Hey, hoops fans, you should be watching the women's NCAA Tournament

Selection Sunday is here, and this year, the men’s NCAA Tournament will be sharing the spotlight with the women.

To the casual fan, that may seem to be solely because of Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark, but true fans know the evolution of the women’s game has been decades in the making. And there are a slew of names and storylines outside of Clark’s record-breaking heroics that are contributing to the excitement.

It’s also worth mentioning that the NCAA didn’t even permit the women’s tournament to use March Madness branding until 2022, after a 118-page report published Aug. 2, 2021, detailed the NCAA’s underinvestment in women’s basketball. But I digress.

We’re here to talk about the stars and storylines of the 2024 tournament, and there is no shortage of either.

The 68-team field will be revealed at 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPN, but this year’s tournament champion likely lies among the automatic bids, starting with South Carolina, Dawn Staley’s 32-0 SEC champion.

For the second consecutive season, Staley led her team to an undefeated regular season. Before you attempt to complain about the strength of schedule and the lack of depth in the SEC, Staley kicked off the season against No. 9 Notre Dame.

The Gamecocks’ 32 wins include victories against No. 10 UConn and No. 8 LSU (twice).

South Carolina will be without leading scorer Kamilla Cardoso for the first round after she was ejected in the final minute of the SEC championship for shoving LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson. Her absence puts them on upset alert because of all that she provides. But, you can expect them to survive and advance to make a run at the title.

The question on everybody’s mind is if that run will include a third meeting with LSU.

“We’re not scared of South Carolina,” Angel Reese told reporters following her team’s 79-72 loss in the SEC title game.

Rivalry might be too cliche a word to use to describe these two conference foes, but the clash of styles certainly makes for must-see TV. LSU coach Kim Mulkey is brash, from her style to her language, telling reporters after the scuffle between Cardoso and Johnson, “I wish she would have pushed [Reese].” Meanwhile, Staley moves with a smooth composure, allowing her team’s winning to do the talking.

Could the basketball gods really bless us with an NCAA championship game featuring the reigning champs and their predecessors?

Not if the following hopefuls have anything to say about it.

First, there’s USC freshman JuJu Watkins who is second in points per game behind Clark. No. 3 USC earned an automatic bid with a victory against Stanford in the final Pac-12 tournament before the conference is dismantled. Their balanced roster could help lead them back to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 30 years.

Notre Dame freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo’s 23.3 points per game is third in the NCAA. Fighting Irish coach Niele Ivey has her team rolling into the tournament with eight consecutive wins, including an ACC title victory over No. 11 N.C. State.

Expected to be the No. 2 overall pick in the WNBA Draft, Cameron Brink — in tandem with junior forward Kiki Iriafen — has Tara VanDerveer’s No. 4 Stanford team looking at an anticipated No. 1 seed after finishing atop the Pac-12 standings. The program’s NCAA Tournament history wouldn’t even fit on the lengthiest of CVS receipts. This year is a chance for it to make its third Final Four appearance in four years.

While these are some of the tournaments favorites, let’s not forget UConn’s Paige Bueckers’ first healthy season in two years has the Huskies poised to make a deep run. Unranked Tennessee was one buzzer-beating three-pointer away from playing LSU in the SEC Championship instead of South Carolina. Meanwhile, Iowa has proven to be the most human of the likely No. 1 seeds, suffering “upsets” to No. 16 Kansas State, No. 7 Ohio State, No. 15 Indiana and unranked Nebraska.

And to think, two years ago the NCAA wouldn’t let the women call all of this madness.