SC athletic and balanced can slow Iowa, and Iowa will have no answer to SC offensive rebounding. Only chance Iowa has is to make a ton of three's and shoot overall high %.
From a quick glance at their rosters they look like mostly regional teams. Seven SC players are from the south. Southern states have a higher than avg African-American population. 13 Iowa players are from the upper midwest/midwest.
Iowa only way has a chance is if Clark shoots the lights out, especially from the 3-point line. I heard something interesting about Iowa's team - the current starting five have started 90 games together, the most in all of college basketball. Not 90 total starts for them; 90 games where all five of them started together. There has to be a sense of cohesion among the group and probably contributes to some of Clark's assists. She just always seems to know where her teammates are going to be on the court.
I think South Carolina will win but whether it will be a blowout or a nailbiter depends a lot on Clark's performance.
Pretty soon she won't even need to recruit. The ladies will just want to go there, a la Aurioma and Saban. She's obviously a great coach and with ever increasingly great talent, she could steamroll people for years.
It'll be interesting to see if UConn can regroup and challenge them with Buckets and Azzi, and I know there's another really good lady there I can't remember her name, but they have to be able to stay on the court. Plus whoever they have in the pipeline already.
Iowa only way has a chance is if Clark shoots the lights out, especially from the 3-point line. I heard something interesting about Iowa's team - the current starting five have started 90 games together, the most in all of college basketball. Not 90 total starts for them; 90 games where all five of them started together. There has to be a sense of cohesion among the group and probably contributes to some of Clark's assists. She just always seems to know where her teammates are going to be on the court.
I think South Carolina will win but whether it will be a blowout or a nailbiter depends a lot on Clark's performance.
I think it also depends on whether Martin, Marshall and Warnock could hit threes. I don't think Czinano will make more than a few FGs because Boston is such a good defender. So that part of Iowa offense is gone. The rest is either (1) Clark shooting from outside, (2) Clark driving to the basket, or (3) Clark finding her teammates open on the perimeter. Given SC's defense, I think #2 will also be limited. Their only chances of scoring are #1 and #3.
And they have to score a lot. Unlike other SEC teams, South Carolina can score a lot if they have to.