The Ohio State women’s basketball team clinched an outright Big Ten title with a dominant win over Michigan on Wednesday evening. The Lady Buckeyes have one game left before postseason play begins, and it’s a big one.
Ohio State will travel to Iowa City for the final game of the regular season. While the Buckeyes can do no better or worse than their current No. 1 seeding in the conference tournament, Iowa has much to play for. The game has already broken records for ticket prices for a women’s game with the average price to get in the doors at a whopping $491. People are interested beyond two of the best teams in the country going head to head and there’s good reason why.
First and foremost, the Hawkeyes need to win to secure the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten tournament. Both Iowa and Indiana are tied with a conference record of 14-3, but it’s Iowa who owns the tiebreaker at the moment. A win cements the Hawks as the No. 2 seed, but a loss opens the door for the Hoosiers to slide into that line.
Secondly, Carver-Hawkeye Arena is going to be rocking as Caitlin Clark made it official earlier today that this will indeed be her last game in Black and Gold. The all-time leading scorer in women’s NCAA history announced that she will be taking her talents to the WNBA even though she has a COVID year of eligibility left if she wanted to use it.
— Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) February 29, 2024
Kevin McGuff’s main focus has to be to make sure his squad makes it to Minneapolis as healthy as can be. Playing starters for an extended period of time just doesn’t make sense when you have a team that has national title aspirations.
The Buckeyes already beat Iowa in a thrilling come-from-behind overtime win in Columbus back in January. What more do they have to prove?
It will be an emotional affair in Iowa as Clark has been the face of women’s basketball for the past few years. She can have her moment on Sunday as Ohio State prepares for something much bigger.
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