Episode 33 - Cameroon Makes History and Kayla McBride Makes Records

Cold Open and Welcome Back

Caitlin: She had scored in the 97th minute or something on a free kick. You couldn’t have scripted it better, and we missed it. We missed it. Hi, I’m Caitlin.

Alex: Hi, I’m Alex.

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

Alex: We are back from our vacation.

Caitlin: It feels like it’s been a million years since we recorded.

Alex: It feels like I don’t know how to do this anymore. We’ll see how it goes.

Caitlin: Feeling a little shaky pulling this one together. I think it’s going to be great, though, because we missed a lot.

Alex: Yeah, there’s a lot to cover.

Caitlin: A lot to catch up on. We got to see our first live NWSL game. That was a whole thing, which we’ll share. Very fun. But for reasons outside of our control, we maybe missed the best part. We did. So that’s that. We want to do a quick reminder before we get into favorite things.

Alex: Click all of the buttons: the subscribe, the likes, the hearts, whatever they are. Just click all the buttons on all of the listening platforms that you use.

Caitlin: Yes. It is helpful for us. The yawns are starting early tonight, folks.

Alex: We’re going to make a yawn button.

Caitlin: Maybe we can do that. We’ll live stream sometime and everybody can win a prize every time Caitlin yawns. All right, do you want to give us your favorite thing?

Favorite Things: Denver Summit and the Minnesota Lynx

Alex: It was going out to Denver with the girls. Going to the Summit game was a lot of fun. I didn’t realize, when we had talked about it in the past, that when they said temporary stadium, it meant temporary stadium. It’s bleachers.

Caitlin: It’s like an oversized high school stadium from a seating perspective.

Alex: Still lots of fun.

Caitlin: Lots of fun. We’ve already committed to going back once their new stadium is up, which, again, will be the second stadium purpose built for a women’s team, behind CPKC Stadium in Kansas City. But yes, it was quite temporary. You can get a lot of noise going on those bleachers.

Alex: We said something about it and someone was like, when they get rocking, you’re kind of like, okay.

Caitlin: Our youngest didn’t like it very much for a little while, and then she got into it. They had a bunch of noisemakers that they gave out to the kids, and she would get mad unless she was the one doing the noisemakers.

Alex: Do you want to talk about the least favorite part of that game? Missing it?

Caitlin: Not yet.

Alex: Okay, we’re going to wait for it.

Caitlin: I’ll do a quick favorite thing in addition to that. Unabashed Lynx fan. The Lynx had some huge wins over the last two over the Aces. They are 14 wins in their last 15 games. Love to see it. And that is my bias, which is fine. All right, should we get into headlines?

Headlines: Playoff Clinches, Taurasi’s Jersey, and a Coaching Change

Alex: Let’s do headlines. The Las Vegas Aces clinch a playoff spot, joining the Minnesota Lynx as the only two teams so far to lock up a postseason spot.

Caitlin: I think more teams will clinch this week. In fact, the Valkyries play tonight against the Wings. If the Valks win, they clinch. A lot of the other teams still need a few wins here and there, but the Seattle Storm and the Connecticut Sun have officially been eliminated from the playoffs. It seems like every week we’re just shaping, and we’re going to talk a little bit more about the playoff picture in our W segment.

Alex: Diana Taurasi, three-time WNBA champion, six-time Olympic gold medalist, 11-time WNBA All-Star, has her jersey retired by the Phoenix Mercury, where she played all 20 seasons of her career.

Caitlin: I could have made this bullet so long with all of the different accolades we could attribute to DT, but kudos to her. She’s somebody I grew up watching. Certainly a trailblazing player for her style, for her, what would we call it, some may call it charisma. I oftentimes didn’t love the way she showed up on the court, but she was great.

Alex: Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White slams online divisiveness trying to hijack the WNBA, walks out of a pregame presser without taking questions.

Caitlin: We’re not going to get into this too much because it’s kind of old news at this point, but there was a situation in a game against the Chicago Sky where one of her players, Sophie Cunningham, was fouled very hard by DiJonai Carrington. It was a flagrant foul. They properly assessed it, a flagrant two. Carrington got kicked out of the game. It was excessive for sure. White in this press conference seemed to be responding to backlash she got from online fans who didn’t think she stood up for Cunningham enough when she initially responded to the situation, which was to say that it was a hard foul, she should have gotten penalized for it, but she plays hard.

Alex: Completely reasonable take.

Caitlin: Yes. And then she got booed when she went out on the court in Indiana, which is crazy. We’re going to talk about this in a little bit too, about all of the storylines that we’re hearing. We want to pull that all together in a quick summary and talk about how we move forward.

Alex: Gotham FC continues to dominate top spot in NWSL standings while the playoff push heats up for the last two to four teams in.

Caitlin: We’re going to talk about this in just a second.

Alex: U.S. women’s national team and Portland Thorns midfielder Olivia Moultrie is put on season-ending injury status with a torn ACL suffered in training last week.

Caitlin: I was heartbroken to hear about this. This is the 18th knee injury in the NWSL so far this season. The majority of those have been ACL tears. They’re not all ACL tears, but the majority for sure. This brought to mind for me lots to think about for Emma Hayes. You’ve now got Moultrie, who’s unlikely to be available for the World Cup. You have Sonnett, who went out a few weeks ago with a knee injury, not an ACL. Patellar tendon is what was being reported. Heaps has been out for a number of games for the Summit. And they’ve got these friendlies against Spain coming up. We’ve got qualifying in November. There are some pieces being moved around the board that seemed to be locked up, and now it opens the field for some other players.

Alex: I wonder how much of it is, we know these players may or may not be back. They may be back, and then some are, yeah, we need to have next person up here.

Caitlin: And figure that out by the next friendlies. I think you’re at the point where it’s got to be next person up. And good news for Hayes, she’s got a wealth of next women up.

Alex: Chamique Holdsclaw, Elena…

Caitlin: Delle Donne.

Alex: Delle Donne. I always get that wrong. And Candace Parker, along with the entire 1996 U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team, are inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Caitlin: Cool to see. That 1996 U.S. women’s Olympic team really are considered the founders of the WNBA. They put it on the map, and then they started the league the year after they won that gold.

