Episode 14 - NCAA Championship, WNBA Free Agency, and Why Connecticut Can't Have Nice Things

Denver Summit and the NWSL’s Favorite Things

Caitlin: So UCLA held them in the shooting category. They out-rebounded them by 10. Any basketball head is going to tell you that if you can win the battle of the boards, make your free throws, and win the turnover battle, you will win. Hi, I’m Caitlin.

Alex: Hi, I’m Alex. And this is Raising the Game, a women’s sports podcast covering primetime performers, the business behind the athletes and leagues, and what the growth of women’s sports means for the next generation of women’s athletes.

Alex: We’re back from a little bit of a vacation.

Caitlin: Yeah, it feels like it’s been a while since we talked. Hope everyone enjoyed last week’s episode. We have part two coming shortly, so we’ll get that out potentially next week.

Caitlin: Yeah, I think we’ll keep an eye on our socials and announce it when we put it out there. We’re kind of working on when we can fit that into our cadence. We’ve got it all planned out, we just need to find some extra time to record.

Alex: Yeah, but for tonight there’s so much going on. Back into headlines and normal new stuff.

Caitlin: We had tons to talk about. So before we dive into some of those headlines, should we do Favorite Thing?

Alex: Yeah, let’s do it.

Favorite Things: Denver Summit and UCLA

Caitlin: Okay. So mine came about a week and a half ago. We talked about this inaugural home opener for the Denver Summit. For those who are watching, you can see my Denver Summit hat on the pod today. They were on this mission to initially sell 50,000 tickets to their inaugural home opener. They ended up having 63,000 people at their first game — for an expansion team, a brand new team. And Alex can verify this: we were watching at home and I was in tears.

Alex: Yeah, you were crying.

Caitlin: Because it was so cool to see. Just the power of community that has grown behind these teams. It doesn’t even matter what the sport is. Women’s sports fans are kind of transferable across sports. I’m texting my brother, he lives in Denver, and he’s like, “Oh, my fiancée is actually at the game.” And I was like, well, I’m jealous of her. Just the energy there and being a part of something like that — it was so cool. What a validation, not just for the Denver Summit players, but for all the athletes.

Alex: Right. I was thinking back to when we did the NWSL history episode. I think that first NWSL game was like 5,200 people total, maybe 4,200.

Caitlin: Yeah.

Alex: So to go from that, in how many years? About 13.

Caitlin: To 63,000 is pretty phenomenal.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: It really is. And it’s a testament to — when we talked about that episode, you had the dark period of the Yates Report and everything that ushered in new leadership. Jessica Berman has certainly directed them into a growth season, for sure. We are actually hoping that potentially later in the season we get to go to a Denver Summit game.

Alex: It’ll be fun.

Caitlin: What was your Favorite Thing?

Alex: Mine’s not as emotional or anything epic like that. It’s UCLA winning the national championship, in the sense that — and I know they were in the top four or five the whole year, so I’d consider them a titan — but the actual titans, like UConn and South Carolina, were not winning it.

Caitlin: Kind of the outsider. Yes.

Alex: For the first time in a while it feels like, we had someone outside of those two win it. And pretty handily.

Caitlin: Yeah. We’re going to talk all about that.

Alex: As much as that lost you a lot of money in your bracket.

Caitlin: I’m okay with it. I won’t get into it right now. I was so close, though.

Headlines

Alex: All right. Should we go into headlines?

Caitlin: Let’s do it.

Alex: UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team wins first national title in the NCAA era with blowout win over South Carolina.

Caitlin: Like we said, we’re going to dive into this — the Final Four, all the things. I think the one quote I saw from Dawn Staley was, “We just didn’t have it tonight.”

Alex: And that was kind of it.

Caitlin: The other one I saw from her was that she can swallow losing to a team that’s a bunch of good people, coached by a really good person — somebody who’s trying to genuinely grow the game of women’s basketball.

Alex: Denver Summit smashes professional women’s soccer attendance record with 63,000 fans attending their inaugural home opener.

