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The unlikely star behind LSU’s unlikely NCAA championship run

LSU’s Jasmine Carson celebrates after hitting one of her five 3-pointers in the first half. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

DALLAS — It was a celebration dripping in sequins.

The party started when Flau’jae Johnson ran over to the sidelines and sent a message to coach Kim Mulkey.

“You’re the GOAT!” she yelled. Then again: “You’re the GOAT!” And again. As her freshman guard shouted, Mulkey’s face wrinkled as she tried to fight back the tears pooling into her eyes.

The seconds ticked down, and Johnson couldn’t contain her excitement any longer. She ran over to Mulkey and lifted the coach off the ground, spinning her in a bear hug. Her purple uniform melded with Mulkey’s sequined, tiger-striped suit to create one blur of joy.

A season that started with criticism about a weak schedule ended in celebration on the ultimate stage. With their 102-85 win over superstar Caitlin Clark and Iowa on Sunday, the LSU Tigers were crowned national champions for the first time in program history.

Achieving that feat seemed unlikely at first, and unlikely still when the Tigers were blown out by South Carolina in the regular season, and when they lost to Tennessee in the SEC tournament.

Unlikely to outsiders, but predetermined to those within the program. Angel Reese has been talking about this since she transferred to LSU last spring. So has Kateri Poole, the friend who convinced Reese to make the campus visit when LSU wasn’t even on her radar.

“This is why I came to LSU,” Poole said after the game, with confetti swirling at her feet and her mother looking on with pure adoration in her eyes. An onlooker told Poole’s mom that she had confetti stuck in her hair; “I don’t care,” she replied with a grin.

In the background, Reese took photos with her brother, Julian. She took phones from spectators and recorded videos for them. And of course, she posed with her tiara, something that has become a staple for LSU celebrations this season.

Since the beginning of the season, the Tigers have pretended to crown Reese when she makes an exciting play or has a big game. At one point, they traded out the gesture for a real tiara. Reese, the queen of the tournament and the Final Four Most Outstanding Player, finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Alexis Morris finished with 21 points, 19 of which came in the second half, and LaDazhia Williams had 20.

None of them, however, was LSU’s leading scorer. That came from an unlikely source — but like the title itself, only unlikely to those outside the program. Inside the Tigers’ locker room, graduate transfer Jasmine Carson is a known scorer.

“Jasmine may be the second best pure shooter that I’ve ever coached in my career,” Mulkey said. “She can just light it up.”

Carson finished with 22 points, and the Tigers needed every single one of them.

The first half was laden with whistles, and Reese spent significant time on the bench in early foul trouble. Morris also picked up two quick fouls and went into halftime with just two points. Mulkey went to her bench, and suddenly it was Carson’s moment, one the Tigers knew was coming.

Emily Ward, a senior walk-on, noticed that Carson was hot in warm-ups.

“I went up to her and I was like, ‘OK Jas, you’re going to have a big game,’” Ward said. “None of us were shocked that she was doing that. She hits them all the time in practice.”

Carson scored 21 of her 22 points in the first half, going a perfect 7-for-7 from the field and 5-for-5 from the 3-point line during the stretch. Everyone on the LSU bench celebrated. And in a concert hall in Atlanta, so did Carson’s high school coach.

Phyllis Arthur’s boyfriend surprised her with tickets to a jazz concert a few days ago, not realizing the national championship game was the same day. But she wasn’t going to miss Carson’s biggest game at LSU, so as they waited for the opening act to go on, Arthur watched the Tigers on her phone.

Every time Carson hit a shot, Arthur jumped out of her seat.

Arthur has coached girls basketball at McEachern High School for 17 years. There, she coached Carson and coached against Flau’jae Johnson, so Arthur was thrilled for both players on Sunday.

Thrilled, but not surprised.

“That’s the Jasmine I know,” she said on a phone call during intermission of the concert. “I love her shot. And when she’s on, she’s on. And she was on tonight. Thank god.”

Carson is one of several LSU transfer portal success stories. She started her career at Georgia Tech before transferring to West Virginia for two seasons and closing out her fifth year with the Tigers, averaging 8.4 points per game this season.

Carson started throughout the regular season, but when the NCAA Tournament began, Mulkey opted to bring her off the bench in favor of having bigger bodies on the court.

Still, Carson stayed ready.

So ready that she didn’t need her usual pregame routine. Morris and Carson typically get up extra shots together in warm-ups, but today, when Morris asked her if she wanted to, Carson said no.