Alex: Last-place Chicago Stars fire head coach Martin Sjögren, name assistant Karina Báez interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

Caitlin: Chicago Stars.

Alex: What a mess.

Caitlin: They still have only scored nine goals the entire season, which is wild. Reportedly Lorne Donaldson, who head coached the team for a couple of years just recently, is going to be rejoining the club as a director of coaching. And then they also added Minnesota Aurora alum, the first head coach for the Aurora, Nicole Lukic, to the staff as an assistant coach full time. Cool to see.

Alex: Iga Swiatek captured her first WTA title of 2026, defeating Elena Rybakina at the Canadian Open in Toronto.

Caitlin: I looked into this a little bit, and this marks Swiatek’s 12th WTA 1000 crown. We’ve never really gotten into this, but there are different levels of tournament that you can win. It gives her one more than Aryna Sabalenka, and only Serena is now ahead of her with 13. So she’s right there.

Alex: Okay, hope I get this one right too. Jeeno Thitikul, world number two, wins the Portland Classic for her third title this year.

Caitlin: Yep.

Alex: Mark Walter, CEO and founder of the Walter Group, which owns and funds the PWHL, sells the LA Lakers less than a year after buying them amid an SEC investigation. I just saw another headline tonight that he’s unraveling a bunch of stuff to try and keep it all afloat. Not the PWHL, just himself in general.

Caitlin: We have purposely not talked about this yet. So for our PWHL fans, we’re kind of waiting for more information to come out, because who knows if it’s going to impact the league. His group is the sole owner and funder of it.

Alex: The thought I had is that maybe this is going to give what the fans want and break it up into individual team ownership.

Caitlin: It could be. One other one I’ve got to add, and this will be a nice segue into our soccer segment: in WAFCON, the African Cup of Nations, Cameroon tops debutante Malawi 3-0 in the final to win for the first time. First time ever, because Nigeria has won it every other time. For every single time. So that was super exciting. We’re going to talk a little bit about how that went down, because there were some incredible results, incredible performances. And as we’ve discussed about WAFCON in particular, it was very difficult to find information about them. So we’ve been trying to share a lot on our socials, and we’ll talk about it a little bit more here.

Alex: Right now. Let’s dig into it.

WAFCON: Cameroon’s First Title and Michaely Bihina’s Tournament

Caitlin: So Cameroon won, the Indomitable Lionesses, is what they’re called. They beat Malawi, debutantes, had never been in the tournament before, three nil. This was the first time all tournament that a Chawinga sister did not score a goal.

Alex: And they had nine goals the whole time.

Caitlin: Yes. None in this last game. So tell us all your secrets, Cameroon, on how you defend. Now I have to admit, we were not able to watch the full game. I watched some clips, but it was hard to watch the full broadcast. We have to give a shout out to a goalkeeper. I may butcher this, so I’m going to do my best, but Michaely Bihina is the 22-year-old goalkeeper for Cameroon. She was goalkeeper of the tournament. She was fantastic. I believe it’s possible that she may be a big part of the reason the Chawinga sisters did not score. In order to get to the final, they had to go through Nigeria in the quarterfinals, then they played Morocco in the semifinals, and then they played Malawi. She had nine saves against Nigeria, which for those of you who maybe don’t follow soccer is three times more than an average game. A save in soccer is only when the ball goes on the frame of the goal and the goalkeeper makes a stop. They don’t count things like going out and getting a cross, and not every touch is a save. Then against Morocco, she saved four penalty shots, one in regulation and then three in a shootout, three of five.

Alex: That’s crazy.

Caitlin: That is insane. That is a lot. You are usually lucky to save one in a game.

Alex: I feel like we have to start something new here and be like, claps for this one.

Caitlin: Like we have to do your little snaps. Incredible. Go watch the highlights of that, because the saves are not easy saves either. They are full-stretch dives. She’s incredibly athletic. And through this, she also won player of the match two times in this stretch. So snaps, as Alex said, to Michaely Bihina. Really fun to watch. I obviously love watching great goalkeeping. And I think having a phenomenal goalkeeper, we saw this with, I think it was Cabo Verde on the men’s side, they had this incredible goalkeeper, can really keep you in games that maybe you are not supposed to be in. And I’m very biased in saying that, but they could be problematic come World Cup. You get out of that group play and then somebody can see…

Alex: I’m kind of interested, since we didn’t get to watch it, in what the defensive setup was. I’m not any great soccer mind, but the big thing about a great goalkeeper is they can really help direct the defense where it needs to go. So if she was putting a lot of play into that, even more impressive.

Caitlin: Great communication, organizing her back line, all of those kinds of things.

WAFCON Results and 2027 World Cup Qualification

Caitlin: For the rest of the WAFCON results and an overview of the implications for the World Cup for these teams from Africa: Algeria did beat Morocco in the third place game on penalties. Morocco did a lot of penalty shootouts in a three-day time span. Then South Africa and Ghana are the two other teams to qualify. Just to recap, Cameroon, Malawi, Algeria and Morocco have all now qualified for the 2027 World Cup. And then South Africa is the one who eliminated the Super Falcons, the Nigerian team. And they will not be at the World Cup for the first time.

Alex: Nine out of nine, nine of the previous nine World Cups they have been in.

Caitlin: So first time. For the teams that did qualify, I wanted to do a little bit of a comparison. Algeria and Malawi are both making their first appearance in a World Cup, which is awesome. Morocco is making their second, and they were actually a bit of a surprise team on the scene last World Cup. I think they made it out of group play, which was a little surprising to most soccer heads. And then Cameroon, this will be their third. So it’s cool to see some other nations getting an opportunity to represent Africa. So heartbroken for the Super Falcons, because they’re so consistently good. But to me, I look at this and go, that parity level just continues to rise. You can’t guarantee that somebody’s going to dominate just because they always have. And we’ve seen this with the U.S. women’s national team.

Alex: The stat that I pulled was there’s 48 next year in the World Cup. Do you know what Malawi’s worldwide rank is right now?

Caitlin: Below that.

Alex: 153, and they are going.

