Lawmakers have long shied away from serious discussions about entitlement reform, but the issue appears to be coming back into focus for Republicans who are wary about the growing national debt.
‘I definitely have noticed it,’ veteran GOP strategist Doug Heye told Fox News Digital of the uptick in GOP-led discussions on the issue. ‘Republicans have talked about this for a long time, not always with specifics. But what tends to happen is, they talk about it, they get attacked, they fall back.’
Congress just ended the fiscal year 2024 government-funding fight with President Biden signing a $1.2 trillion spending package into law last week and averting a partial government shutdown. But the ugly battle, which took six additional months after the end of fiscal year 2023, only accounted for the government’s discretionary spending – which makes up just over a quarter of annual federal funds.
The vast majority of federal funding is classified as mandatory spending, which includes entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known colloquially as ‘food stamps.’
Discussions about raising the Social Security eligibility age or cuts to Medicare are always politically fraught. But economists are now warning that without changes, those programs are headed for forced cuts anyway, due to insufficient funds – with Medicare expected to become insolvent in 2028, and Social Security in 2033.
‘I do think we should be willing to have real conversations about this, but I wouldn’t say this is a new issue,’ Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., chair of the pragmatic House Main Street Caucus, told Fox News Digital.
Johnson noted that ‘every ten years’ or so, Washington officials assemble task forces and commissions to discuss the national debt or the solvency of programs like Social Security and Medicare.
‘I think what is maybe ripening this issue a bit more now is the [threat of insolvency],’ he said. ‘It is closer than ever.’
Johnson himself has led the charge in pushing for work requirements for federal food benefits, something Democrats have used as a political cudgel, despite the programs’ ballooning costs. But in recent months, more Republicans are declaring their support for curbing entitlements.
Meanwhile, House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., openly called for entitlement reform in his announcement that he would be running for House Appropriations chair.
‘You cannot solve the U.S. deficit problem exclusively in the Appropriations Committee, as discretionary spending only amounts to roughly 28 percent of U.S. expenditures,’ Cole said earlier this month. ‘If we are going to produce a balanced budget, which I strongly believe we should be striving to do, we should be having serious discussions on how to fund and reform our entitlement programs, which makes up approximately 60 percent of all spending.’
The Republican Study Committee, a 175-member House GOP group led by Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., recently released a budget proposal that called for raising the ‘retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy’ as well as restructuring Medicare to compete with private options.
Democrats up to the White House pounced on the proposal, accusing Republicans of trying to gut Social Security and Medicare. Seizing on the looming November election as well, Biden’s campaign has sought to link any Republican victory to deep cuts to the programs.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., told Fox News Digital that he expects that Republicans will take on entitlement reform if they win the White House, House and Senate.
‘My hope would be that if we have full control of government that we will take the steps necessary to preserve and protect Social Security and Medicare for the current retirees who are depending on it, those nearing retirement, depending on the next few years, [and] so that it’s there also for people like you,’ Good said.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumed GOP nominee for 2024, has not been explicit about his stance regarding entitlement reform.
He told CNBC earlier this month that ‘there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.’ His spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, later told NBC News, ‘President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term.’
But Paul Winfree, Trump’s former White House budget policy director and current president of the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), backed entitlement reform to reduce the national deficit and save the programs themselves.
‘Interest rates are significantly higher and so too are debt service payments. At the same time, the Fed has had a hard time getting inflation fully under control,’ Winfree told Fox News Digital. ‘Those are market signals that the deficit really needs to come down. And the sooner policymakers begin to confront the biggest drivers of the deficit, specifically what is spent on federal health programs, the more likely it will be that they can protect programs for the most vulnerable.’
The federal government spent $2.2 trillion on Social Security and Medicare in 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office, out of $3.8 trillion in mandatory spending.
Strategist Doug Heye, who’s pessimistic about the talk becoming action, suggested that it was precisely because reforms seem too out of reach that Republicans are able to be vocal.
‘Entitlement reform, depending on who you talk to, is – it’s a tool to show either voters or portions of conservative media that you’re fighting, and it doesn’t mean that any of this is going to happen. In fact, that’s sort of irrelevant to the process, showing the willingness to fight becomes paramount,’ Heye explained.
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Democrats and Republicans alike are scrambling to define Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential bid and ascribe his views to the other ideological side before he is able to introduce himself to the 2024 electorate.
‘The only thing they know is that he’s Robert Kennedy’s son,’ said Allan Lichtman, a historian and distinguished professor of history at American University.
As Kennedy focuses on gaining ballot access, his election travel looks much different than that of former President Trump or President Biden, who are primarily campaigning in critical battleground states.
Despite this advantage, both parties are still looking to undermine Kennedy’s outside attempt.