“I’m good,” she said.

And she was. She was really, really good. She was 22 points good. She was five made 3-pointers good. She was national champion good.

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Carson came off the bench to go a perfect 7-for-7 from the field in the first half. (Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

After the game, when Mulkey shuffled through the confetti barefoot, and Reese climbed a ladder to cut her piece of the net, and Johnson danced with her championship hat on her head, and Arthur cheered among a crowd of jazz fans, they all had Carson to thank.

“I didn’t have nothing to lose,” Carson said. “This was my last game of my college career, and I ended it the right way.”

She ended it as a national champion.

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

NCAA Soccer Bracket Drop Paves Road to 2024 College Cup

Members of the 2023 Florida State soccer team celebrate winning the national championship.
Florida State won two of the last three NCAA soccer titles. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)

The 2024 NCAA DI Soccer Championship field is officially set, with 64 teams gearing up to battle for postseason glory in this weekend's first round.

All teams have their sights set on this year's College Cup — NCAA soccer's Final Four — which will take place in Cary, NC, with semifinals on December 6th before the December 9th championship match.

Along with the 30 conference tournament champions who automatically received postseason invites, the NCAA committee revealed its 34 selectees in Monday's bracket release. The top 32 teams are seeded one through eight in their respective bracket quadrants, and teams are guaranteed to only face non-conference opponents through the tournament's second round.

Duke college soccer players congratulate each other post-game.
Duke earned the NCAA tournament's overall No. 1 seed for the first time in program history. (Duke Athletics)

Tight race for top seeds reflect NCAA talent

In this 43rd edition of the NCAA championship, three of the four No. 1 seeds are already making history.

After finishing the the regular season atop the sport's rankings, Duke is the tournament's overall No. 1 team for the first time ever. The Blue Devils, who boast the nation's second-best scoring offense, are aiming for a program-first national title this year.

Joining Duke in the bracket's elite echelon are USC and Mississippi State, who claimed No. 1 seeds for the first time ever. The Trojans did so in their first season as a Big Ten team, while the SEC veteran Bulldogs put together their best year yet, finishing with a nationally unparalleled 16-1-0 regular-season record.

Rounding out the top quartet is defending champion Florida State, the lone consistent standby in the No. 1-seed club. The Seminoles have earned the honor 12 times, with this year marking their sixth straight NCAA tournament atop a quadrant.

UNC college soccer players celebrate a win.
The Tar Heels have won 21 of the 42 NCAA championships. (Ainsley E. Fauth/UNC Athletics)

Power Four squads lead NCAA Championship charge

Unsurprisingly, the Power Four conferences comprise over half the national bracket. The SEC and Big Ten lead the charge with 10 teams each, while the ACC has nine in the mix, and the Big 12 is sending seven.

Though the ACC didn't win the total team race, the tough conference is still arguably the one to beat in the bracket, as seven of their teams earned Top-4 seedings. Even more, a full half of the eight Nos. 1 and 2 teams hail from the ACC, with second-seeds North Carolina and Wake Forest joining top seeds Duke and Florida State.

UNC and Wake Forest represent two very different paths to the tournament: The Tar Heels — a dynasty who've won 21 of the 42 national trophies — extended their streak of appearing in every single NCAA tournament with Monday's bracket drop. Meanwhile, the Demon Deacons have shot to national acclaim after failing to garner an invite to last year's NCAA party.

Joining the ACC pair as No. 2 seeds are SEC standouts Arkansas and 2022 national champions and new Big Ten members UCLA. The Razorbacks claim their third No. 2 seed in four years, while the Bruins' defense is on a hunt to prove that defense wins championships.

Kansas college soccer team lifts the 2024 Big 12 tournament trophy.
The Jayhawks proved anyone can win any game by taking the 2024 Big 12 tournament as an underdog. (Kansas Athletics)

Parity set to increase NCAA tournament chaos

Though the top contenders have certainly earned respect, this season's competition is particularly fierce, as the fallout of conference realignment and unrestricted transfers has meant increased parity on the NCAA pitch.

That parity isn't just reflected by new teams claiming top national seeds. This postseason has already proved that almost any team can emerge victorious from the college soccer pitch at any time.

In last week's Power Four conference tournaments, for example, only the Big 12 saw the top conference seed advance to the final, and none ultimately lifted hardware: UCLA claimed the Big Ten as the No. 2 seed, No. 3 seeds Florida State and Texas won the ACC and SEC tournaments, respectively, and Kansas absolutely stunned the Big 12 as the conference's No. 6 seed champions.