Caitlin: I think their stock just rose a lot. The Chawinga sisters and the rest of that team definitely have the world on notice. Speaking of, Temwa won the golden boot for WAFCON. I think she had five goals and two assists in five or six games. So while she paused her golden boot pursuit for the NWSL, it’s not like she wasn’t productive while she was gone. Same with Barbra Banda. She had that four-goal game. So it will be exciting to get all of these players who do play in the NWSL back to their teams for this final push to the playoffs.

NWSL Standings and the Playoff Push

Caitlin: I’ve got a couple of comments on the standings, and then I’d love to get your thoughts, and then maybe we can round it out by talking a little bit about the Denver Summit game. From my perspective, we still have roughly the same top five or six teams, but Gotham is clearly starting to pull away. They are on 43 points. The next closest is Washington with 37. And then you kind of get tight. Utah’s at 36, you’ve got Portland now at 34, so they leapfrogged over San Diego in this last week. San Diego at 33, North Carolina at 30, Kansas City at 30, and then Seattle rounds out those top eight with 27. So you can see the spread from top to bottom is getting a lot wider than it was a couple of weeks ago.

Alex: The interesting thing that I want to call out right away on the standings is that nine through twelve, which is LA, Denver, Houston, Orlando, are still in it if they can pull a string together in these last 10 games. They’re still right there.

Caitlin: And I wrote down Denver in particular. They got a huge win against Utah in the game that we were at. Then they went and got a tie in the midweek. I’m blanking on who that was against, but they were able to get a point out of the game.

Alex: They’re trending in the right direction at the right time.

Caitlin: And their challenge has been the early part of the season. They were losing games that they should have been winning or tying, and so they’re losing out on points. But now, if they could flip the switch and start to win those… We also have talked about how Denver does have more home games remaining, so they’ve got that advantage of home crowd, altitude, that kind of thing. The other one I called out was Racing is somehow on the ascendancy. They’re not going to make the playoffs, but they went from bottom of the table, if not second to the bottom, and now they’re in 13th after a couple of wins. They’ve kind of started to find their scoring juju, which is good to see. You never want to see a team do what Chicago is doing. That’s got to be miserable.

Alex: Didn’t they tie or win against San Diego or something like that this past week?

Caitlin: Yes. And then I was laughing too, because LA, Angel City and Seattle just keep dancing back and forth in that eight spot. And I think they have some games against each other. Those are going to be huge for them. Any other thoughts on how the playoff standings are shaping up?

Alex: You did have the “what will Chicago’s coaching change mean for them” on here. I think the only way it means anything for them, it means nothing in the near term, but if they do find some sort of chemistry with this coach, maybe get a couple of wins, and the organization feels like this is the right direction to continue that way, then you start next year in a lot better spot than you would have ended up right now.

Caitlin: That’s a great point. I’ve seen some commentary online saying, does Mal Swanson need to get out of Chicago? As an example. I think there’s a few players that may be thinking that. But I was like, her husband plays for the Cubs. Unless he gets traded, they have a family, I don’t see her necessarily leaving. I get you’re not winning, and I get maybe you’re not getting the opportunities, and maybe that is a factor she has to consider, but it seems unlikely to me. And so to me, I was thinking of what you just said. If we can give a proof point to some of these star players that we’re committed to a change here. They’ve now gotten rid of their GM, we mentioned that a few weeks ago, and the head coach. So tides could turn.

Our First Live NWSL Game: Denver Summit vs. Utah Royals

Caitlin: All right, I want to talk about the Summit game, because I think it was fun. Do you want to explain what happened?

Alex: Trying to remember the exact… so they were up…

Caitlin: I was thinking more about the situation.

Alex: Oh, yeah. We flew in on Friday, right? And we get into Denver and we cannot even see the mountains. The air quality is just terrible. It’s 98 degrees, air quality is bad. We get to our accommodations and we look at our phones. The game has been moved from 2 p.m. on Saturday to 8 p.m. And we have small children, a seven- and a four-year-old basically, and we’re planning to go up into the mountains as well that evening.

Caitlin: The fires from the Pacific Northwest area, the smoke was blowing in. Maybe it was 98 degrees, it felt hotter than that. And so, again, player safety, we advocate for this, they moved the game. And honestly, if we were just going to show up and buy tickets, we would have been like, whatever, that’s just not going to work.

Alex: But we already had them.

Caitlin: But we already had them. And it was our gift to our hosts a little bit, because they just got married. And so we’re like, all right, we’re going to make it work.

Alex: Let’s do it.

Caitlin: So our kids were troopers. 8 p.m. kickoff, got there, got to see the setup as you described. And then, did you see the first goal?

Alex: I think I was getting…

Caitlin: Okay, we were all out.

Alex: We were all getting gear. Like this hat, a couple of scarves.

Caitlin: I think it happened shortly before halftime. So we were kind of like, let’s go to the bathroom before all the people come out, especially with the two kids. And it’s temporary, so the bathrooms are temporary. They’re better than individual porta potties, but. And so we missed the first goal for Denver. So they went into halftime up one. And then we’re watching, and it’s a good back and forth.

Alex: We’re like in the 80th minute, and we’re kind of just like, I think it was about the 80th minute, we’re just like, let’s…

Caitlin: I think we’ve got to start to go. I mean, at this point, what is it, like 10?

Alex: And we’ve got an hour, hour and a half drive.

Caitlin: Yes, we’ve got to get up into Keystone. And so we leave.

Alex: We are like probably 500 meters from the stadium max, and it just erupts.

Caitlin: Really, really loud.

Alex: And we look on our phones and Utah has scored in the 89th minute. I think it was the 90th minute, technically.

Caitlin: It said 89th minute on the thing, but right at the end. So now you know you have stoppage time. And we’re just continuing to walk to the car. It’s a temporary stadium, we probably had a quarter to a third of a mile of a walk to get back to our car with our kids. And we’re walking along, and now we know the difference between the loudness of the cheers. We hear a super loud cheer. Fireworks are going off. We’re like, I think Denver just scored. So he checked the phone, and sure enough, hometown hero Janine Sonis, who I found out my new sister-in-law went to high school with, who captains the Denver Summit with Heaps out, she plays for the Canadian national team, she had scored in the 97th minute or something on a free kick. You couldn’t have scripted it better, and we missed it.

Alex: That’ll teach us for having kids.