Caitlin: We could have cut our first two headlines — yeah, we could have. Another first for the Denver Summit: a couple days before that game, they announced they had secured $40 million in private bond funding, the first for any NWSL organization, to build a state-of-the-art training center. We had stories earlier in the year about other clubs doing similar things, but it’s interesting to see them finance it this way. It actually speaks to the strength of these clubs as assets in the bond market. What door does that open for other teams or other markets? Or just other forms of funding that probably weren’t possible even a couple years ago.

Alex: U.S. Women’s National Team announces April camp roster ahead of three international friendlies against AFC champion Japan.

Caitlin: Yeah, we’re going to talk about this too. Really excited. Soph’s back.

Alex: And Tierna Davidson on that back line, which is actually really important for them.

Caitlin: We’ll talk about it.

Alex: Last weekend at the Miami Open, Aryna Sabalenka defeated Coco Gauff in three sets to take the title as the WTA wraps the early-season hard court cycle and moves to clay.

Caitlin: That one — there was a question of whether Coco could get back on top before they moved into clay court season. She went as far as she had in a while.

Alex: And I learned today that Sabalenka also won Indian Wells, which is called the Sunshine Double. She’s the fifth woman to do it.

Caitlin: New piece of trivia for you.

Alex: At the figure skating world championships, Kaori Sakamoto won her fourth world title.

Caitlin: So we had this on our list of how to follow Olympic athletes after the Milano Cortina Olympics. Sakamoto had taken the silver medal at the Olympics. She did something only one other woman has ever done — Michelle Kwan did it — becoming a four-time world champion. What a beautiful swan song for somebody who’s been such a pillar of that sport for so long and skated at such a high level. She’s retired now. That was her last competition. And then the other thing I loved was getting to see Amber Glenn get a redemption skate on the routine that probably cost her a medal at the Olympics, and she nailed it.

Alex: Alyssa Liu signs endorsement deal with Nike.

Caitlin: Of course she does. She’s everywhere. I saw her on a box of Lucky Charms.

Alex: The WNBPA had an ace up their sleeve during the most recent CBA negotiations in the form of Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin.

Caitlin: I don’t know if I just missed this while everything was happening, or if they literally kept her close to the vest and it wasn’t public. It sounds like she had actually taken a call from Terri Carmichael Jackson a couple years ago. She did this for free. What she kept saying in the report I was reading was that the numbers just don’t add up. This is something we’ve been saying as we’ve talked about this on the pod for months — the numbers just don’t make sense. The analysis she had done: if the WNBA was proportionate to the NBA in terms of player pay relative to revenue, they should be getting a third. They were getting one-eightieth.

Alex: One-eightieth is the stat I saw.

Caitlin: One-eightieth. Just let that sink in for a second. She’s like, this makes zero sense. They clearly let her be privy to some numbers. Kudos to them for pulling in a Nobel Prize-winning economist.

Alex: The Connecticut Sun will become the Houston Comets in 2027. Hold your comments, we will talk about this later.

Caitlin: This ends a 23-year stint for a team in Connecticut — home of the UConn Huskies, both a very dominant men’s and women’s program. It’s a real shame to be taking the only women’s basketball team in the Northeast out of that space. We’re going to talk about it. I want to clock one here because I may have added it last-minute: WNBA free agency started today.

Alex: It did.

Caitlin: And with a big move.

Alex: Angel Reese.

Caitlin: To Atlanta. From the Chicago Sky to the Atlanta Dream. So far that’s all we’ve really heard in terms of concrete moves of big players. But we’re going to talk more about that timeline.

Alex: CBS Sports and the WNBA announced a long-term broadcast deal starting with 20 regular season games during the 2026 season.

Caitlin: Yeah, I couldn’t find more detail on this. They said long-term — and long-term is not one season. What was really fascinating to me about the announcement was that it came just a few days after they had reached agreement on the CBA. You’re claiming you’re not making any money, holding it over these players, saying they can’t get this revenue share, and yet you’re about to pull in millions more through another broadcast deal. These networks want these games, and advertisers want to be on those games. I get it. I just notice the timing.

Alex: Is this like a game-of-the-week type deal with 20 regular season games?

Caitlin: I don’t know. I think we’ve got more research to do on that.

Alex: The Big Ten and SEC volleyball announced plans to play two matches at Wrigley Field next season in early September.