How to watch the NCAA Soccer Championship tournament

Those parity-fueled upsets will be increasingly likely in the tournament's later rounds, but several of the 32 first-round matchups have upset potential.

All will stream on ESPN+, starting with the NCAA's kickoff match between No. 8 Utah State and Washington on Friday at 4 PM ET.

Friday will see 25 matches, with six on Saturday. Wrapping up the tournament's first chapter will be No. 1 USC, who will host Sacramento State at 5 PM ET on Sunday.

Bay FC’s Kiki Pickett Talks 1st-Season Jitters and Becoming Underdog on ‘The Late Sub’

Cover image for the Late Sub: Putting the puzzle pieces together with Kiki Pickett
Kiki Pickett joined Claire Watkins on the latest episode of 'The Late Sub.' (Just Women's Sports)

This episode of 'The Late Sub' is presented in partnership with Visa.

In the latest episode of The Late Sub, podcast host and JWS staff writer Claire Watkins invites Bay FC center defensive midfielder Kiki Pickett into the studio to chat through the 2024 NWSL expansion's side banner first season — one, as Pickett reveals, where local support made all the difference.

"That love for women's sports is huge," the Santa Barbara native and Stanford grad says of her team's Northern California home. "And then we have the Valkyries coming in as well, so I think that's only just going to increase."

Throughout the conversation, Pickett looks back on other sources of support, including hands-on backing from team staff as well as a unique partnership with founding partner Visa that sees direct investment in current Bay FC players. In addition to investing in enhanced player benefits such as dedicated mental health support, Visa's partnership enables players to more efficiently earn the maximum amount of appearance fee compensation available under the NWSL's current CBA.

"I think that's been a huge advantage for us, knowing that they have our back on whatever it is — recovery, nutrition, mental balance," she says of Bay FC's Visa partnership. "Those are just the little details that get us above and beyond."

Bay FC's rise from shaky start to 2024 NWSL Playoffs

Pickett then walks Watkins through the team's impressive mid-season turnaround, explaining how Bay FC became the perfect NWSL underdog before highlighting some of the most memorable moments from the team's record-breaking debut year.

"Every game has helped us learn and build our blocks," Pickett continues, reflecting on the team's journey from a shaky start to making last weekend's NWSL quarterfinals. "The mindset switch was, 'If we're so focused on defense, you've got to make sure the offense is correct. If we're so focused on offense, we've got to make sure our defense is correct.' We eventually put those two together, and it just clicked."

"Maybe people aren't talking about us in the beginning because we didn't have the best record," she adds. "Now people are talking about us."

Elsewhere in the episode, Watkins also takes time to recap this past weekend's NWSL quarterfinals, talking through blowouts, surprises, empty tanks, and why the league's top four teams continue to rule the pitch this year.

About The Late Sub with Claire Watkins

The Late Sub with Claire Watkins brings you the latest news and freshest takes in women’s sports. This is the weekly rundown you’ve been missing, covering the USWNT, NWSL, WNBA, college hoops, and whatever else is popping off in women’s sports each week. Special guest appearances with the biggest names in women’s sports make The Late Sub a must-listen for every fan. Follow Claire on X/Twitter @ScoutRipley and subscribe to the Just Women’s Sports newsletter for more.

Subscribe to The Late Sub to never miss an episode.

Big Ten Teams Climb the NCAA Basketball Ranks

Maryland guard Kaylene Smikle dribbles past Duke's Oluchi Okananwa in an NCAA college basketball game.
Maryland junior Kaylene Smikle led the Terps with 23 points on Sunday. (G Fiume/Getty Images)

One week into the 2024/25 season and the Big Ten is already leading the college basketball charge, with multiple teams tallying upsets to boost their spots in Monday's AP Top 25 update.

The biggest leap belonged to Maryland, who climbed seven spots to No. 11 after defeating now-No. 16 Duke 85-80 on Sunday. With four double-digit scorers, the Terrapins' team effort was led by junior guard Kaylene Smikle's 23 points.

Maryland's Big Ten compatriots, No. 23 Illinois and No. 25 Oregon, broke into Monday's standings after respective wins against then-No. 19 Florida State on Thursday and then-No. 12 Baylor on Sunday.

Led by former UNC standout Deja Kelly's 20 points, the Ducks staved off a late Baylor surge to secure the 76-74 win, snapping a 13-game losing streak to ranked opponents in the process.