Caitlin: Well, all the things.

Alex: We might’ve left anyways. It was going to be a late, late night.

Caitlin: And it would’ve been miserable had it been at two as well. We may not have stayed to the end either. Honestly, it was a beautiful evening. You got to see the sunset over the Rockies in the distance. The girls enjoyed it. Our youngest is like, Denver Summit. Super fun. I would highly recommend, if you’re in an area where there is an NWSL team, you should go to a game. Similar experiences when we’ve gone to WNBA or PWHL games. It’s just such a welcoming environment. Sometimes if you go to some of the men’s sports games, it just has a different vibe to it. So very much enjoyed it. All right, let’s move on to the W.

The WNBA Discourse Problem

Caitlin: Before we get into talking about some stellar performances that happened since we talked to you all last, I wanted to talk about kind of the overall discourse and what I would consider a need for change. If you follow these leagues, you definitely know about all of the things I’m about to say. If you don’t, it’s still likely that you’ve seen something come across your newsfeed in the last couple of months that may make you think, what’s going on in the WNBA? So a couple of those things, just to give a flavor. We talked about Stephanie White’s press conference. We talked about the impetus for that. Well, that came on the heels of the foul on Sophie Cunningham by DiJonai Carrington, which came on the heels of this whole controversy around Sophie Cunningham making anti-trans remarks. And so then that was a whole thing, because now people are thinking that DiJonai is doing it intentionally. We cannot assume people’s intent. That’s not fair. Unrelated to that, there was a reporter in Dallas who has covered the Dallas Wings for a while, who reported something that was perceived as negative towards Azzi Fudd, and a fan proceeded to threaten him and his family online. That is extreme.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: We have heard about the other hateful online messaging that is directed at players, DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas after the incident with the Fever, Chelsea Gray, Courtney Williams.

Alex: People who are betting.

Caitlin: People who are betting and mad that they’re not making their parlays or whatever. And then we’ve seen incidences of, and this has been existing for quite some time now, unfortunately, hateful rhetoric in the arena. Just a couple of games ago, the Aces were playing in Gainbridge, Indiana, and two fans had to be escorted out. Well, the Fever admin group said that they weren’t escorted out, but they allegedly made some comments towards Aces players, and the Aces players asked for that to be handled, and then those guys left. So lots going on unrelated to the fantastic basketball that is being played. And frankly, we try as much as we can to stay focused on that, because we are in this historic 30th season. We are seeing record after record after record broken. Every night it seems somebody is breaking some record, whether it’s Caitlin Clark or Olivia Miles or Paige Bueckers or A’ja Wilson or whoever it is, Angel Reese. It’s awesome.

So when I sit back and reflect on this, and I don’t think this is rocket science by any means, but you kind of wonder, why is this happening? So I came up with three reasons. I’m curious if you’d add any others. One is this digital age. We can go at each other online so much easier than…

Alex: We’ve learned that.

Caitlin: We have. And I think removing the face-to-face or the human element of it, people are willing to say a lot of things that frankly are very…

Alex: They probably wouldn’t even say in person, really.

Caitlin: No, they definitely wouldn’t. And you’ve even challenged, like, I don’t even know if they’d say it if they had to be verified to their account. And a lot of them are bots. We know that. And I’m sure other folks have learned that. But it’s still icky.

Reason number two is this league is now way into the public eye. We had the record-breaking broadcast deal, games are all over the place. They are getting a lot of media attention. And frankly, the media has a responsibility, in my view, to make sure we are talking about the play and less about some of these issues. But we’ll come back to that in a second.

And then the third one, we’ve talked about this before, but new fans. We have so many more people watching, so many more people engaging, and that is fantastic. But there is a direct correlation between the vitriol and the hate that is coming online and this new group of fans who frankly joined when Caitlin Clark joined the WNBA. Now, I want to be really clear. I am not saying that is Caitlin Clark’s fault, nor is it her problem to solve. But there is a direct correlation between that influx of fans and the prevalence, I should say, of remarks that are not appropriate.

Alex: And I think the thing about the new fans, too, is it’s more that it’s people who have not been engaged in a sports fandom ever in their lives.

Caitlin: Or have, but have not been engaged in a women’s sports fandom.

Alex: Yep. And we’ve talked about in the past the infantilizing of women, bringing almost like a pop culture style lens to the game instead of focusing on the actual gameplay, being unable to criticize anyone’s play because it feels like an attack. It is very interesting that this is a phenomenon that’s happening right now with that style of fan.

Caitlin: And I want to hinge on something you just said about being critical of athletes. That has literally existed since the dawn of sports. So part of this is, yes, there’s an infantilization of women. There’s also a side of, in order to be quote unquote taken more seriously or quote unquote legitimized, there’s still a lot of “no one watches women’s sports” people, you need to be able to have criticism of your play, of your play to be clear, leveled at you. And that’s fine. That’s part of being an athlete.

Alex: Look at some of the other sports, men’s sports. If you walk into a group of dudes and say, I think Justin Jefferson isn’t the best in the league, someone else will be like, no, I think he is, and here’s why. And you actually have somewhat of a civil stat-to-stat conversation. You say that now on Threads about an Azzi Fudd or Caitlin Clark, and it immediately turns into name-calling. Talk about the stats, talk about the basketball. You can criticize. That’s your view, as long as it’s about the basketball.

Caitlin: And it goes both ways too. It’s like, okay, this person clearly thinks they have their perspective. We’re actually allowed to have different views on the same player. I have a very different view about certain players than other people do. And that’s okay.

What the League Could Actually Do

Caitlin: So I came up with a few things that I think could be solutions, and I actually think you probably need a little bit of all of this. We’ve talked before: new leadership for the WNBA. Cathy, I think, is a good operator, kind of.

Alex: Revenue generation.

Caitlin: Yes. I don’t think she’s the right person for this moment, and I don’t think she’s the right person for the explosive growth, this digital age, the new fan.

Alex: I think her contract’s up in December, though, too, isn’t it?

Caitlin: Yeah. I mean, there’s a ton of speculation.

Alex: I read an article, and I can’t remember who the author was or where her source was, but basically saying it’s an open secret that come December, she’s gone.

Caitlin: I don’t think that would be surprising to anyone, even Cathy.

