The women’s NCAA Tournament takes center stage on Monday night with a mouthwatering doubleheader and trips to the Final Four on the line. The headliner takes place in the first contest of the night as Angel Reese and LSU take on Caitlin Clark and Iowa in a must-watch March Madness rematch of last year’s national championship game. Here’s a closer look at that star-studded Elite 8 matchup in Albany,
New York . (7:15 p.m. ET, ESPN) LSU is an extremely difficult team to face because of their savviness. The Tigers are fully knowledgeable of their strengths and weaknesses and will stop at nothing to tilt the scales in their favor. They embody the underdog mentality instilled in them by their head coach, Kim Mulkey. Their unapologetic style of play suits them, and despite what some might think, everything they do is well within the bounds of competition in college
basketball. Part of LSU’s strategy is to get into its opponent’s head. Mulkey works with the officials on the sidelines while her players frustrate the opposing team on the court. There have been instances where LSU targets an opposing player who is in foul trouble to get them out of the game. Again, this tactic is not illegal; the Tigers are just better at executing it than most teams. Due to its poor perimeter shooting, LSU is often at a disadvantage when it faces the top teams in the country. However, the Tigers can control the game because of their ability to defend and dominate on the glass. Per HerHoopStats, LSU’s 57.9% Total Rebound Rate (TRB%) is even better than South Carolina’s (57.6%), and the Gamecocks are widely considered the best team in the land by a wide margin. LSU will face an Iowa team it outrebounded, 37-26, in last year’s title game. Look for the Tigers to have a similar advantage on the boards yet again as they create second-chance opportunities. While the Tigers are the team I prefer in this rematch, targeting Flau’jae Johnson’s scoring prop to go over 15.5 points offers even better value. Johnson has shown tremendous development in her sophomore campaign while leading the Tigers in scoring in their last two games. She’s an extremely shifty guard at 5-foot-10 who can penetrate into the lane and shoot over her defender. Johnson is also LSU’s best perimeter player,
shooting 39.5% from beyond the arc. The Tigers will need her 3-point shooting to keep pace with Clark and an Iowa team that ranks 32nd in percentage of points (36%) from the perimeter. Johnson’s scoring prop of 15.5 points at FanDuel is too low for a player who’s rapidly emerging on the biggest stage. She should exceed that number fairly comfortably on Monday night against Iowa.