Morning Coffee: Iowa, LSU set for a potentially epic Elite Eight showdown

The Iowa Hawkeyes and LSU Tigers are considered the most likely challengers to the South Carolina Gamecocks supremacy in this year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

However, only one of those contenders will have the opportunity to advance past the Elite Eight.

15 days after the NCAA women’s basketball committee set Iowa and LSU on a collision course by putting them in the same region on Selection Sunday, they’ll meet in a rematch of last year’s national championship game.

The Tigers beat the Hawkeyes 102-85 in last year’s final.

Tonight’s contest will be just the eighth championship game rematch in the NCAA tournament the following year.

The team that won the national title the previous year holds only a slight edge with a 4-3 record in the past seven instances.

With the stakes as high as they are, and two of the game’s biggest stars set to go head-to-head in Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese, we’re primed for another extraordinary display.

Last year’s national championship game attracted the biggest television audience in women’s tournament history.

One year later, the stage is set for a thrilling sequel.

This is the Morning Coffee for Monday April 1^st, 2024.

Iowa, LSU Set For A Potentially Epic Elite Eight Showdown

Before the tournament even started, the expectation has always been that one of Iowa or LSU will challenge South Carolina for the NCAA women’s basketball championship.

When the NCAA women’s basketball committee put the Hawkeyes and Tigers in the same region, they guaranteed that only one of them would make it to the Final Four.

On the bright side, we get a potentially epic showdown between them in the Elite Eight.

Iowa opened as a 1.5-point favourite for tonight’s highly anticipated clash at FanDuel.

That number hasn’t moved.

Both teams are currently 7-to-1 to win the title.

South Carolina remains the obvious favourite at -220.

That’s a move from -145 at the start of the tournament.

UCONN, which is currently a 3.5-point favourite for its Elite Eight match-up with USC tonight, remains the fourth choice to win the championship behind the Gamecocks, Hawkeyes, and Tigers.

The Huskies are down from 18-to-1 to win the title at the start of the tournament to 15-to-1 to win it this morning.

South Carolina is expected to cruise into the national championship game as an 11.5-point favourite versus North Carolina State at FanDuel.

The winners of tonight’s contest will meet in the other Final Four match-up.

Don’t expect the spread to be nearly as wide in that one.

With Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, UCONN’s Paige Bueckers, and USC’s JuJu Watkins in the spotlight, tonight’s NCAA double-header on TSN is must-watch television.

Here’s a lock for tonight’s games: I’ll be tuning in.