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The stage is set for the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship as Player of the Year Caitlin Clark leads the No. 2-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes in a title showdown against the No. 3-seeded LSU Tigers, headlined by star forward Angel Reese and three-time national championship-winning head coach Kim Mulkey.
Sunday’s matchup marks the fourth meeting between the two programs, with Iowa leading the all-time series, 2-1. On Her Turf has all the info you need to know ahead of the national title tilt, but be sure to check back here for live updates when action tips at 3:30 p.m. ET.
How to watch the 2023 NCAA D1 Women’s Basketball Championship
| TEAMS | TIME | TV/STREAMING* | LOCATION |
| No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 3 LSU | 3:30 p.m. ET | ABC, ESPN+ | American Airlines Center; Dallas, Texas |
*Bonus viewing: WNBA greats Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi will be back for another edition of “The Bird and Taurasi Show,” at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: March Madness results and scores
Probable starting lineups
No. 2 Iowa:
- McKenna Warnock (F)
- Monika Czinano (F)
- Caitlin Clark (G)
- Gabbie Marshall (G)
- Kate Martin (G)
More about Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder: Bluder ranks fourth all-time among Division I active coaches with 850 career wins (first among Big Ten active coaches), and she’s also the all-time leader for Big Ten regular season conference wins with 248. The Hawkeyes have made postseason tournament appearances in 21 of Bluder’s 23 seasons at Iowa, receiving 17 NCAA tournament and four WNIT (2003, 2005, 2016, 2017) bids, and making four Sweet 16 appearances.
No. 3 LSU:
- Angel Reese (F)
- LaDazhia Williams (F)
- Flau’jae Johnson (G)
- Kateri Poole (G)
- Alexis Morris (G)
About LSU head coach Kim Mulkey: This year marks Mulkey’s second year at LSU and her fourth appearance in the national title game as a head coach. She holds a 3-0 record in national championship games, winning three titles as the head coach at Baylor. She’s the only person in men’s or women’s DI history to win national championships as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
What’s at stake for Iowa and LSU
For Iowa: The Hawkeyes upset the No. 1 overall seed, the defending national champions South Carolina Gamecocks, to advance to their first national title berth in program history. Iowa was tabbed as the No. 2 seed for the fifth time in school history, the Hawkeyes boast a 14-4 record in the NCAA tournament on the No. 2 seed line. Caitlin Clark was tabbed as the Naismith National Player of the Year on Wednesday.
For LSU: The 2023 tournament marks LSU’s sixth Final Four appearance, but this will be the first time the Tigers are playing for a national championship. The last time LSU advanced to the Final Four was in 2008, the final year of five consecutive Final Four appearances. Prior to Friday’s win over Virginia Tech, LSU had never won a game in the Final Four — men’s or women’s. LSU has won a men’s basketball national title (1935), but there was no official championship game then.
How they got here
| NO. 2 IOWA (31-6) | ROUND | NO. 3 LSU (33-2) |
| Defeated No. 15 Southeastern La., 95-43 | First Round | Defeated No. 14 Hawaii, 73-50 |
| Defeated No. 10 Georgia, 74-66 | Second Round | Defeated No. 6 Michigan, 66-42 |
| Defeated No. 6 Colorado, 87-77 | Sweet 16 | Defeated No. 2 Utah, 66-63 |
| Defeated No. 5 Louisville, 97-83 | Elite Eight | Defeated No. 9 Miami (FL), 54-42 |
| Defeated No. 1 South Carolina, 77-73 | Final Four | DefeatedNo. 1 Virginia Tech, 79-72 |
Fun facts, players notes ahead of national title game
More about Iowa:
- Caitlin Clark became the first player in DI women’s basketball history to notch a 1,000 point and 300 assist single season. She also became the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer, surpassing Megan Gustafson.
- Clark produced the first 40-point triple-double in men’s or women’s NCAA Tournament history against Louisville in the Elite Eight. (41p, 12a, 10r)
- Iowa’s win I the Final Four versus South Carolina was the first win in program history against an AP No. 1 team.
- Against Louisville and USC, Clark is the first player to net back-to-back 40-point performances in the NCAA tourney.
- Against South Carolina, Iowa extended its program record for most wins in a single season (31).
More about LSU:
- Angel Reese tied the NCAA record with her 33rd double-double of the season in the Final Four.
- Reese is the first player to ever have 100 points, 70 rebounds, 10 blocks and 10 steals in a single NCAA tournament, per ESPN Stats and Info. She will enter the national championship game with 113 points, 81 rebounds, 14 blocks and 13 steals through five tournament games this year.
- From when coach Kim Mulkey was hired at LSU on April 25, 2021, to LSU’s win over Miami in the Elite Eight on March 26, 2023, marks a span of just 700 days that Mulkey turned a 9-13 program into a national championship contender.
- LSU finished the regular season 27-1, matching the best regular-season record in program history from 2004-05. That LSU team reached the Final Four in 2005, but fell to Mulkey’s Baylor team en route to her first national championship as a head coach.
Past champions of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship
| YEAR | CHAMPION (record) | COACH | SCORE | RUNNER-UP | SITE |
| 2022 | South Carolina (36-2) | Dawn Staley | 64-49 | Connecticut | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| 2021 | Stanford (31-2) | Tara VanderVeer | 54-53 | Arizona | San Antonio, Texas |
| 2020 | Baylor (37-1) | Kim Mulkey | 82-81 | Notre Dame | Tampa, Florida |
| 2019 | Notre Dame (34-3) | Muffet McGraw | 61-58 | Mississippi State | Columbus, Ohio |
| 2018 | South Carolina (33-4) | Dawn Staley | 67-55 | Mississippi State | Dallas, Texas |
For a complete list of champions, visit NCAA.com.
What they’re saying ahead of Iowa-LSU national title game
Lisa Bluder: “I know a lot of people lost a lot of money in Vegas and elsewhere last night. Not a lot of people betting on the Hawkeyes. So we’re just going to keep believing. We have one more game to our season. Our team was just thrilled we get to spend two more days together. Honestly I think that’s what they were most excited about. They’re playing for a national championship, and they get to spend two more days together.”
Caitlin Clark: “I think the thing for me is I understand things aren’t going to go my way. I think accepting that — and that’s not always something I’ve had throughout my college career — when I haven’t gotten fouls called, when I’ve had turnovers, when I’ve had missed shots, it’s kind of thrown me off my game a little bit. I think the physicality is something I’ve just come to accept at this point in my career. People are holding me. I have scratches. I have bruises. But so does everybody else. You can’t complain. …That’s the game of basketball. All you’ve got to do is respond, and that’s what’s going to be best for your team.”
Kim Mulkey: “I don’t want to use the word ‘powerhouse.’ We’ve won games. We have not won championships. Are we ahead of schedule? I think it’s obvious we’re ahead of schedule. We’re sitting here playing for the national championship. So the hard part now is, when it’s all over, win or lose, you go back to recruiting, you go back to trying to duplicate what you did this year and just continue on a trajectory that is positive. To someday maybe winning an SEC Championship, maybe winning a National Championship, or being what you would say a contender every year — but we’re ahead of schedule.”
Angel Reese: “To my teammates: This is what we came here for. I mean, we’re in this moment, to be in a national championship game with nine new pieces in Kim Mulkey’s second year … Be happy for ourselves, but the job isn’t finished, and we’re hungry. I think that’s the difference between us and a lot of teams. We’re not going to stop fighting until the end, and I think we just have that dog mentality within the team.”
The last word
Q. If you were an opposing coach game planning to stop Caitlin Clark, what would you do?
LISA BLUDER: Pray.
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