Caitlin: That’s cool.

Alex: Yeah. Fun. Could be very cold though.

Caitlin: It would be cold.

Alex: Attendance records continue to be broken in the PWHL with almost 16,000 fans at the takeover tour game in Detroit last weekend, followed this past weekend with attendance records in both the U.S. — 18,000 sold at Madison Square Garden in New York — and Canada, with 17,775 in Ottawa.

Caitlin: That Detroit game was the first nationally televised game for the PWHL. And season-over-season average attendance is up 25 percent. They’re getting almost a thousand more fans per game across the league. Prior to the Olympics they were already seeing around 17 percent growth, and then they’ve had this consistent upward trend since.

Alex: I’d love to see the pre-Olympic numbers to understand how much of that was a pure Olympic bump versus a sustained trend.

Caitlin: From what I read, it was more than last year before the Olympics, but then they’ve had this consistent trend upward since. So it seems like the bump stuck.

Alex: In NCAA gymnastics, the national semifinal stage is set with UCLA, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Arkansas on one side of the bracket, and LSU, Stanford, Florida, and Georgia on the other.

Caitlin: Both of these meets are in a couple weeks. UCLA and Minnesota kind of snuck in. I think their final gymnast — Jordan Chiles — had to score a perfect 10 on her floor routine for them to make it, and she did. She hit her eighth 10 of the season, and then she ran over to the Gopher gymnastics team to celebrate with them. Big weekend for UCLA women’s sports. I love Jordan Chiles — everything about her sportsmanship, her performances, just embodies what it’s like to be awesome.

Alex: Absolutely. The NFL plans to launch men’s and women’s flag football leagues to harness worldwide popularity.

Caitlin: There are 20 million participants across youth, men’s, and women’s flag football variants around the world right now, in 100 countries. The NFL is looking at this as a way to grow the game globally. It doesn’t have the worldwide reach of soccer or even basketball. Some big-name investors and supporters are involved: Tom Brady, the Manning brothers, but also Serena Williams, Alex Morgan, and Billie Jean King. I love seeing consistently that list of athletes who say, here’s how I’m going to give back now that I’ve made money in my sport. Is there a masters division?

Alex: That’d be great.

Caitlin: I feel like I could do it. We’re looking into it.

NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Deep Dive

Alex: All right. Moving on. UCLA Bruins women’s basketball. Championship game, I think.

Caitlin: We’ll start with the championship game, and talk a little about the Final Four too, because there were some fascinating dynamics. Obviously there were fascinating interpersonal dynamics as well, which we will comment on.

Caitlin: Like we said in the headlines, UCLA just owned South Carolina. I was actually a little surprised they got blown out so badly. This is a team that’s won three championships in the last seven years, been in the Final Four for the last six seasons or something. But UCLA, typically known over the course of the season for their offense, came in and held South Carolina under 30% shooting. If you’re not a basketball head, that’s not good.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Early in the game, South Carolina could not get anything to fall. It didn’t matter if it was a layup, a wide-open mid-range jump shot, a three-pointer — nothing was going in. So UCLA held them in the shooting category. They out-rebounded them by 10. Any basketball head will tell you: win the battle of the boards, make your free throws, win the turnover battle, and you will win. They had 19 points off turnovers versus South Carolina’s 10. They won the rebounding battle. They won the three-point battle. UCLA was known for their offense coming in, but defense was the star of the show.

Alex: Something you said early on in that game was to get the ball to Tessa Johnson.

Caitlin: Yeah. Alex is referring to Tessa Johnson — a Minnesota girl, went to Albertville High School, and is now a junior with Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks. Outside of her, the starters shot 25%.

Alex: And Gianna Kneepkens from Duluth, Minnesota — started her college career at Utah, transferred to UCLA, was a senior this year. That girl had a fadeaway with a little kick-out that is one of the most difficult shots in basketball, and she was draining it all game.

Caitlin: So cool to see the state representing. At one point we saw a graphic that the state with the most players in the Sweet 16 was Minnesota. California and Florida were 11 and 13 or something like that.

