Fan adoration and tons of tickets sold! Are US college girls completely blowing away future NBA stars?
Nikita Biryukov March 20, 2024, 1:45 PM Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The women’s NCAA is gaining enormous popularity.
March is a wonderful spring. Especially for college basketball fans, as this month marks the start of March Madness, a tournament that captivates the attention of fans not only in the United States, but around the world. For most of the last few years, the men’s tournament has been the icing on the cake, but this season the women’s NCAA gives more cause for speculation and generates more interest. Who is “lighting up” women’s college basketball and why is it now so much more popular than men’s basketball? First of all, let’s start with the fact that this season in the men’s NCAA there is no clearly expressed talent, looking at whom one could safely say: “Yes, this is one of the leading players in the NBA in the future.” There just isn’t a guy like him in men’s college basketball right now. At the same time, Europeans are fighting for the top spots in the 2024 draft: Nikola Topic (Crvena Zvezda), Zachary Risacher (ASVEL), who are already performing well in the Euroleague, the Serbian and French championships, as well as Alexander Sarr, who plays for Australia.
Best of the next draft:
We found that there are simply no particularly big names in men’s college basketball. What about the women’s NCAA? Let’s not beat around the bush, there is a lot of talent out there. Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, JuJu Watkins – these are the true stars not only of their clubs, but of all of women’s college basketball. Clarke broke Pete Maravich’s seemingly eternal record for scoring in the entire NCAA without being tied to gender. Reese is a reigning league champion who is in active contact with NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal and is one of the NCAA’s top opinion leaders. Watkins is a freshman who has broken into the association in a way others have never dreamed of. He averages 27 points, second in the NCAA behind Clarke’s 31.9.
Women’s basketball is full of interesting names, and it is no surprise that the ticket store TickPick has already sold six times as many tickets for the women’s Final Four as for the similar men’s tournament, which takes place within the framework of March Madness. This is popularity! It is clear that the situation can change, but this shows the level of women’s basketball today, which, thanks to such bright stars, is in the stratosphere.
Women’s NCAA Stars:
If we talk about popularity, how can we measure this parameter in today’s realities? That’s right, with the help of social media subscribers. None of the top male prospects in the 2024 draft have 20,000 followers on social network X (formerly Twitter), but things are much more interesting for girls. Watkins doesn’t particularly stand out, as she only recently entered the league and hasn’t received coverage from bigger people yet, but Clarke’s 204K and Reese’s 384K are impressive. And this is only on one of the social networks. Only Bronny James, the son of LeBron James, can boast 87 thousand subscribers, but this is more due to the family brand than to his own game, which is not particularly impressive.
The future of the King’s son:
Will Bronny James still make it to the NBA? What was his son LeBron’s first season in the NCAA like?
In general, we hope to be able to convey that basketball is not limited only to men’s battles on the court, and that girls can be even better in some aspects and attract much more attention from a sporting point of view. Right now, the students are beating the supposed future stars of the NBA in every way. We continue to cover all basketball, because “March Madness” awaits us ahead, where there will be a sea of events and many new features in both the men’s and women’s tournaments.