Second thing, I think that the league needs a strategy for addressing these sorts of storylines, this sort of hate speech online, things like that. I love, we’ve talked about it before, I love the NWSL’s approach that does require some sort of infrastructure to report and then investigate and then actually figure out who that person is, verify it, and then penalize them.

And then extracurricular stuff going on by the media. I just don’t think that’s appropriate. I get there’s probably people who think otherwise. But if we want it focused on the play, it’s going to go down the wrong place if we are asking these players to voice their opinions in a question from the media. If a player chooses to do that on their own, that’s on them. That’s their choice. But we don’t need to ask about it in postgame press conferences.

Alex: Something interesting going back to the NWSL digital code of conduct. I’m very interested in how the WNBA might enact something like that, because when we go back to the thing that happened with the fans, it happened a couple times in the past week or so, there is a policy for that, and I think the gap they currently have is there’s a policy, but you’re not enforcing it. It feels like to me that each arena gets to make the choice on, does this person get removed or not? Because that’s what it’s felt like. In both, they’ve come back and said, nope, they can come back if they want. These people did leave, these people did come back, whatever it is. So it’s like, you might have that policy. How are you going to enforce it?

Caitlin: That’s very fair. And then the third thing under this bullet point is, I don’t think that active players should have podcasts where they discuss…

Alex: Non-basketball.

Caitlin: No, they can discuss non-basketball. I don’t think you should be able to discuss what’s happening in your sport at the time.

Alex: That makes sense.

Caitlin: So whether that’s non-basketball related stuff, as we’ve seen, but it’s more about talking about other players and things like that. I just think during the season, I just find that to not be appropriate. Out of season, you do you. But it feels like it fuels some of this. And I don’t want to put this all on the players, but these are just strategies for addressing where we see some of this pop up. Podcasts get clipped down and then the internet comments. We know that. We do that here. So that’s why I say that I’m not trying to limit their freedom of speech by any means. I just think until you figure out a better way to police the hateful comments, I feel like there’s got to be a limit there.

Okay, third thing, and we’re going to get to this really quick. Focus on the ball, because it is effing great. It’s been so good this year. You’ve got incredible rookies across the board. You have incredible vets. There is very high quality. The Lynx-Aces game the other night, the first half was such good basketball for both teams. The second half, we’ll talk about that a little bit, I feel like both teams kind of lost their groove a little bit, but it was so good as an example.

Fourth thing, I do think there’s been some commentary essentially to the sentiment of shut up and dribble. Don’t lean into this activism, things like that. We’ve talked a lot here on the podcast about how women’s sports are built differently, and they have been built in a way to create spaces for marginalized groups where they feel safe, which then means that you have to continue to create that if you want those fans to stay. If you want your fandom to completely flip and become more like a men’s sports fandom, and again, not all of men’s sports fandom, I’m just saying it can be more tenuous and feel less safe for marginalized groups, you can’t step back from that, because that’s when those people are going to start to feel less safe and included.

And then I just think overall you need to have a balance of, how do we protect both the players and the fans? And I think that’s actually a really interesting problem to come in and try to solve for whoever is the next leader.

Alex: When you say protect players and fans, you mean externally from…

Caitlin: Yes. Or both. Some fans are attacking the players. What I mean when I say that, we talked about instances where players are getting harassed online or in arenas. I’m saying, how do we protect the fans who have found a home in a safe place in the league? Because I think the trade-off is you stop driving for that inclusivity and that kind of what some people call activism, and those people no longer feel safe. So you could do that to protect the players, but you may end up alienating this group, and then you fundamentally change the makeup of your fandom and your league, I think. So that’s what I mean.

Kayla McBride’s Record-Setting Season

Caitlin: Okay, let’s talk about some of these amazing performances.

Alex: Make buckets.

Caitlin: Do you want to run us through this one, or do you want me to lead it?

Alex: I’m going to get a Kayla McBride tattoo. It’s just going to say, it’s going to be like Naz Reid, it’s just going to say Kayla McBride.

Caitlin: Kayla McBride. I think Alex shared the thread or whatever you saw the other week that just said, I will name my first son Kayla McBride. So she was Western Conference player of the week about two weeks ago. It’ll be two weeks probably by the time you hear this. She broke the WNBA record for three-pointers made in a game with 10. She scored 43 points against the Dallas Wings, same game, only had one free throw, which is very impressive. For those who don’t follow basketball, that is very hard to do. It means she made a lot of shots on the floor.

Alex: And obviously she was not in the All-Star game, but I think, if I did the stats right, she has been the best shooter since the All-Star game.

Caitlin: There’s a couple of sinces, since the All-Star game, that I have in here actually. She’s currently third in the W in three-pointers made at 2.92 per game, trailing just Rhyne Howard and Marina Mabrey at 3.2, both of them. And she’s second in three-pointers made total for the season at 105, only two behind Rhyne Howard. Now, to contrast that, KMac is shooting 42.3% from three, while Rhyne Howard shoots about 37.5%. So she’s a more efficient shooter from three. She’s actually one of the highest percentage shooters from distance that is averaging more than five attempts per game.

Alex: 105, at 42%, at 34 years old, having her career year.

Caitlin: She’s having a career year. It’s awesome to see. Now, what I think gets overlooked for Kayla McBride is that if you follow the Lynx, or if you’ve watched them play, you know that she gets tasked with the most difficult defensive assignment every single game. She is our lock-up one-v-one defender. Now, I would not argue she’s great at one-v-one defending. I think she’s very smart. But statistically, if we were to look at that, she’s actually been quite good at stealing the ball. She’s tied for third in the league in steals per game with 1.8 per game, tied with her teammate Natasha Howard. Love to see it. And she is putting up these offensive numbers while she is regularly guarding the league’s top scorer. And she currently is second in minutes per game, only behind Chelsea Gray. So she plays about 34 minutes per game, and games are 40 minutes. Chelsea Gray plays just under 36. So it’s not like she’s resting and doing this. She’s got tired legs defending, and she’s shooting 42% from behind the arc.

Alex: There were two things I saw after that game. She was walking out saying, I’m as old as some of y’all’s mama. And then I think it was Phee who was interviewed and she said, yeah, she says she’s just going on vibes and Advil, basically.

