Adding Indiana Fever To My Sports Landscape

by Kevin Burton

I need to correct an error today, an egregious error.

Last month I wrote a post about my favorite sports teams in the various college and professional sports leagues (“My Shifting Sports Team Allegiances,” March 27).

Somehow I got all the way through that post without writing a single word about the Indiana Fever of the WNBA. Can you believe that? It may be possible that I now care.

My Fever!

The whole blabbermouth sports media world is talking about women’s college basketball after Monday’s Elite Eight game in which Iowa avenged a loss to LSU in last year’s NCAA title game, with a 94-87 win over the Tigers.

The numbers are crazy, and I’m not talking about the 41 points scored by Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark. I’m talking about the Nielsens.

“Iowa’s win over LSU in the Elite Eight is the most-viewed women’s college basketball game of all time after averaging 12.3 million viewers Monday night,” wrote Callie Lawson-Freeman of Yahoo Sports.

“The audience peaked at 16.1 million viewers to become ESPN’s second-highest draw for a basketball game of any kind since 2012, the network announced.”

“That’s more than all but one NBA Finals game last season, based on Nielsen viewing data. Game 5 between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat garnered 13.08 million viewers, while the other contests during the series drew an audience of less than 12 million,” Lawson-Freeman wrote.

“Monday night’s viewership also tops every MLB game last season. When compared to college football last year, it’s only rivaled by the SEC championship game and the matchup between Michigan and Ohio State, which drew 19 million viewers.”

“The exponential growth of interest in the women’s game is a credit to the wealth of exciting players,” Lawson-Freeman wrote.

This is a serious groundswell. If you think I’m going to miss out on it, you’re crazy.

Iowa-LSU was a grudge game because LSU Star Angel Reese famously taunted Clark during their championship game win. She did so in part by using a hand gesture called “you can’t see me.” That part of it is beyond me. I don’t know what that means really. But it was a serious dis.

Well Clark got her revenge Monday. Both Clark and Reese have renounced their final year of college eligibility and have declared for the WNBA draft.

The talking heads are comparing this to 1979, the year Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team defeated Larry Bird’s Indiana State team for the NCAA Title. Johnson and Bird both went to the draft and their Lakers-Celtics rivalry in the 80s pretty much saved the NBA from extinction.

Can Clark and Reese do the same for the WNBA? I don’t know. What I do know is I need to choose a side.

The Fever has the first pick in the WNBA draft, Monday, April 15, 6:30 p.m. Central on ESPN.

My support for the Fever is conditional upon their being smart enough to draft Clark with that first pick. This is a mortal lock. Clark should be looking for housing in Indianapolis, if she hasn’t already.

The most stupid move in the history of organized sports was Seattle’s throwing a pass from the one yard line in Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, instead of handing the ball to Marshawn Lynch. The pass was intercepted and the evil empire Patriots got a championship they didn’t deserve.

Not drafting Clark would be almost as stupid as that. There may be players with skills comparable to Clark’s, but nobody else can juice ticket sales like Clark can.

So in the next week or so before the draft, I’ll be getting familiar with the Fever.

Coach Christie Sides will hope to improve on last year’s 13-27 record, which placed the team last in the Eastern Division. Their season begins May 14 at Connecticut.

The Fever has an Ohio State player, guard Kelsey Mitchell on the roster. That helps. And they don