April 1, 2024, is now being looked upon as a watershed evening for women’s college basketball and sports in general. The two NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Elite 8 games in Albany, NY and carried by ESPN, featured four of the best programs, and some of the most electrifying players, in the country. LSU vs. Iowa and UConn vs. USC did not disappoint.
The most ballyhooed star of that night was Caitlin Clark, the superstar guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Earlier this year, Clark became the all-time leading scorer in all of college basketball history. Her attitude and power on the court is unquestionable.
Angel Reese, a beyond belief player for LSU, has also become an unabashed and fearless icon. USC and UConn featured their own meteoric talents in JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers. But it was the LSU-Iowa matchup that truly took center stage.
Still, Clark and Reese were not the only amazing talents plying their crafts on April 1. The ESPN studio team of Elle Duncan, Andraya Carter, and Chiney Ogwumike were absolutely superb.
An estimated 12.3 million viewers had eyeballs on the LSU vs. Iowa game that night, and yes, Clark, Reese, and their teammates delivered with an excellent game showcasing great coaching and talent.
But these viewers were also party to some of the best pregame analysis I’ve seen this basketball season at any level and in any league. Duncan, Carter, and Ogwumike brought their collective A-games. They recognized what this night meant, not only to women’s sports, but to basketball in general.
ESPN had the right people in the right place at the right time. The film Field of Dreams asked if Iowa was heaven. Well, this game involved Iowa, but thanks to the ESPN studio triumvirate, basketball heaven was squarely in Albany, NY.
Elle Duncan opened the LSU-Iowa pregame show talking about the significance of these Elite 8 games. She stressed the high level of the teams involved and the depth of the personalities playing.
She continued to speak as the ESPN production team showed a graphic with Tweets from the star-studded likes of Breanna Stewart, Magic Johnson, Alex Morgan, Lisa Leslie, Dwyane Wade, and more. Each of these luminaries gave their two cents on the impact and excitement hovering over the games.
To say that this was one of the biggest nights in women’s sports history is not an understatement. Duncan perfectly captured the essence of the evening. “They’ve got now. They’ve got next, and you’ve got us,” Duncan said as she opened the show and introduced Carter and Ogwumike. Both of these analysts bring standout resumes.
At Stanford, Ogwumike was a three-time First Team All-American, two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year, three-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, four-time All-Pac 12 First Team, and finalist for multiple national Player of the Year awards. She led Stanford to three Final Fours.
Carter is a 2023 Dawn Staley Excellence in Broadcasting recipient, a 2022 University of Tennessee Alumni Promise Award winner, the University of Tennessee 2023 40 under 40, and NSMA’s Best Young Reporter for 2022.
She was named to The Athletic’s 40 Under 40: Rising Stars in Women’s Basketball and College Sports and The Athletic’s 20 for 20: Who’s Shaping the Future of Women’s Basketball. Carter was also a 2023 Sports Emmy nominee. She is a double graduate of The University of Tennessee and was a three-year letterwinner for the Lady Vols.
Both Ogwumike and Carter have broken down walls in broadcasting as well. Ogwumike joined ESPN in 2017 to co-anchor SportsCenter across Africa and serve as a part-time WNBA and NBA in-studio analyst. In 2018, while playing for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, she became one of the only full-time professional athletes to hold a full-time national sports media position.
Carter joined ESPN in 2018. She is currently the only analyst who covers the NBA, WNBA, NCAA Women’s, and NCAA Men’s basketball. In 2024, she became the first woman desk analyst ever on men’s College GameDay.
Just as Clark and Reese have taken center stage as the predominant players on their respective teams, Carter is an exciting talent who has stepped to the forefront for ESPN in its coverage of this year’s Women’s Tournament. Her call of game highlights while isolating impact players and sequences is a cut above for sure.
While Reese deservedly gets a lot of the headlines for LSU, Carter also focused on teammate Flau’jae Johnson. She remarked that her speed and skill set her apart from other players. Of all the plaudits that Caitlin Clark has received, Ogwumike made perhaps the most perceptive comment about the Iowa guard saying that she is so good that she makes opposing teams forget their defensive principles.
Both Carter and Ogwumike ably used ESPN’s graphics and technology by pausing highlight action and isolating key plays. This ability to go beyond the stats and actually display why players like Clark, Reese, and Johnson are so great is outstanding. In short, they don’t just tell us, they show us.
The interaction between Duncan, Carter, and Ogwumike was exceptional. You could tell that they really enjoyed being on set with each other. Duncan astutely talked about Iowa’s Kate Martin and her ability to rebound. As a graphic showed that the tough as nails guard averaged a double-double in her first three NCAA Tournament games. Hitting home the rebounding theme, Ogwumike added that LSU can actually afford to miss shots because they lead the nation in offensive rebounding.
Honestly, Ogwumike and Carter are as solid a pair of basketball analysts as there is in the business right now. Similarly, Duncan’s work in studio during this tournament further cements her as an absolute juggernaut of talent. No one in sports television is more versatile in her discourse. She can make you laugh, learn, think, and rethink – TV game at the utmost level.
Perhaps the most entertaining and enlightening segment of the LSU-Iowa pregame show had Carter and Ogwumike leaving the desk and heading to the studio big screen. Harkening back to their playing days, they started the segment with a hearty handshake and proceeded to break down the star players of the night.
Carter brought the audience into the discussion by frequently looking back toward the camera and using effective hand gestures. When they returned to the desk, Duncan adeptly set up Carter talking about the effectiveness of Clark’s inside game and passing when her three-point shot is not falling.
Before ending the pregame show, Duncan gave a heartfelt and powerful message thanking all of the past female athletes who made the incredible night possible. It showed once again how significant events are not lost on Duncan, how she consistently sees the big picture impact of a given moment.
Watching Duncan’s hosting skill and Carter and Ogwumike’s points and counterpoints was a total treat. This trio needs their own show yesterday. Their chemistry, collaboration, and collective competence is clear. I’ll listen to them talk about the NCAA, NBA, WNBA, NIT, or any other basketball abbreviation on the planet.
John Molori is a weekly columnist for Barrett Sports Media. He has previously contributed to ESPNW, Patriots Football Weekly, Golf Content Network, Methuen Life Magazine, and wrote a syndicated Media Blitz column in the New England region, which was published by numerous outlets including The Boston Metro, Providence Journal, Lowell Sun, and the Eagle-Tribune. His career also includes fourteen years in television as a News and Sports Reporter, Host, Producer working for Continental Cablevision, MediaOne, and AT&T. He can be reached on Twitter @MoloriMedia.