Trump took to his Truth Social to slam Kennedy on Wednesday, calling him ‘the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far.’
The Democratic National Committee has claimed that Kennedy is ‘a Trump stalking horse’ in the 2024 election.
Earlier this month, the DNC established a staff devoted specifically to addressing third-party competitors. According to spokesperson Matt Corridoni, the decision to take on outside presidential bids was born out of not taking anything for granted.
‘I think a lot of his support is simply based on the name, not on any understanding of what RFK Jr. actually stands for,’ Lichtman claimed, calling him a ‘very ambiguous figure.’
One reason for his enigmatic status is that ‘he seems to legitimately hold opinions that one can attribute to both the left and the right,’ according to Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
For Russell Verney, who served as a top adviser to Ross Perot’s famed 1992 independent presidential campaign, these efforts from each side were prompted by both parties’ aversions to competition.
If a voter chooses to support Kennedy on Election Day, Verney claimed many of them ‘wouldn’t have voted for Biden anyway.’
According to Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff, it wouldn’t be hard for Democrats ‘to paint him like a Disney villain, the black sheep of a historic American family, who has this wild vendetta against the Democratic Party his family helped build.’
Republican strategists estimated a much larger threat presented to Biden, and one that isn’t easily navigated. The combination of the president’s ‘fragile’ support and the Kennedy name’s Democratic legacy ‘will cost a boatload of money and a smart plan’ for Biden to combat, said GOP strategist Zack Roday.
‘If I was in the Biden camp right now, I would be pulling the five-alarm fire,’ added Charlie Kirk, founder and CEO of Turning Point USA.
Others suggest that the threat presented by Kennedy is ‘asymmetrical.’
‘There are expected to be a lot of ‘double-haters’ in this contest’ unhappy with both Trump and Biden, added Kevin Madden, former senior adviser to Utah Sen. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Kennedy press secretary Stefanie Spear claimed that the attacks from both sides were prompted by ‘a genuine inability’ to understand ‘a candidate who does not fit into conventional political categories.’
‘Our ticket represents the broad majority who have unsubscribed from the right-left paradigm,’ she said of Kennedy and his running mate Nicole Shanahan.
While the campaign expressed confidence in its coalition, Lichtman said historically, ‘the partisans come home’ on Election Day.
This is the result of ‘wasted vote syndrome,’ he explained. ‘You know, ‘We love you, Ross Perot, but you can’t win, so I’m not going to vote for you.”
Verney agreed that this syndrome is often what leads to a roughly 50% cut in voter percentage for independent candidates on Election Day compared to their previous stature in polling. According to the former Perot adviser, using the idea of a wasted vote is an incredibly effective strategy to undercut an independent bid.
Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the State University of New York at Buffalo, also noted, ‘There isn’t a great deal of evidence that third-party candidates play such a role.’ He added that third-party voters are more likely to sit out voting if their candidate isn’t an option.
According to Bernard Tamas, an associate political science professor at Valdosta State University and author of ‘The Demise and Rebirth of American Third Parties,’ Kennedy’s messaging is neither consistent nor cohesive, presenting a challenge to delivering voters come Election Day. ‘The issues that he supports may galvanize certain voters early on,’ he explained, but may put them off later.
The image of Kennedy projected to voters will ultimately come down to which side employs the most effective communicators, according to Lichtman. And right now, Biden seems to have an advantage with figures like former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama on his side.
In a statement, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung reiterated Trump’s claims about Kennedy, calling him a ‘radical leftist.’
The Biden campaign did not provide comment and instead referred Fox News Digital to the DNC’s third-party operation.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ahead of surgery for a hernia on Sunday, vowed that Israel would invade Rafah, despite twin pressures from Ramadan and Washington.
Netanyahu, 74, said he had approved the IDF’s ‘operational plan’ for Rafah, saying the force was ‘prepared for the evacuation of the civilian population and for the provision of humanitarian assistance.’
‘This is the right thing both operationally and internationally,’ he said. ‘This will take time but it will be done. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there for one simple reason: There is no victory without entering Rafah and there is no victory without eliminating the Hamas battalions there.’
The comments came after the Israeli leader met with the families of the hostages still in Gaza. He rejected accusations that he was delaying their release.
‘Those who say I am not doing everything to return the hostages are wrong and misleading, and those who know the truth and still repeating this lie are causing unnecessary grief to the families of the hostages,’ he said.
Netanyahu alleged that Israel has ‘relaxed’ its position in negotiations while Hamas has ‘hardened’ theirs.
‘Despite all the difficulty involved, negotiations must be conducted calmly and with level-headed determination,’ he said. ‘This is the only way to return hostages.’