Caitlin: I think sometimes fans or critics find it boring when teams dominate. I don’t find it boring because the test for dominant teams is: can you stay on top? You become the target. Everyone brings their best game to you. How do you adjust, how do you adapt? What was interesting about this year’s Final Four is this was the second time in a row with the same four teams: Texas, UCLA, UConn, and South Carolina again. And these four teams never left the top four all season — outside of UConn, which was number one the whole time, the other three just rotated through two through four.

Alex: How does a team get to that point? Is it like they have a great team one year and the flywheel starts? Or is it the coach? Or a couple key players? How does a team break into that top four and stay there?

Caitlin: If you look at that group, Geno Auriemma has been at UConn for over 40 years. Dawn Staley’s been at South Carolina for a long time. Vic Schaefer’s been at Texas for years. And Cori Close — this was her 15th season. I think in the college game there’s real value in the known factor of the coach. Players choose to be mentored by certain coaches. They think about how a coach might translate them into a professional career. Geno has turned out 25 WNBA players — Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, Rebecca Lobo, Dawn Staley. The NIL piece also starts to play in here: if your school is more marketable, you get more NIL money, and players now see that as a financial incentive.

Caitlin: I wanted to talk about something fun: the broadcast around the Final Four. They did an alt cast, similar to the Manning Cast for NFL games. They had Jess Sims — experienced women’s college basketball reporter — and Ilona Maher sitting together during the Final Four. And during the championship, they had Chelsea Gray, Courtney Williams, and Natisha Heidemann. Charlamagne Tha God made an appearance too. I thought it was cool — they were capitalizing on brand notoriety, bringing in people from other ecosystems. Ilona Maher has millions of followers from her Olympic burst.

Caitlin: But ESPN missed an opportunity. I don’t recall seeing any advertising that they were doing this. It would have taken one post on Ilona’s Instagram to bring millions more people to the broadcast.

Alex: And the other thing — going into the next time, it would be smart to have someone who is not a basketball fan at all come in and ask “what was that, how does that work?” If you’re bringing people from your social media following to a new sport, having the announcer explain it in real time is actually valuable.

Caitlin: Yes. So it was cool as an idea, and I think it was smart at first. It just missed on a few execution pieces. The whole point is we’re trying to bring more people into the fold.

Alex: Yeah. I wanted to talk about the UCLA-to-WNBA pipeline. Five players going first round. It’s wild — they finish last week, and next week they’re probably drafted. That’s kind of what UConn has been doing. I’m wondering: can Cori Close continue to get people in? Is it easier now with the transfer portal?

Caitlin: A couple of thoughts. What UCLA had this season was extremely unusual. You don’t hardly ever see five starting seniors, let alone five starting seniors all going first round in the WNBA draft. UConn always has a class structure — in Paige Bueckers’ last year, they had Caitlin Chen coming up, so there’s always a wave. Dawn Staley was bringing in younger players even in the championship game when it was a lost cause, getting them that experience. Cori Close has been growing that program year over year. It is going to be harder going forward because of how dominant that senior class was — and kudos to them for committing to each other and staying, when in this day and age seniors often just transfer to chase a championship. They all said, if we stay here, we might achieve something uncommon together.

Alex: The best quote from the trophy celebration: Gabriela Jaquez was asked what they decided to do differently, and she said, “We decided to win a national championship.”

Caitlin: There you go. Okay —

Alex: Oh, you’re going to bring one more in.

Caitlin: I would be remiss if we didn’t talk about what happened between Geno and Dawn.

Geno Auriemma and the Post-Game Incident

Caitlin: We had time to sit on this. We were watching that game at a sports bar with no audio, and we saw it happen and were like, that was weird. Then they had the broadcast team — Christine Williams, Dreha Carter, and Shania Gumbs — they’re fantastic, that’s one of our favorite parts of women’s college basketball coverage. We’re watching them, UConn has just lost, and I said, “Alex, look at Shania.” She was upset. Mad. Eyes were angry. And so we’re on Instagram and Threads trying to figure out what happened.

Alex: What is happening?

