Rivalries propel athletes into superstardom, transform leagues, and redefine mainstream culture. Joe v Max; Wilt v Bill; Ali v Frazier; Magic v Bird; and Serena v Venus were compelling rivalries in which the antagonists pushed each other to excel at the highest level on the world’s greatest stages.
When the South Carolina Gamecocks and Iowa Hawkeyes face off in the NCAA Women’s Final Four on Friday night, fans will witness a battle that has the potential to become the next great sports rivalry of this generation.
South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark stand as the two most prolific players in women’s college basketball. Just days ago, Clark edged out Boston to become the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year, an award Boston won in 2021 and 2022. Boston would reclaim the Women’s College Defensive Player of the Year, an award she also won in 2022. Then, on Thursday, Clark won the AP Women’s Basketball Player of the Year. Predictably, Boston came in second.
Both players possess the talent to overwhelm opponents, using different skill sets to dominate in ways that are rarely seen in women’s college basketball.
Boston, a 6ft 5in power forward, uses power and a nimble low-post game to carve through defenses that often need double- and triple-teams to stop her. Defensively, she’s a force, snaring rebounds as if she’s the only person in the paint and blocking shots as if she were defending kids half her size and age. In January, Boston set a Gamecocks record with her 73rd career double-double. She didn’t stop there: on Monday she recorded her 82nd, with 22 points and 10 rebounds, to lead the Gamecocks to victory over Maryland to reach the Final Four.
CAITLIN CLARK FROM THE LOGO 🎯 pic.twitter.com/yqG8rRRYnD
— SuperHawkeyeFan (@superhawkeyefan) March 25, 2023
Clark is a different type of player. At 6ft, she uses her quickness and lethal shooting to keep defenders honest. The point guard has a knack for Steph Curry-like flair, shooting logo-range three-point bombs and dropping triple-doubles with ease.
In an Elite Eight match-up against Louisville on Sunday, Clark recorded her 11th career triple-double and became the first men’s or women’s player in NCAA Tournament history to achieve a 40-point triple-double. She’s averaging 30 points a game in the tournament after finishing the regular season averaging 27.3 points and 8.6 assists.
The Boston-Clark duel has become NCAA basketball’s most anticipated draw, even outpacing the men, as another unpredictable March Madness comes to a conclusion. Ticket prices for the men’s Final Four have reportedly declined while ticket prices for the women’s Final Four surge on the secondary market. The Gamecocks v Hawkeyes’ battle is also expected to garner massive TV ratings.
“Boston and Clark are helping to usher in record ratings, bumps and increased viewership, as well as new calls for a larger piece of the financial pie for women’s basketball,” says Aaron L Miller, the author of Big Time Women’s College Basketball and the Future of College Sports. “It is exciting to witness. Anytime you have two teams each with a player who dominates not only their position but also their sport, with the chance to meet on the biggest stage, you are likely to generate more interest. That, coupled with the new time slots for the Women’s Final Four and the fact that the championship will be televised on ABC for the first time, means that there is likely to be increased attention for women’s basketball.”
Clark agrees. “There’s so many great players, more than just me and [Boston],” she said on Thursday. “You can go on and on and list the tremendous players. I think that’s really good for our game when there’s a lot of great players. That’s what is going to help this game grow more than anything else.”
Clark’s eye-popping offensive numbers – she has 984 points this season, the sixth-most by any female player in Division I history – have helped to lift the Hawkeyes to a 30-6 record and a first Final Four appearance in 30 years, and it’s highly-unlikely that Iowa would have ascended this far without her elite scoring and playmaking skills.
But the more experienced Gamecocks, who are unbeaten this season, will present a difficult challenge for Clark and the Hawkeyes.
Boston’s Gamecocks are less dependent on her offensive numbers thanks to their superior lineup, where 10 players contribute significantly each game. Because of the South Carolina’s deep bench and multiple double-digit victories, in which the starters usually sat in the second half, Boston’s minutes and stats declined from 16.8 points and 12.5 rebounds a game in 2022 to 13.1 and 9.7 in 2023.
Clark may need another record-breaking performance for the Hawkeyes to have a chance, while Boston needs a merely solid game for the Gamecocks to win and continue their quest for back-to-back championships.
But Friday will not be the end of this rivalry. In the same way that Magic v Bird’s NCAA title game in 1979 was just a preview of what was to come in the NBA, the true weight of Boston v Clark may not be appreciated until they reach the professional ranks.
“It could be quite a show between the two once they get to the pros,” says Susan Shackelford, author of Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball. “People are wondering: ‘What will they do next?’ Of course, a lot depends on who their teammates are on the next level, but I think their rivalry could continue to develop.”
Unlike Magic and Bird, however, Boston and Clark won’t have many moments where they match-up one-on-one on the court due to their positions. But they have the skill and star power to catapult women’s basketball in a way that hasn’t been done before.
“Both of these players are electric in their own respects,” Shackelford says. “With Boston taking prisoners in the paint and Clark shooting the ball from everywhere. I think Clark’s game sort of crackles in terms of that electricity. And I think Boston’s game is more like that conduit, that cable that delivers and controls the electricity.”
On Friday night, the world will get an opportunity to witness Boston and Clark’s high voltage Final Four showdown in what could be the first glimpse into the next great rivalry in sports.