Netanyahu has kept a full schedule throughout Israel’s nearly six-month-long war against Hamas. A hernia was discovered during a routine checkup, but his doctors have said he is otherwise in good health. Doctors acknowledged last year that he had concealed a long-known heart problem after they implanted a pacemaker.
Israeli society was broadly united immediately after Oct. 7, when Hamas killed some 1,200 people during a cross-border attack and took 250 others hostage. Nearly six months of conflict have renewed divisions over the leadership of Netanyahu, though the country remains largely in favor of the war.
Thousands of Israelis gathered outside the parliament building in Jerusalem on Sunday, marking the largest anti-government demonstration since the war began. They urged the government to reach a cease-fire deal to free dozens of hostages held by the Hamas militant group in Gaza and to hold early elections.
Roughly half the hostages in Gaza were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. But attempts by international mediators to bring home the remaining hostages have failed. Talks resumed on Sunday with little expectation of a breakthrough.
Netanyahu has said there can be no victory without a military ground offensive in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than half of the territory’s population of 2.3 million now shelters after fleeing fighting elsewhere.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said Sunday that more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and fighters, but it has said that women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.
Israel has disputed these figures, saying that more than one-third of the dead are militants, and it blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in residential areas.
Fox News’ Yael Rotem-Kuriel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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USA TODAY’S “In Their Own Words” is a video project that interviewed four transgender athletes who told their own stories about living in an America that is increasingly hostile to gender diverse people. We’re using a video format so you can hear from the athletes directly.
This project is needed now more than ever. Increasing numbers of states are attempting to prohibit transgender athletes from participating on teams that align with their gender identities.
One of the main goals of supporters of these bills, the trans athletes interviewed for this project say, is to both demonize and spread misinformation about the trans community. They’ve identified sports as a vehicle to attack trans people, the athletes said.
These athletes tell a different story. It is a story of hope, self-expression, and sports competition. It’s their story…told in their own words.
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We’re inching closer and closer to the Final Four. The games are getting bigger, if not necessarily better. Yes, Duke-UConn, we’re looking at you.
But the game fans wanted for the Elite Eight is set with Iowa meeting LSU on Monday in a rematch of last year’s national title game. So, it’s hard to nitpick too much. That doesn’t mean we won’t try.
Here’s a look at the winners and losers from Saturday’s Sweet 16 games:
WINNERS
Basketball fans
The rematch hoop heads have been hoping for since last year’s national championship game is set. Iowa and LSU took care of their business Saturday and will play Monday night with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
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For those who missed last year’s game, and have been living under a rock since, LSU dominated Iowa on its way to winning its first national title. Or, as Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said, “We got run out of the gym last year. It was pretty bad.”
Not for the fans. The country tuned in to watch Caitlin Clark put on another clinic only to see Angel Reese give a seminar in both trash talking and backing it up.
More of this? Yes, please.
Sydney Affolter
It’s not easy moving into the starting lineup at the end of the season. Not that you’d know that from watching Iowa’s guard.
The junior is shooting over 58% since stepping in for the injured Molly Davis at the beginning of the Big Ten Tournament. She’s averaging 13 points a game – her season average is 7.9 ppg – and has missed just one free throw.
“Syd Affolter has the highest plus/minus of anybody,” Bluder said.
Not bad for someone who’d only started three games before Davis was injured in the regular-season finale.
Rayah Marshall
USC’s center can score, defend and amuse.
Marshall had her 21st double-double of the season, finishing with 11 points and 15 boards against Baylor. But afterward, she was a little too off-the-cuff when asked about JuJu Watkins’ emotional impact on the team.
“She’s a competitor. I can trust her with my life. Like, when it comes down to winning, she going to do what she has to do. She’s coming into the huddle after the third quarter fired up, like, `Let’s get our (expletive) together!’ Oh no,” Marshall said, before covering her mouth, mortified.
As the room erupted in laughter, Marshall said, “Well, that’s what she said!”
LSU’s guards on the glass
With LSU clinging to a two-point lead with less than a minute to play, Angel Reese had her layup blocked by UCLA’s Lauren Betts. Flau’jae Johnson grabbed the rebound and then scored on a layup of her own.
About 15 seconds later, Betts missed the second of two free throws and Johnson sprinted in to grab the ball. UCLA was forced to foul, and Johnson made one of two to push LSU’s lead to six with less than 30 seconds to play.
“Our guards did a great job tonight rebounding,” Angel Reese said.
“Yeah, I had more rebounds than Angel,” Johnson said.
“One!’ Reese protested. “Just one.”
Paige Bueckers
Ho-hum. Another NCAA Tournament game, another dominant performance from the 2021 national player of the year. Bueckers scored 24 points, grabbed five rebounds, snagged three steals, led her team to another win — this time 53-45 over Duke in the Sweet 16 — and made it look easy.