Caitlin: First of all, the fact that it wasn’t expected from Geno tells you something. Maybe it should have been. He doesn’t have a pristine track record for his behavior. Paige, over the last four years she was at UConn, really softened how he was perceived. But I remember growing up not having a lot of respect for how he coached. He came across as more transactional. Hard-ass. Not a style I think is the most effective, especially with young people. He’s successful — you can’t argue with that. But I also think we use that success as an excuse for behavior that is less than ideal. What we saw after the Final Four was inexcusable.

Alex: It was a tantrum thrown based on a premise that didn’t really make sense. He was mad he lost and decided to make it about something else so he could throw the tantrum.

Caitlin: And there’s been speculation about whether he was trying to deflect media attention away from his players who had just played one of the worst games of their careers. That’s not a reason to treat someone poorly. Dawn didn’t do it.

Alex: Dawn had a terrible game. Dawn didn’t do it.

Caitlin: Done, Staley reacted in the moment, which you can’t blame her for. But she’s handled herself with extreme professionalism and class since then. And frankly, as we’ve talked about here before: she has to. If she comported herself the way Geno did, she’d get a lot more nastiness than he has. It’s disappointing to see people dismiss his behavior while she’s being held to a completely different standard.

Caitlin: And then there’s the layer of what it meant for a player like AZ Fudd, who gave five years to UConn, just lost the biggest game of her life, and her coach walked off the court without being there to support her or her teammates. That to me — on top of how he went at Dawn — is really disappointing.

Alex: And whoever you are, whatever your background, when you’re in a position of power and the moment arrives where you need to leverage that leadership most, he failed.

Caitlin: Absolutely. Do better, Geno. Okay, that’s enough of that.

Alex: The one upside after all of it was that Cori Close was mentored by John Wooden. Very much the opposite of Geno, and extremely successful. Just seeing someone carrying that mentorship philosophy come out on top.

Caitlin: Agree. Okay. Now we’re moving on.

WNBA Expansion Draft, Free Agency, and the Draft

Alex: WNBA expansion draft.

Caitlin: Oh, it’s on. Free agency, everything. So we had the expansion draft over the weekend. My whole thought was: this could have been an email.

Alex: Underwhelming.

Caitlin: The broadcast was silly. It wasn’t pick back-and-forth. It was like, this team picked this person, this team picked this person, oh, and here’s the rest of the roster.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: It didn’t have a draft feel to it. The results: our two expansion teams are the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo. Portland had the first pick. They took Bridget Carleton from our Minnesota Lynx. We’re sad to see her go, but it could be a good career move — having a team built around her versus being the fifth option.

Alex: Everyone thought she was going to Toronto.

Caitlin: I think they did, but Portland with that first pick was like, we have to take her or they’ll take her. The Fire ended up with mostly youth, less experienced players. Toronto ended up with what looked like more vets, more experience — including Marina Mabrey from the Connecticut Sun, who I think had expressed interest in leaving. They both have a first-round pick in the WNBA draft. It’ll be interesting.

Alex: Quick question: the Golden State Valkyries went with more veteran picks in their expansion draft and went .500 their first year. Which do you think is better — a younger team or a more veteran-stacked team, given the compressed timeline?

Caitlin: I think experience. If you want results right away, take experience. If you’re playing the long game, build on youth. But you’ve got players who just found out they were drafted, who now have to move somewhere potentially far. I’d take experience in that situation.

Caitlin: Our free agency timeline: qualifying offers are due through Wednesday. Core designations can be made on players. Negotiations begin midweek. Contract signings start Saturday. Then the WNBA draft is April 13th, so teams need to have their rosters mostly sorted. Training camp starts April 19th. Regular season tips off May 8th.

Caitlin: The first-round draft order has Dallas Wings at number one — they were 10 and 34 last year, finished last. Minnesota is second, which comes from a series of picks traded over multiple seasons. Seattle follows, then Washington, Chicago at 10 and 34 as well, then Toronto and Portland with their expansion picks, then Golden State, then more picks for Washington and Indiana. Washington actually gets three first-round picks, as do Seattle and Connecticut.

