A guide to who’s calling the women’s NCAA tournament in 2023.
March Madness 2023 is down to it last two teams, with the thrilling women’s NCAA tournament coming down Iowa — with the amazing Caitlin Clark — against LSU and Angel Reese. It’s sure to be an epic matchup.
If you’re here, you might be wondering: Who’s calling the game you’re watching? And that’s what we’ll answer for you.
We’ve updated this post with the info throughout the tournament. Now, the final from Dallas will air on ABC at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday instead of ESPN.
So who are those voices you’re listening to on the ABC broadcast? Here’s your answer as women’s March Madness comes to a close:
After SDSU head coach Brian Dutcher opted not to use their final timeout, Butler was trusted to make the right play. The guard took the ball down the floor in transition, dribbled near the baseline, and showed stellar footwork as the clock continued ticking.
Butler very nearly stepped out of bounds once on the baseline and if he had moved his right foot an extra inch, SDSU’s season would have come to a sad close due to a turnover. Instead, he was able to make his way to the midrange and nail the shot.
“I ran out of plays so I decided not to take a timeout.”
San Diego State had a timeout remaining as the clock neared an expiration, but Brian Dutcher trusted his players and didn’t use it.
After trailing Florida Atlantic by as many as 14 points earlier in the game, SDSU had a chance to secure the victory. SDSU big man Nathan Mensah grabbed a rebound following a missed shot by FAU, then Lamont Butler took the ball up the floor in transition.
Butler stepped up on the biggest stage and managed to take an incredibly impressive off-the-dribble jumper from midrange. The shot went in for a thrilling buzzer-beater, earning a trip to the national championship.
“I ran out of plays so I decided not to take a timeout. So Lamont said if we get the rebound, let’s get downhill, send all three bigs to the rim. He got downhill and made the play.”
SDSU was an average team when it came to their typical shot quality after a timeout, but they were also relatively inefficient in a transition offense during the tournament.
This decision was bold but brilliant and it worked like a charm.
The most notable is UConn’s Jordan Hawkins, who scored at least 20 points in the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight. Some players (e.g. UConn’s Donovan Clingan or FAU’s Johnell Davis) would likely appear on our mock draft if they decide to turn pro.
Our draft order is based on what was listed on Tankathon on March 30. The official order will be set after the much-anticipated lottery in Chicago on May 16.
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UConn’s Jordan Hawkins is a ready-to-play movement shooter perfect for the NBA.
This is a fascinating Final Four in the NCAA men’s tournament, especially because we may only have one first-round draft pick playing in either game.
Between the two matchups, UConn vs. Miami is the game to watch if you want to see likely future NBA players. Even if there aren’t many players selected in the first round, there are several who could find their way onto your favorite pro team.
Before the two games have their tipoffs in Houston on Saturday, these are the top NBA draft prospects you should keep your eyes peeled for whenever they are on the court.
NOTE: UConn’s Donovan Clingan would also make this list if he decides to declare for the 2023 NBA Draft.
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The basketball world could not be happier for Jim Larrañaga!
Jim Larrañaga is a national treasure.
On Sunday, Larrañaga led Miami to its first-ever Final Four appearance after pulling off an incredible comeback over Texas. The Hurricanes rallied from a 13-point deficit in the second half to stun the No. 2 seeded Longhorns 88-81. Miami posted 51 points in the second half to completely overwhelm Texas in the final 20 minutes.
Thankfully for Miami, this isn’t Larrañaga’s first Final Four rodeo. In fact, 17 years to the day in 2006, Larrañaga helped George Mason advance to the Final Four. Even better, George Mason also erased a double digit deficit, much like Miami did to best Texas.
March 26, 2006: Jim Larrañaga's George Mason Patriots erase double digit-deficit to advance to the Final Four
March 26, 2023: Jim Larrañaga's Miami Hurricanes erase double digit-deficit to advance to the Final Four pic.twitter.com/ZrNaCJMuJK
What a tournament it’s been so far for the Hurricanes. Earlier in the week, Miami upset No. 1 seed Houston to make it to the Elite Eight and Larrañaga stole the show afterwards with his hilarious dance moves.
And now, Larrañaga is once again leading his team to a Final Four appearance in late March.
[pickup_prop id=”32781″]
"All the guys just kept talking 'We've got to go past the Elite 8 and get to the Final Four'" 🙌
Greg McDermott took the high road with this answer here.
Creighton’s NCAA men’s tournament title hopes came to an end on Sunday in the wildest, most unsatisfactory way possible. And yet, when asked about it, Creighton head coach Greg McDermott took the high road.
San Diego State advanced to its first Final Four in program history after besting Creighton 57-56 on an unceremonious last-second foul. Creighton got the ball back with 1.2 seconds remaining, but the pass down the court tipped out of bounds, which lead to a referee review. The result? An anticlimactic end to a game that went down to the wire and was decided on the final play.
While other coaches may have let the moment get the best of them in postgame interviews, McDermott had a very measured response to the foul on Ryan Nembhard that kicked things off.
Greg McDermott on the call on Nembhard: "Two teams played their tails off and officiating is part of the game. We’re not going to go there. We lost the game because we didn’t do enough and San Diego State did." He added he wasn't given an explanation at the end of the game.
San Diego State is heading to the Final Four for the first time in the program’s history, but how it got there won’t rank up with the most thrilling of NCAA tournament moments.
We thank can the officials for that.
With time winding down in a tie game against Creighton, San Diego State’s Darrion Trammell drew a foul with 1.2 seconds lefts in the game (after a review). Trammell missed the first free throw but knocked down the second, giving SDSU a one-point lead and leaving Creighton with little time for a desperation play.