Caitlin: I believe it. And there’s been some games where it looks like she’s taken some knocks and they’re nagging her a little bit. But honestly, I think she’s just having so much fun that you can kind of play through anything. Plus it doesn’t hurt when you have Olivia Miles, you’ve got other scoring threats, and Courtney Williams, and Napheesa Collier, and Natasha Howard. She is bolstered by that, for sure. She’s having a great time. She is having the best season of her career at 34 years of age.

Alex: And I think we get her in Unrivaled this year.

Caitlin: Oh yeah, she signed a multi-year contract. Amazing. So she ain’t done, folks. And she will be a fun player to watch. Okay, anything else on KMac? I think you can update the crew on your tattoo appointment.

Alex: Yeah, we’ll see how we go.

Caitlin: Will you do it if we win a championship? What about like KMac? That’s not that bad.

Alex: We’ll see.

Caitlin: Oh, I would do it.

Rae Burrell’s 40-Point Quarter for the Sparks

Caitlin: All right, second one I’ve got here. We watched this all the way through. Did any of you catch Rae Burrell’s fourth quarter against the New York Liberty?

Alex: We wrote this game off at one point.

Caitlin: We were about to go to bed or whatever we were doing. We were like, we’ll just have it on in the background. And then all of a sudden I look up. So the Sparks were down 26 points going into the fourth quarter. Again, wrote the game off. Also the Sparks haven’t been great, but I’m going to say I don’t think the Liberty is playing right now. Rae Burrell led a 40-point quarter for the Sparks.

Alex: That’s nuts.

Caitlin: She had 20 of the 40. She shot seven for nine from the floor, three for five from three, three of three from the free throw line, had two assists and no turnovers in one quarter of basketball. That’s usually somebody’s great game.

Alex: I think I saw the entire Sparks team, 40 in 12 minutes on 75% shooting.

Caitlin: Yikes, that’s crazy. Okay, so that was fun. They did end up losing by four, but they had no business even being close in that game. The Liberty have a lot to think about defensively, I will say that, after watching that game and then watching their game against the Fever.

Alex: What are we doing?

Caitlin: I love, though, to see Rae Burrell. She’s really growing into her career. I was looking earlier and she’s averaging about 14 and a half points this season. That’s double what her next highest average has been in her career. Speaking of Unrivaled, I really enjoyed watching her in Unrivaled, and frankly, she was tough in that league. So she’s got the one-v-one ability, and I want to see her keep getting her flowers.

Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark’s Record Scoring Duo

Caitlin: Okay, next up, we’ve got to talk about Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark, and what they’ve been doing together.

Alex: It’s insane.

Caitlin: So framing these as records: these two together set a record for the most points scored by a duo over 10 games, with 516 points.

Alex: 51 per game.

Caitlin: Almost 52 per game. Half of their team’s, because they like to score 100 points or more. So in that period, Mitchell was averaging 27.9 points and Clark was averaging 23.7. Mitchell has scored 20-plus points in 18 consecutive games. This is three more than the next highest streak, which was 15 by A’ja Wilson.

Alex: I will say that’s in a season. A’ja’s did extend to 20 over two seasons.

Caitlin: Good call. All right, well, Kelsey, keep going. Keep it up. We’re watching. Honestly, she doesn’t seem like she’s not going to do it. I feel like the day that I see a box score for a Fever game and Kelsey Mitchell doesn’t have 20 points, we’re like, what happened? Did she get hurt? Did she not play the whole game? What’s going on?

And then Clark hit her 20th career game of 20 points and 10 assists. And that’s quite impressive. That’s 10 more games of that kind of stat line than the next closest player. So she continues to produce offensively. It does seem like we had the eighth tech scare, I guess, the Chicago Sky game a few weeks ago. And honestly, the last couple of games I’ve seen where she’s been playing, she seems to have reined it in a little bit. Trust me, there’s still flapping, there’s still gesticulation at the referees and complaining, but it’s more on the same level that I see-ish.

Alex: Flapping, nah, the flapping should still win, for my book. I’m sorry, I can’t.

Caitlin: But I think she’s had the talking to, or however they’re, what was it like, they’re strategically managing that situation. She got the eighth tech, it was rescinded, got too close to the stove burner. And she was like, yeah, better pull that back. Now, I’ll also say in that time frame, the Fever have been playing really well and winning games. It will be interesting to see if they run into some challenge. If some of those bad habits come back.

Shakira Austin and Nia Coffey

Caitlin: All right, I’ve got two more for us, and then we’ll talk a little bit about standings since the All-Star break. Shakira Austin, y’all, of the Washington Mystics. Or are we allowed to say this?

Alex: I don’t think we’re allowed to say it. Only they’re allowed to say it.

Caitlin: Only you, the Mystics, are allowed to say what you call yourselves. But the Washington Mystics’ Shakira Austin, averaging 22.4 points per game and 9.8 rebounds, so almost averaging a double-double since the All-Star break. And she is not doing this against shabby competition. She put up these numbers against the Aces twice, the Wings twice, and the Dream, plus a couple of other opponents in there, the Connecticut Sun, teams like that. Very impressive from her. That team in particular, I think we said this months ago, we’ve talked about how they had the potential to be good. I think they are a trap in the playoffs. I do not want to play them. Right now we wouldn’t. Right now we play the Wings if things stayed the way that they are, which I gladly would. So I just think in that first round, if it’s a three-game series like it’s been in the past, I don’t want to see it.

And then rounding out with our girl, Nia Coffey.

Alex: Nia Coffey. What a baller lately. Not lately. Here’s the thing. She’s been doing it all season.

Caitlin: She’s been doing it all season. Frame this up, folks. She went from starting every single game for the Lynx, knowing that as soon as Phee was back, she was going to move to the bench. Find me a player who is that willing and open to doing that. Enter Nia Coffey. Now Nia Coffey is coming off the bench, which is amazing, because you are basically putting a starter out on the floor with that experience. But this woman just knows how to make what seem like very small plays that have the biggest impact at the most important moment in the game. In particular, if you watch the Lynx play the Aces, their most recent matchup, Coffey hit a bunch of very timely three-pointers that I think kept the Lynx afloat in that game. Phee did too. But Nia has this knack as well for getting steals, disrupting passes, creating deflections that turn into turnovers, and then getting on the floor, not afraid to get down on the ground and scrap for a ball. And then she’s just calm and stoic the whole time.

