We preview the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, the Minnesota Lynx WNBA Draft, and discuss the comedy stylings of Cheryl Reeve, the Premier Hockey Federation playoffs, and news of the PWHPA forming a union. 

Mujeres’ March Madness is About to Begin!

* NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship Game to air on network television with its own pregame show for the first time

* Watch on ABC

* Aflac teams with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley to tackle inequities in the sport, per The Gist

* Made an ad with former Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski

* Most of ad spend is going toward the women’s tourney 

* South Carolina is the favorite, but it’s otherwise wide open thanks to UConn being good instead of great 

* Who will make the Final Four?

* #1 South Carolina (almost a certainty), #6 Stanford or #7 Iowa or #5 Maryland (pick one), and #9 UConn (not at all a certainty)?

* UConn likely a three-seed prior to conference tournament play

* Cinderellas?

* Look out for #23 Iowa State

* Ashley Joens is one of the best scorers ever and hits 36 percent of her threes

* Also, #19 UCLA

* Charisma Osborne is one of the best perimeter defenders in the game

Cheryl Reeve Makes Us All Laugh at the Lynx Winter Mixer for Season Ticket Holders

* Damn happy Cheryl Reeve is our coach

* She lives just down the street from me and is apparently hilarious

* She also demands her players to play defense, which is why I love this team

* Napheesa Collier is 100 percent after giving birth to a baby girl and should help fill the shoes of recent retiree, Sylvia Fowles, who was a goddamn All-Star in her 15th season (14.4 PPG, 9.8 RPG) 

* She was ranked the fourth-best player in the league this time last year

* And she dunked in the damn All-Star Game last season

2023 Minnesota Lynx WNBA Draft Preview

* Who will the Lynx target in the upcoming WNBA Draft?

* Round 1, Pick 2: M.A. Voepel of ESPN has the Lynx taking Maryland guard Diamond Miller

* Fills an immediate need; great transition player, which is another thing the Lynx lack

* Better shooter than Stanford’s Haley Jones

* Round 2, Pick 12: UConn’s Dorka Juhász

* 6’5” forward averaging a double-double (14.4 PPG, 10.3 RPG)

* Should help fill some of the rebounding void left by Fowles

* Also help Collier defend bigs in the post, as the Lynx don’t have a true center to deal with the likes of A’ja Wilson and Jonquel Jones

* Collier is only 6’1”, but plays bigger than her height; certainly as strong as anyone in the league

Whitecaps Clinch a Playoff Spot

* They haven’t won since I saw them play Buffalo on Feb. 18, but they got some help from the Montreal Force, who beat the Beauts 6-2 on Sunday

* Whitecaps are tied for third with the Connecticut Whale, who come to town next weekend

* Get tickets for Saturday at 6 p.m. CST or watch on ESPN+

* Get tickets for Sunday at 1 p.m. CST or watch on ESPN+

* Whitecaps are at the Boston Pride this weekend; they’re currently the two seed but trail Toronto by just two points with two games in hand

* Watch Friday on ESPN+ at 6 p.m. CST

* Watch Saturday on ESPN+ at 1 p.m. CST

* In more women’s hockey news, the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association has formed a union and are negotiating a collective bargaining agreement for a new league, per Hailey Salvian on Twitter (as shared by The Gist newsletter)

* This is huge because many of the top women’s hockey players have refused to play for the PHF due to low salaries, poor travel arrangements, and lack of health insurance

* It was just announced in December that the PHF salary cap would double for the 2023-24 season

* From $750,000 to $1.5 million

* 900 percent growth since 2021

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