Caitlin: Of the top 15 draft prospects, five are UCLA players. One third of this pool is coming out of that national championship team. We’ve got Paulina Petrovic, a 19-year-old center from Spain. AZ Fudd, guard from UConn. Olivia Miles, guard from TCU. Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice from UCLA. Raven Johnson from South Carolina. Nell Engelmann from France, 19 years old. Gianna Kneepkens from UCLA. Flau’jae Johnson from LSU. Gabriela Jaquez from UCLA. Ashlynn Shade from South Carolina. Aadam Martin from Spain. Charlize Ledger-Walker from UCLA. And Codi McMahon from Ole Miss.

Alex: Minnesota’s most likely pick at number two seems to be AZ Fudd — that’s what everyone’s projecting.

Caitlin: I would be surprised if they took her over Izi Fudd. The consensus seems to be Orfamea Petrovic goes first to Dallas. She’s a good fit. Lauren Betts’ draft stock went way up after the tournament. It’s possible they’d take a big if they’re looking for one.

Alex: If I had to rank it: AZ first, then Betts, then Miles. That’s my guess.

Caitlin: What’s interesting is we also lost María Conde in the expansion draft — she was essentially our center. So we lost our best three-point shooter and our only true big in the same week. The calculus on what gives you better matchups against other teams is genuinely complicated, and we don’t have all the variables yet because we’re still in free agency.

Alex: The interesting thing will be watching Dallas and Petrovic. My understanding is she’s a little inconsistent, and she hasn’t had a lot of high-volume stats against elite adult competition yet. It’s a high-reward, high-risk scenario.

Caitlin: They can’t really wait for someone to incubate. They need help now. One more thing: I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see Gabriela Jaquez go higher than expected. She had a great tournament and proved she can play. She’s got a motor on her.

Connecticut Sun to Houston: The Full Story

Alex: Let’s talk about the Connecticut Sun moving to the Houston Comets. I’m going to try to get as much of this right as I can.

Alex: The Mohegan Tribe put the franchise up for sale in 2024. I believe they wanted around $240-250 million originally. A Celtics minority owner offered $325 million to move them to Boston, with a reported $100 million practice facility attached. A former Milwaukee Bucks owner also offered $325 million to keep them in New England, likely Hartford. Then it comes out that the league facilitated a sale to the Tita family for $300 million — $25 million less — to move them to Houston. Fans were all over social media questioning the decision.

Caitlin: We smelled this right away. Especially in the context of the CBA negotiations. They’re claiming there’s no money, holding it over players, and yet they’re going to turn down a higher offer to go to a market they prefer.

Alex: What I think now is: I do believe private businesses should be able to do what they want to do. But when you’re being offered $25 million more and you say no, there should probably be some sort of antitrust oversight — similar to how company mergers require government approval. This seems like it warrants scrutiny.

Caitlin: And what I was reading is that Adam Silver inserted himself in the late stages last fall and basically said, we are moving this to Houston. We want to ensure NBA ownership is part of WNBA ownership. The current ownership structure is roughly 42% NBA, 42% WNBA owners, and 16% outside investors — and in some cases the same people hold stakes in both categories. So there’s something about that inbreeding of ownership they were trying to consolidate. The state of Connecticut even offered to take a stake with the Mohegan Tribe to keep it there, and that was obviously turned down.

Alex: And think about the fans in Boston and Hartford who thought they were getting a team. They had $325 million offers and a practice facility. That gets pulled out from under you. That sucks.

Caitlin: It does suck. That franchise has been around for 23 years. Gut-wrenching.

USWNT vs. Japan — What to Watch For

Alex: US Women’s National Team. Three games over the next week and a half.

Caitlin: This is big, honestly. Three friendlies against Japan, who just won the Asian Cup and has been in such good form. They beat the U.S. last year in Emma Hayes’ first loss as head coach. Their style of play is so disciplined, so technical. They’re patient. They hold their position and wait for you to make a mistake — like a Venus flytrap.

Alex: I don’t remember the exact stat — what was their goal differential in the Asian Cup?

Caitlin: 29 to 1. Yeah. Which is something, because Japan doesn’t usually score that prolifically — that’s not usually their MO. So these are going to be great tests. I think this roster is as close to what we’ll see for World Cup qualifying as it gets. You still have Katerina Macario just signed with San Diego coming off a heel injury, Mallory Swanson hopefully working her way back, some defensive questions at left back. But playing the same team three games in a row — I’m going to be locked in watching the different lineups, formations, and strategic approaches. Japan doesn’t usually vary their tactics, so it’s an interesting puzzle for Emma.