Alex: I think the favorite meme that I’ve seen about this situation is, it’s Phee, and she’s like, who are you? And it’s Nia saying, I’m you, but left-handed.

Caitlin: Honestly, it’s not super far off. Although I will say Nia does not have Phee’s fadeaway jump shot.

Alex: No, she does not.

Caitlin: There are not a lot of players that have Phee’s fadeaway jump shot. So we need some Nia Coffey jerseys made. I’ve seen a plea for this all season. She is the hero. In my book, she gets sixth woman of the year. I realize that is not objective.

Alex: No, not at all.

Caitlin: She is my sixth woman of the year. Maybe she’s like a half, because she started half the season.

Alex: She’s like a fifth and a half of the year.

WNBA Playoff Standings and Home Court

Caitlin: All right, let’s wrap this section up, talk a little bit about these standings. Do you want to take us through?

Alex: Yeah. We’ve got Minnesota, Golden State, Las Vegas in third, Indiana at fourth, Atlanta in fifth, New York Liberty in sixth, Washington in seventh, and Dallas in eighth. Portland is about five games behind Dallas at this point. Probably not happening, but Dallas kind of needs to watch themselves here a little bit.

Caitlin: Yeah, they do. So we don’t have many games left. We’ve got, I’ll say maybe about 10-ish on average for most teams. We also have that weird FIBA break, so end of August we take a 17-day break and then we come back and play a handful, well, not a handful, it’s like two or three games for each team. I don’t think we’re going to see anybody else make the playoffs at this point.

Alex: Barring a collapse by Dallas.

Caitlin: A big collapse by Dallas, which frankly Dallas has kind of been collapsing. They are three and seven in their last 10 games. When I looked at our notes from our last episode, which we did about a week ago, they were in fifth and they are now in eighth. So they have fallen quite quickly. I will note that Jess Shepard and Azzi Fudd have been out for a series of games, not both for all of them, but for enough. And I think you can see the impact that those two have on both sides of the ball is affecting the Wings. I do question, regardless of who’s playing, the Wings’ rim defense. They just don’t protect the paint. And now, if you look at the teams who are ahead of them, you have really good paint presence in all of those teams, at least one player.

Alex: I can’t remember who said it. I think there was a player who was like, if they’re just going to give it to us in the paint, yeah, we’ll just take it every time.

Caitlin: I love when the lane is that wide open. So if they can’t turn that around, there is a possibility that they may fall out, but I don’t really think that will happen. Now, they have a big game tonight against the Valkyries in San Francisco.

Alex: In Ballhalla.

Caitlin: Ballhalla. I just had a moment of, are they in San Francisco? Yeah, they’re in the Bay Area. So we’ll see how that goes. And I think you continue to see some weird chemistry, weird dynamic between Jose Fernandez and the team. So I don’t have an update on when they expect Shepard to be back. Maybe she’s back for this game. I think they would hope she’d be back for this game, but we’ll see.

All right, now what we are going to be really paying attention to in our future episodes, because we don’t feel like there’s a ton of room for change in who is going to be in the playoffs, it’s more about where they end up. So the top four teams will get home court advantage, and then you can think about past that first round, the home court advantage maintains for the top seed. So these teams are now playing for highest seed of the eight, because you’re going to get that home court all the way through, ideally, if you can swing it. So it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. As we mentioned in headlines, a couple of these teams, Golden State as an example, could clinch a playoff spot tonight. And then we expect over probably the next, I honestly think that they all have the possibility of clinching before the FIBA break, which probably would be nice for all of them. But I didn’t look into this. It’d be interesting to see if that’s possible, depending on how the schedule works out. Do they play each other enough where you can’t actually get the records, the wins? So maybe we’ll bring that back next week, and we’ll be two weeks out from that FIBA break. No, we’ll be one week out.

Alex: And then it’s almost the best time of the year.

Caitlin: That’s right. All right, any other thoughts from you on standings, teams?

Alex: I don’t think so.

Caitlin: I do want to give a quick shout out to, I don’t know if you saw this, but Alyssa Thomas was channeling the vibes and the juju of Diana Taurasi when they were retiring her jersey in the game last night. And she made a three-pointer.

Alex: Oh yeah, I did see that.

Caitlin: At the end of the game, on a great steal. And Alyssa Thomas is not known for her shooting ability.

Alex: I think they said that was her…

Caitlin: Okay, don’t spoil it.

Alex: Don’t give it away.

Caitlin: I’m going to say it. She just hucked the ball at the basket and it went in. It was her second three-pointer made ever in her career. She has played for a long time. And the first one she made was in her rookie season. So she hasn’t made a three since like 2013 or something like that.

Alex: Wow. She just never shows up on the three-point chart ever. They’re like, where is she on this chart?

Caitlin: You’re like, no, she’s not on it. So I thought that was pretty funny. And it brought them within two with like six seconds to go. They had a shot at it at the end. But what a heads-up play by her, which is what she’s known for more. And then the fact that that went in, it’s just a prayer.

Alex: She’s like, I’m trying to get out of this league without ever scoring a three, and screwed it up twice now.

Caitlin: So funny. Okay, sorry. I saw a Phoenix and I was like, I’ve got to call this out.

What to Watch This Week

Caitlin: All right, what are we watching?

Alex: We’ve got a few here. Sorry for the non-Lynx fans, I had to include them a couple times here. Minnesota Lynx at Golden State on Wednesday this week, 9 p.m. We won’t stay up for that one, a little too late for some parents here. That’s on USA Network. Indiana Fever at Dallas Wings Thursday, August 20th, 7 p.m. on Prime. Then we have the Minnesota Lynx at the Mystics Friday, 6:30 p.m. on ION. And then again, we have Indiana Fever versus the Chicago Sky Sunday the 23rd, 6 p.m., NBC and Peacock. And the reason I put that one on there is because it’s the first game since the last altercation happened.

Caitlin: Yes.

Alex: Could be interesting.

Caitlin: It’s in Chicago too, isn’t it?

