 9-for-22 from the field and 8-for-19 from three.
She ended the game with four fouls, and Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock fouled out of the game.
“I think the biggest thing to take away from that is everything comes down to one possession,” Clark said. “I think that’s what our group learned from that journey.”
Getting Clark in foul trouble was a difference maker in last year’s title game, along with LSU’s 54.3% shooting from the field.
The Tigers seemed to not be able to miss, but performances like LSU’s last meeting with Iowa should not be relied on.
Forcing Clark into foul trouble is essential. But outside of that, perimeter defense has to be at its best for the Tigers.
But Clark has been able to find her way past solid perimeter defenses. She hasn’t scored less than 20 points in any game this season.
Some players will almost always be a force. Clark has shown she’s one of those players in the women’s college basketball game. Controlling Clark’s options around her, however, is how teams have been able to beat the Hawkeyes.
That, however, is also hard to do. Iowa leads the country scoring 92 points per game, the only team that scores more points than LSU. The Tigers sit at No. 2 with 86.1 points per game, which is tied with South Carolina.
The Hawkeyes also sit at third in the country with a 49.9% field goal percentage, and fifth in the country winning games by an average of 20.7 points.
But defensively, there have been cracks for Iowa.
In three of Iowa’s four losses this season, the Hawkeyes allowed more than 80 points. The Hawkeyes average 71.2 points allowed per game, the fifth most allowed in the Big Ten.
Iowa leads the Big Ten in rebounds per game with 41.9. To put this in perspective, LSU leads the SEC with 46.3 points per game.
Clark leads the Hawkeyes with 7.3 rebounds per game, but Hannah Stuelke is right behind with 6.7 points per game along with an additional 14.1 points per game.
In addition, Kate Martin averages 12.8 points per game along with 6.8 rebounds per game, and Sydney Affolter adds another 6.6 rebounds per game.
Along with Clark, these three Hawkeyes have been trustworthy along with the two other players that average 20 minutes of play or more per game in Gabbie Marshall and Sharon Goodman.
In all four of Iowa’s losses, however, the Hawkeyes were outrebounded. With LSU averaging the most rebounds per game in the SEC, out-rebounding a team in order to win a game is nothing new to the Tigers.
It will come down to who can do the little things more effectively in LSU’s matchup with Iowa. Because the big things are as big as they can get.
“These are the moments you work so hard for,” Clark said. “I guess it’s like ‘go let your work shine.’”
Including what’s at stake; another trip to the Final Four.
But looking ahead can only work against you in March. And Reese, Clark and all the big names set to take the floor on Monday night are competitive enough to only focus on the game at hand.
It’s a game that can be a championship. Between the prominent names and the history between the two teams, it’s a matchup that means so much more than a trip to the Final Four.
To women’s college basketball, it’s everything that made it what it is today, with the chance to lift the sport up that much more.
