Women's Final Four takeaways: LSU brings home program's first NCAA title

Kim Mulkey not only won her first title as LSU's head coach in her second year — and her fourth as an NCAA women's basketball head coach — but also led the Tigers to their first NCAA championship in program history on Sunday.

LSU handled the Iowa Hawkeyes, winning 102-85, despite multiple comeback attempts from Iowa, with much of their bench showing up early and their stars solidifying the win in the second half.

Here are four takeaways from LSU's historic national title win.

"Bayou Barbie" two-way play is unstoppable

Named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, Angel Reese recorded her 34th double-double, the most in a single season in women's Division I history, and was instrumental in LSU's win over the Hawkeyes.

With 15 points and 10 rebounds in the match, Reese was grabbing offensive rebounds, dishing out five assists and claiming three steals as she was everywhere on the court for the Tigers.

Her 24 points, 12 rebounds and three steals were massive in the Tigers' win over Virginia Tech, and even after getting two fouls early remained poised and controlled against Iowa to help be a pillar in the paint.

Playing over 30 minutes a night throughout the tournament and recording a double-double every night, Reese shot 42 per cent from the field in the title game while controlling second chances for LSU to exploit an Iowa team who struggled on the offensive glass the game prior as well.

Welcome to the Jasmine Carson show

Has a player in NCAA history ever gone from being virtually unknown and having 11 points throughout the whole tournament, to being one of the most powerful players in a title game?

It may have happened before, but Jasmine Carson made her name known when she hit all seven of her first shots from the floor including five from deep, and scored 21 points for LSU in the first half.

Coming into the game Carson averaged just 8.4 points per game during the regular season, played no more than 13 minutes a night during the tournament for the Tigers and was held scoreless against Utah, Miami and Virginia Tech.

But the energy and production that Carson brought for LSU in the first half against the Hawkeyes was crucial as players like Alexis Morris scored just six first-half points.

While Morris found her second-half rhythm and finished the game with 21 points, Carson's 22 points in 22 minutes while shooting 87 per cent proves just how deep LSU's roster goes, which was one of the keys to their victory.

Caitlin Clark makes history

A lot of times it's hard to look at a losing performance and still take away many positives out of it. When it comes to Caitlin Clark, it's actually very, very easy.

You don't win Most Outstanding Player when you're part of the losing team, but scoring 30-plus points in 14 games in a season, breaking the NCAA record — men's or women's — for most points in a single tournament, and scoring 30 points for over a third of your team's total points in a title game are just some of the things that make Clark so special.

Her court vision, the way nothing phases her, even questionable technical fouls, her play-making and her tenacity are all things that aren't recorded in a box score. What what will be is the fact that Clark scored eight three-pointers in the game and dished out eight assists, and even in foul trouble head coach Lisa Bluder knew that Clark had to be on the court.

Clark scored at least 22 points in every game this tournament, including back-to-back 41-point games against Louisville and South Carolina. She also had only one game shooting less than 48 per cent from the field and overall was one of the most electric players women's college basketball has seen.

The best part of it all? Clark isn't WNBA draft eligible, so she'll be suiting up for the Hawkeyes again next year. And from her track record, Clark just keeps getting better with age.

Foul trouble, rebounding woes sink Iowa

It's one thing when four players, including you superstar guard, are all in foul trouble in a national title game, but it's another when two of those players end up fouling out and take their scoring and rebounding production with them.

Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock both fouled out for the Hawkeyes against LSU, and Clark had to play less feisty than usual sitting on four fouls in the fourth quarter which impacted the Hawkeyes' defence immensely.

Czinano was one of the biggest losses, fouling out with 13 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals after just 22 minutes of play, as one of Clark's favourite targets for her highlight-reel assists and a dominant presence in the paint for Iowa.

Iowa's biggest problem other than their foul trouble was their lack of offensive rebounding, grabbing just seven boards, which was also a struggle they faced against South Carolina. They allowed LSU to grab 14 offensive boards back that most times ended in second-chance points, and were severely out-rebounded on both sides of the ball.

Losing their two biggest producers on the boards to fouling out was a recipe for disaster, and with Clark, usually hungry on the boards having to be cautious due to her own foul trouble, the Hawkeyes allowed LSU to dominate and run away with the game.

The "You Can't See Me" controversy

Clark made headlines for many reasons over the course of the tournament, but one of the biggest actions was when she hit Louisville's Hailey Van Lith with wrestler John Cena's "You Can't See Me" motion after she had a dominant 41 point, 10 rebound and 12 assist triple double, first ever 40-point triple-double in Division I NCAA Tournament history.

Yet all hell broke loose on the internet when Reese did the same to Clark in the dying seconds of LSU's title win, with many on the internet calling Reese a "showboat", "classless" and "unsportsmanlike".

Reese handled the backlash with leadership as she has in her short LSU career, as the sophomore told media "All year I was critiqued about who I was. I'm too 'hood, I'm too ghetto, y'all told me that all year. But when other people do it, y'all don't say nothing. This was for the girls that look like me... it was bigger than me tonight."

The contrast between Clark being elite, too much for Louisville to handle and having fun, versus Reese being called shocking and sad names for doing the same motion shouldn't have been the takeaway from her Most Outstanding Player performance throughout the tournament.

It also shouldn't be two women pitted against each other and called tasteless for talking trash, the same way men before them have for decades. Larry Bird may be as well known for telling Clyde Drexler that he can't guard him as much as he's known for being a sniper from the three-point arc.

While the interaction got many eyes on the women's game, it shouldn't vilify a woman of colour for simply repeating the action of another player who did it first just because she isn't as marketable. Both players are less than 22 years old, on the biggest stage in college basketball, and above all, have the right to be unapologetically confident young women and should be celebrated.

Along with confidence comes trash talk, the play to back it up, and an entertaining product in the world of women's basketball. Get used to it.