Alex: Yeah. NWSL, we’ve got the San Diego Wave versus the Utah Royals Friday, August 21st, 9 p.m. on Prime. Seattle Reign versus Kansas City Current on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. on ION. Orlando Pride versus Washington Spirit Sunday, 3 p.m. on ESPN2, and then Gotham versus Angel City Sunday evening on NWSL Plus.

Caitlin: Angel City needs a win.

Alex: They do. For the LPGA, we’ve got the CPKC Women’s Open Thursday through Sunday on Golf Channel all week.

Caitlin: Is that in Kansas City?

Alex: No, it’s in Edmonton.

Caitlin: Oh, yeah, that would make sense.

Alex: And then for WPBL, it’s kind of the same setup they do every week. Friday evening at 6:30 they have San Francisco versus Los Angeles. Then Saturday is San Francisco versus Boston at one. New York versus Los Angeles at 6:30 that evening, and then Sunday is Los Angeles versus Boston at 6:30. All on ESPN Select. Correction, I think we’ve been telling people YouTube. That is only for international audiences, not the United States.

Caitlin: Note to self. That league has been pretty wild. San Francisco is on a tear. I think they went from the bottom to the top in like a week. I would definitely tune in. There have been grand slams and walk-offs.

Alex: What’s her name?

Caitlin: Kelsey Whitmore.

Alex: No, I’m thinking of… yes, she’s hit like seven home runs or something.

Caitlin: Ridiculous. There is a lot happening there. And that season, just as a reminder, runs to the Labor Day weekend, and then they start playoffs at the end of that week of Labor Day. So that’s coming up quick, just like all of those are.

I do want to give a quick live update, because we forgot to mention it in headlines. We had mentioned it a few weeks ago, but the Williams sisters were playing tennis tonight in the Cincinnati Open as doubles partners for the first time, after their attempt to do it at Wimbledon and then Serena got the knee injury. They lost, but they brought it to a third set. They played Kostyuk and Stearns, so they lost the first set 6-2, they won the second set 6-1, and then the third set had to go to 10-8. So they had to play a little bit of extras there. Fun to see them back. They got a big ovation, obviously, and they’re competing. It was close, and so it’ll be interesting to see how they show up at the U.S. Open, because that is planned for sometime in September. We’ll get those dates.

Momentum and Setbacks

Alex: Momentum, setbacks. I didn’t study for this part of the test.

Caitlin: Ooh, also live update. Alex Eala is playing right now. And I feel obligated to mention that for our Filipino friends. She is 2-2 against Amanda Anisimova from the U.S.

Alex: I think my setback, I saw the number you put, the 18 or 19 knee injuries. I know that the NWSL has partnered with Project ACL. I hope they figure out what’s going on there, because it seems like a lot.

Caitlin: I think there is a lot of research to be done. And unfortunately, they started that project last year, and it’s a longitudinal study to track the effect of sleep and menstrual cycle and travel and all of the different components on the impact. And so until you have a significant data set, it’s hard to know what’s actually contributing. And it’s also going to be, I’m assuming, highly individual.

Alex: On the other side of my, not necessarily momentum for me, but on the other side of that same setback, something we didn’t talk about that was in our sheet: Kaleigh Kurtz has played 132 consecutive regular season matches, 11,842 minutes, going back to June 2021. And think about how many ACL injuries there are, and this woman’s been playing for five years straight.

Caitlin: She has not stopped. Professional soccer, or at least NWSL soccer. That’s a great call-out. Well, I have to do my setback first, right? I think it’s the Dallas Wings right now. I think they’ve got to figure out what’s going on, because to fall that fast, that quickly, and now you’re holding on by the skin of your teeth to the playoffs. I kind of hope they come out with something tonight. It helps us. But they’re going into a really tough place to play, and I don’t think that they have the easiest path here over the next couple of games. Because they have the pieces, we’ve seen it, but we’ve also seen these fits and spurts of them struggling to close games. We’ve seen a number of games where they’ve been up and then they lose the game. Not akin necessarily to Chicago, because I think it happens to them way more. Maybe. Did Chicago win that one last game? Because I think…

Alex: Maybe they rubbed their hex off onto them.

Caitlin: We’ve got to look this up. We’ve got to look up the lore. Something’s going on there. So I think that’s my setback. Do you have a momentum?

Alex: I’m just going to say snaps for KMac.

Caitlin: Snaps for KMac, that’s a good one. That’s a good one, honestly. My momentum, I’m going to stick with NWSL, because we did a ton of highlight reel stuff for the WNBA. But something that’s really cool going on in the NWSL right now is there are a number of players who are on the verge of what’s called a 10 and 10. So 10 goals and 10 assists in a season. It’s never been done before. And right now there are three players who are knocking on the door. So Pietra Tordin of Portland, who actually, from what I’m reading, seems like she could get asked to join a U.S. women’s national team camp soon. She’s young, but she’s been playing really, really well. So she’s sitting on seven goals and nine assists right now. So 16 total points for her, but one assist away from 10. And then a few more goals, who knows? She had a hat trick the other night. Very impressive.

Trinity Rodman of the Washington Spirit, she scored her 10th goal of the season last night and has five assists. So still work to do on the helper side of the game. I personally think we’re going to continue to see Rodman do more scoring than assisting, but she has that gravity, and kind of creates for others just by being on the pitch. And then Cloé Lacasse of the Utah Royals, she has six goals but eight assists. So right in that mix there.

Alex: Has it ever been this close before?

Caitlin: I don’t know. I feel like this is the first time, though, where there have been this many players that close. And then you’ve got to watch out for players like Ashley Sanchez. She’s scored in bunches this year. Her teammate, Evelyn Ijeh, just bolstered herself up to 10 goals this season. So that golden boot race is tightening. And so I think there’s some really incredible highlight reel stuff happening in the NWSL. So if you have a chance to catch a game, one of the games we mentioned or some other game, can’t recommend it enough.

Alex: Instagram, Threads and YouTube at RTG underscore pod. RTGpod.com and raisingthegamepod at gmail.com.

Caitlin: That’s all of them.

Alex: That is them.

Caitlin: All right, well, we appreciate you being here. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back next week.

Alex: Bye.

Caitlin: Bye.