The foul itself was awfully questionable given how the game was called. There was a hand on Trammell’s hip, but it didn’t seem to impact the shot in any significant way.
After the free throws, Creighton ended up having Baylor Scheierman attempt a full-court pass to set up a last-second shot, but that pass deflected out of bounds as time appeared to expire. That should have been the moment for San Diego State to celebrate, but everything was put on hold because college basketball officials insist on reviewing everything.
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) March 26, 2023
Like, that should have been it. The ball was deflected and went out of bounds as time expired. The officials would review the play and determine just that, breaking out a stop watch because the clock actually started late.
This simply wasn’t the tournament that NBA scouts wanted to see from Alabama freshman Brandon Miller.
This simply wasn’t the tournament that NBA scouts wanted to see from Alabama freshman Brandon Miller.
With the Crimson Tide eliminated the same night as the Houston Cougars, the Elite Eight will not feature a No. 1 seed for the first time in men’s NCAA tournament history.
But that’s not the only history Miller made during Alabama’s unexpectedly short tournament run. According to CBS Sports, Miller was the only player with at least 40 field-goal attempts “since at least 1960” to ever shoot under 20% in the tournament.
On the court, meanwhile, Miller (groin) was playing through an injury. He was “still not 100 percent” before the game against San Diego State and that showed in his play.
My colleague, Mike Sykes, wrote about the nightmarish nature of Miller’s month. We also wanted to take a deeper dive into the numbers to figure out, from a basketball perspective, what went awry.
Miller was 3-for-19 (15.8 percent) on his 3-pointers, missing each of his attempts off the dribble. His shot chart also indicates that he didn’t connect on a 3-pointer from the top of the key or from either the left or right corners.
He was also 3-for-11 (27.3 percent) from the midrange and 2-for-11 (18.2 percent) at the rim. Maybe due to his injury, he didn’t record a dunk during any of the three games during the tournament and according to Synergy, he was just 2-for-10 (20.0 percent) on layups.
Perhaps most concerning, Miller was highly inefficient on 2-pointers when matched up against a strong opponent. This was an alarming trend for Miller throughout the year.
Brandon Miller ends up shooting 48% (116-240) on 2's this year. But the breakout by competition is stark: – shot just 38.5% (55-143) on 2's vs top 50 teams – 63% (61-97) vs all other teams
As we wrote about here, we can look at the shot quality to see what went wrong. Synergy Shot Quality (SSQ) grades each shot based on the type of shot, shot distance, shot angle, play type, shot clock, and other variables.
SSQ is divided into three categories to grade shots: Low (< 20th percentile), Medium (20th-80th percentile), and High (> 80th percentile).
Miller took 10 shots that graded in the lowest group when Alabama was eliminated. He had never previously taken more than 6 and he averaged just 1.8 low-quality shots per game before this performance.
Meanwhile, he took 0 shots that were considered high-quality looks.
Perhaps one reason for this was the clashing of Alabama’s offensive identity with San Diego State’s defensive identity.
Alabama averaged 15.3 seconds per possession on offense, per KenPom, which was the sixth-fastest in the nation and the quickest among all teams that made the NCAA men’s tournament. Especially with Miller on the court, they liked to play fast.
Meanwhile, however, San Diego State’s average defensive possession length (18.5 seconds) was the slowest among teams that made it to the Sweet 16.
The Crimson Tide still played at a high-tempo but San Diego State limited Miller’s chances on the fastbreak and in the open floor. Miller finished 4 offensive possessions in transition and 21 in the half-court. That discrepancy (17 possessions) was one of the largest in Miller’s career and showcased a weakness for the projected top-5 pick.
Miller was one of the most productive transition scorers in the nation. But throughout the tournament, his half-court screen navigation was suspect. He was 0-for-6 with five turnovers as the ball handler in the pick-and-roll and 0-for-5 when using off-ball screens while playing in March Madness.
Overall, based on his shot quality in a set offense during the tournament, Miller was expected to score 0.87 points per shot. But he averaged just 0.37 points per shot in the half-court, per Synergy.
That difference (-0.50) means his overall shot-making in a set offense was the worst overall of the 110 players who finished at least 25 possessions in the half-court during March Madness.
In our latest mock, we projected that Miller would hear his name called as the No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. ESPN’s latest mock draft also has Miller as the third prospect projected off the board.
NBA prospects are selected based on their full body of work, and a few bad games in the tournament won’t tank his draft stock. He averaged 18.8 points per game as a freshman in the SEC and shot 38.4 percent on 3-pointers.
But scouts will assuredly at least consider how Miller performed during March Madness when they make their final evaluations of him as a future NBA player.
Miami basketball coach Jim Larrañaga has led the Hurricanes to the Elite Eight for the second season in a row, and he has reason to celebrate.
Nijel Pack (8-12 FG, 7-10 3P) scored 26 points while Isaiah Wong (5-11 FG, 1-2 3P) added 20 points during the win. Now, after convincingly defeating Houston, the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region, the Hurricanes have excellent momentum and will advance for another round of March Madness.
The vibes are high, too, as Larrañaga enjoyed a fun postgame exchange in the locker room with his team. Watch as the 73-year-old former Naismith College Coach of the Year showed off some delightful dance moves in front of his team:
More than seven years ago, we got to watch him as he learned how to whip and how to nae nae. If his team is able to advance another round and win in the Elite Eight, who knows what kind of dancing we can see next!
