Thursday’s conference tournament games featured more top 25 teams—and they have begun dropping. We had No. 24 Michigan State falling to Iowa, No. 19 Alabama losing to Florida and No. 18 Tennessee getting upset by Vanderbilt.
Here is a brief breakdown of how these upsets happened:
The Caitlin Clark Effect
How good is Caitlin Clark? Her mere presence created an upset, even though she was just a spectator for No. 11-seed Iowa’s second Big Ten Tournament game against No. 6-seed Michigan State.
Seriously, though, Iowa did a stupendous job of taking down Michigan State, 74-61. Lucy Olsen spearheaded the victory, scoring 21 points on 50 percent shooting. She was also a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe.
Off the bench, the Hawkeyes got a strong performance from Ava Heiden, who scored 11 points. In charge for most of the game, Iowa really took control in the second quarter when they held the Spartans to nine points. For Michigan State, Julia Ayrault led the way with 17 points, but it wasn’t enough to stave off elimination.
Tide Rolled
In the SEC, No. 11-seed Florida took down No. 6-seed Alabama, 63-61. The Tide made things interesting down the stretch, going on a 5-0 run, but they ran out of time—and the Gators sent them home.
It takes a team to win a game, but…
