March Madness. Redux.

It showcased the two best players in college basketball facing off against each other. And it came down to the smallest of margins. The final score, 71 to 69. Much of America now introduced to the world of March Madness.

The year was 1968. The players were Elvin Hayes, the star of Houston. And for the opposing team, UCLA, the one with the 47 game winning streak that ended that night in the Astrodome before almost 53,000 fans, a center who would soon be known to the world by a different name. That night he was simply Lew Alcindor.

Last evening, the two premier women college basketball stars of the past four years did battle. The final score was exactly that of the titanic struggle more than a half century before in Houston. And though neither Paige Bueckers or Caitlin Clark was transcendent, and even as this was but a semi-final contest, it was a seminal event, far more than a mere game. These teams could have filled the Astrodome to overflowing. And the intensity they demonstrated had to bring those who watched this battle to their collective feet and into the fold.

It is said that the Hayes-Alcindor game birthed March Madness for the men. Shooting their sport, and their best players, into the night sky as transcendent stars. I suspect, for the women, much the same will be written in the history books about this evening, Iowa v Connecticut, Clark v Bueckers.

71 to 69. Though the calendar may now read April this was definitely March Madness. Again.