Alex: Emma has said she’s not motivated by necessarily winning these games, but by figuring out where the different pieces go. For the casual fan — the stat I saw was 37.4 average caps on this roster versus 6.6 average in January. She’s not experimenting anymore, but she’s calibrating.

Caitlin: Yes. She’s building on the SheBelieves stuff. Some of the things she talked about there — you played some really physical teams in Argentina and Colombia — and here she’s going to see: can we outpatient the patient people? Can we generate scoring opportunities against a low block? Defensively, I’m not super worried. The left back position continues to be a question. And I still think this team is best when we have a true six, a true defensive center midfielder.

Alex: Sophia Wilson is back. She hasn’t played for the USWNT in 17 months. She’ll be the 18th mother to play for the U.S. national team, and if she scores, the ninth to score a goal.

Caitlin: She’s starting now for the Portland Thorns and almost looking better, like hungrier. She’s talked in interviews about how motherhood has given her a freedom she didn’t have before — like Alex Morgan had when she came back — where soccer isn’t her whole identity anymore. Her primary identity is mom, and somehow that lifts a weight from a performance perspective.

Alex: My question for you — and maybe it’s for male listeners: speak to how impressive it is for her to come back after having a child in September of last year. Some people who haven’t had kids probably think seven or eight months isn’t that big a deal.

Caitlin: Think about it like this. An ACL tear — the recovery is eight to ten months now, used to be over a year. And when that happens, you have a very specific, defined therapeutic protocol. You can still train most of your body during recovery. Pregnancy changes everything in your body. You’ve just spent nine months rearranging your insides. Hormones are still not at baseline six months postpartum. Depending on breastfeeding, there’s a whole other set of considerations. And we talk a lot about the knee in sports, but we don’t pay nearly enough attention to the importance of the core — the abdominals, pelvis, hips. Pelvic floor training is crucial for athletes and barely discussed publicly. She has better access to support staff and therapeutic protocols than athletes did in the past, which helps, but it is still genuinely impressive. Round of applause to all the moms who come back and compete at any level.

NWSL Standings Check-In

Alex: Okay, let’s move on to NWSL. Let’s take a look at the standings.

Caitlin: Coming on the heels of discussing the national team, we’re headed into an international break — two weeks, starting Sunday. We’re curious how this impacts the current momentum in the NWSL. Right now, leading the league as we hit the break is the San Diego Wave at 12 points, four and one. If you’d asked me even two weeks ago I would have said no way, but then you look at the pieces they’ve put together — Mel Barcenas had the goal of the week two weeks ago, just a beautiful finish — and Katerina Macario is still coming back. San Diego at the top. Portland follows on ten points, three one and one — they won a game with nine players somehow, though they just lost to North Carolina Courage over the weekend. Olivia Moultrie is having a fantastic start to the season. Seattle Reign also on ten points, three one and one. LA Angel City FC came out hot, won their first three games, have the highest scoring differential. Then Houston Dash rounding out the top five.

Alex: Gotham — what is happening way down there?

Caitlin: Gotham, Kansas City, and Washington are all struggling outside of the top tier. Denver is hanging in around ninth. Boston doesn’t quite know who they are yet. Chicago — every time we tune in we’re like, “You guys…” Their goalkeeper looks perpetually exasperated.

Caitlin: We’ll be very curious once they resume post-break in early May to see if the momentum holds.

Alex: And then they get a whole other month off for the World Cup break.

Caitlin: In that window they might be doing the Champions Cup. Whatever that’s called.

Alex: The bubble cup?

Caitlin: I think they call it something different now. Anyway, this is going to be an interesting season.

What to Watch This Weekend

Alex: Let’s talk about what to watch. We’ve already talked about the national team games: game one on April 11th at 4:30 central, game two on April 14th at 6 p.m. central. Both on TNT, Max, and Peacock. Japan outscored opponents 29 to 1 at the Asian Cup. These are going to be fun games.

Caitlin: It’ll be interesting to see if they test our defense at that level of scoring. Japan doesn’t usually, but — I will be very curious.