Outside the Big Ten, Stanford also made their 2024/25 poll debut, coming in at No. 24. The Cardinal took their omission from the preseason poll — the first in 25 years with Stanford — as a challenge, defeating their first three season opponents last week by an average of 41 points.

South Carolina guard Te'Hina Paopao dribbles the ball upcourt in an NCAA college basketball game.
Senior guard Te'Hina Paopao's 23 points led No. 1 South Carolina over No. 13 NC State on Sunday. (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

South Carolina maintains stranglehold on No. 1

The preseason top eight teams held their ground this week behind defending champs No. 1 South Carolina, who extended their division-record active unbeaten streak to 40 games with Sunday's 71-57 win over now-No. 13 NC State.

With junior forward Chloe Kitts, who led the Gamecocks with a double-double in their season opener, ruled out due to an academic issue, South Carolina guards Te-Hina Paopao and MiLaysia Fulwiley stepped up in a big way, sinking 23 and 18 points, respectively.

Texas guard Bryanna Preston celebrates a shot in an NCAA college basketball game.
The SEC added top teams No. 4 Texas and No. 9 Oklahoma from the Big 12 to boost their 2024/25 roster. (Scott Wachter/Imagn Images)

SEC is still NCAA's top basketball conference

While still early days, it does appear that conference realignment and a robust transfer portal has once again emboldened the NCAA's biggest players. 

New Big Ten members No. 3 USC, No. 5 UCLA, and No. 24 Oregon join veterans No. 11 Maryland, No. 12 Ohio State, No. 21 Nebraska, and No. 23 Illinois in this week's rankings, tying the SEC with the most teams in the poll at seven.

Even so, the SEC remains the conference to beat, with not just No. 1 South Carolina setting the sport's standard, but three other Top-10 teams. Conference veteran No. 7 LSU and last season's Big 12 stalwarts No. 4 Texas and No. 9 Oklahoma round out the SEC's grip on the top of the rankings, with No. 19 Ole Miss, No. 20 Kentucky, and No. 22 Alabama also featuring in the poll.

AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll

1. South Carolina
2. UConn
3. Southern California
4. Texas
5. UCLA
6. Notre Dame
7. LSU
8. Iowa State
9. Oklahoma
10. Kansas State
11. Maryland
12. Ohio State
13. North Carolina State
14. North Carolina
15. West Virginia
16. Duke
17. Baylor
18. Louisville
19. Ole Miss
20. Kentucky
21. Nebraska
22. Alabama
23. Illinois
24. Stanford
25. Oregon

Gauff Wins 2024 WTA Finals Tournament

US tennis star Coco Gauff poses with her 2024 WTA Finals trophy
Coco Gauff finishes 2024 with three trophies and a 54-17 record. (Robert Prange/Getty Images)

World No. 3 tennis star Coco Gauff won the 2024 WTA Finals on Saturday, becoming the youngest US player to take the tournament since Serena Williams in 2001.

Gauff's championship came by way of a grueling three-hour 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) final match win over reigning Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen.

The 20-year-old's road to the $4.8 million purse — the largest in women's tennis history — included just her second-ever win over No. 2 Iga Świątek in the group round and a semifinal victory over No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Friday.

A winning end to a rollercoaster season

When asked about her 2024 season, Gauff told reporters, "There’s been a lot of ups and downs. At moments, it felt great. At other moments, it felt awful. Basically, a typical year on tour."

Her low point was a disappointing attempt to defend her 2023 US Open title. Gauff stumbled out of the US Grand Slam in the fourth round this fall.

That performance led Gauff to an apparently productive coaching change. She left coach Brad Gilbert, adding Matt Daly to her team to work with Jean-Christophe “JC” Faurel.

Since then, Gauff has gone 13-2, ultimately adding the China Open and WTA Finals titles to her June French Open doubles trophy.

After silencing doubters with Saturday's victory, Gauff took to social media, writing "lol safe to say I beat the bad season allegations."

New Zealand's Erin Routliffe and Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski lift their 2024 WTA Finals doubles trophy.
Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski paired up to make WTA Finals history. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images for WTA)

A double dose of WTA Finals history

Just before Gauff took the court, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand's Erin Routliffe were crowned the season's doubles champions.

Dabrowski and Routliffe avenged their Wimbledon final loss by defeating US player Taylor Townsend and her Czech partner Kateřina Siniaková 7-5, 6-3 on Saturday. They are now the first athletes from Canada and New Zealand to win the WTA Finals doubles title.

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