Alex: We’ve got a league we didn’t talk about today: PWHL. Boston Fleet versus the Montreal Victoire, Saturday at six central on ION or YouTube. This is the TD Garden debut for the Fleet.

Caitlin: TD Garden! There’s playoff seeding on the line. Home ice advantage.

Alex: Minnesota Frost versus New York Sirens, Saturday at noon on FanDuel Sports North and PWHL YouTube. Minnesota clinched earlier this week. Kelly Pannek is one point from tying the single-season scoring record.

Caitlin: Kelly Pannek is a machine. She scored three goals in that 11-goal game. The Frost have so many scoring weapons it’s kind of scary.

Alex: The New York Sirens are in third place for that fourth playoff spot. They have to beat Minnesota and also hope Ottawa and Toronto both lose. They have no control over their situation.

Caitlin: Oh, good grief.

Alex: Toronto basically controls their own destiny right now. WNBA draft is Monday the 13th, 6 p.m. central on ESPN. I don’t think we need to say any more about why you should watch that. And we’ve got the Women’s National Football Conference week three matchup at 6 p.m. central on Victory Plus on Saturday.

Caitlin: Yeah, early days, so the standings are kind of arbitrary at this point.

Alex: Check it out. It’s fun to watch.

Caitlin: It’s interesting. I’ll be honest — you don’t realize they’re women until you look at some of the mannerisms, because of the pads and everything. But if they want to keep viewership growing, they could use some production investment.

Alex: Yes. I think that’s what that funding is going toward. LOVB Playoffs are also here. Austin plays Atlanta at 3 p.m. and Salt Lake plays Houston at 5:30 on Friday on Victory Plus. Then ESPN2 on Saturday: Austin plays Atlanta again at 5 p.m. And a nationally broadcast volleyball game Sunday: Salt Lake plays Houston at 1 p.m.

Caitlin: There’s a championship match scheduled for next Thursday from what I could see. They’ve had some good viewership numbers over the season, so wanted to bring attention back to it.

Alex: Holly Rowe said, after however many years she’s been covering women’s sports, she thinks volleyball is the next big thing.

Caitlin: You heard it from the sports siren herself.

Winners and Losers

Alex: All right. Let’s get into winners and losers. Losers first.

Caitlin: Geno Auriemma, for the loss this past week. Self-explanatory.

Alex: I do have a different one.

Caitlin: Nope, I said what I needed to say. Also —

Alex: White men — we don’t claim him, not all of us. I was going to say: the state of Connecticut.

Caitlin: Oh yeah. That’s a rough week.

Alex: Lost their WNBA franchise. UConn lost in the Final Four. Geno — let’s just say he didn’t help Connecticut’s image either.

Caitlin: Yeah, that was a bad couple of weeks for that state.

Alex: Winner.

Caitlin: UCLA. Learning more about the story of those seniors, Cori Close’s journey, and the mentors she’s benefited from — she was mentored by John Wooden before his passing, mentored by Dawn Staley among others. I actually reposted this today: she gave a little speech and talked about keeping a broom and a shovel in her office. The broom is a reminder to be a servant leader, to do the dirty work regardless of your rank. The shovel is a reminder that the most important work when you’re growing something is underground — it’s the roots, not the pretty stuff you see at the top. She’s really embodied this approach: I want to coach in a way that is empathetic and caring, where my players feel that I care about them and that I’m not transactional, but truly transformational.

Alex: And I’d add — Gabriela Jaquez, whose brother Jaime played in the NBA Final Four with the men’s team and flew in for the championship. They got to win a national championship together, which is pretty special. And a lot of these players are just going to get drafted by the WNBA in a week.

Caitlin: So cool. Shout out to the Bruins. You’re not who I picked, but I’m glad you won.

Alex: All right. That’s it for now.

Caitlin: That’s all for this week. We will have plenty to talk about next week. Where can they find us?

Alex: RTG underscore pod on Instagram, Threads, and YouTube. Substack RTGpod.com. That’s all of them for now.

Caitlin: For now.

Alex: Until next time.

Caitlin: Yes, until next time. Bye.

Alex: Bye.