“I’m not really surprised,” said teammate Aaliyah Edwards, shrugging. “Some of the moves that she gets leading up to the bucket are pretty impressive, but she does what she does in practice (in games, too).’
LOSERS
Basketball fans
See above.
Look, we’ll take this rematch wherever and whenever we can. But we can all agree it’s occurring a weekend too early.
“I think everybody is pretty excited for it,” Bluder said. “I know that these are two really good basketball teams, and it’s almost unfortunate they’re meeting this early.”
Cori Close
And to think falling short in the NCAA Tournament once again wasn’t the worst thing in Close’s day.
The UCLA coach was forced to apologize for sharing a Los Angeles Times column that described both the matchup with LSU and LSU’s players in racist and misogynistic terms. LSU coach Kim Mulkey had, rightly, savaged the portrayal of her players, who were characterized as “villains” and “dirty debutantes.”
“I made a huge mistake in reposting without reading it first, and I am very sorry for that,” Close wrote. “I would never want to promote anything that tears down a group of people in our great game.
“I do not condone racism, sexism or inflammatory comments aimed at individuals in our community,” Close said before apologizing to Mulkey and her players. “I hope that I have proven over time with my behaviors and choices this was an isolated mistake and not the intention of my heart. My sincerest apologies for anything that communicated otherwise.”
UCLA’s 78-69 loss to LSU was the seventh time under Close that the Bruins have failed to get beyond the Sweet 16.
In Close’s 13 seasons at UCLA, the Bruins have made it to the Elite Eight just once.
“It’s hard in the moment to be honest with you about what’s it going to take,” Close said after the game. “We’ve obviously been to a lot of Sweet 16s and one Elite 8, and we want more. That’s my job this off-season, to figure out how we can earn more.”
Offensive sensibilities
Duke shot less than 21% in the first half against UConn. It was even more abysmal from 3-point range, making just 1 of 9 (11%) from deep.
The Huskies weren’t exactly singeing the nets, either, going 0-for-5 from 3-point range. But Aaliyah Edwards kept them respectable, making all but one of her six shots in the first half.
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DETROIT — Tom Izzo fawned over the Purdue basketball program and the job Matt Painter has done constructing a consistent winner.
Michigan State had just fought back but, like every other opponent that visited Mackey Arena this season, couldn’t get the better of the Boilermakers.
Izzo is calling Purdue the best team in the country, even in comparison to, of all teams, Tennessee. He’s pleading with media members who cover the Boilermakers to cherish Matt Painter.
‘Don’t worry about how many Final Fours he gets,’ said Izzo, who has been to eight Final Fours. ‘He wins a lot of games. He does it the right way. He’s a hell of a coach.’
Painter, though, knows the deal.
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Coaches are ultimately judged by NCAA Tournament success. He saw it happen with his college coach, Gene Keady, who only got as far at the Elite Eight on two occasions.
And here sits Painter, one win away from his first Final Four, doing what Painter does, telling it like it is on the cusp of a moment Boilermaker fans have waited 44 years for.
‘We’ve been undefeated non-conference for three straight years and have one of the best schedules in the country,’ Painter said. ‘We’ve won our league by three games in back-to-back years. For the people that compete, the players and coaches, those things do matter.
‘The No. 1 thing is how you play in the tournament. We’ve played well so far, but hopefully this is just a start for us.’
Purdue isn’t entering uncharted waters.
Painter was at this same point five years ago.
He still thinks about that, how his team did almost everything right, and it wasn’t enough as Virginia did a little bit more right to beat Purdue in overtime.
And yet, asked about if that loss still haunts him, Painter gave a response few others would.
‘Yeah, that was tough, but I was still happy for (Virginia coach) Tony Bennett,’ Painter said. ‘It stunk that we couldn’t do it, but I was happy. If it was going to be anybody, I was glad it was him and the way he’s operated and the way he’s done things, he’s been great for college basketball.’
Sound familiar?
Izzo was saying those same things about Painter nearly four weeks ago.
You know how that Virginia story ended. A No. 1 seed loses to a 16. The team comes back strong, again earns a No. 1 seed and wins the national championship.
Hmmm.
If the weight of that is on Purdue’s shoulders, no one is showing it.
Of course, the Boilermakers know what’s at stake.
‘It’s not other games,’ Purdue’s star Zach Edey said Saturday. ‘You can’t treat it like that obviously, but it’s still just basketball. Rules are the same as every game we’ve played.’
It’s not other games.
Painter has won 470 times as a Division I head coach and what you hear a lot is about the game(s) he hasn’t.
Sunday is huge for Purdue and Painter.
A win can change the perception of Boilermaker basketball in the public eye.
‘Oh it would be huge,’ Painter admits on Saturday. ‘It’s been our goal to win a national championship.
‘We feel like we’re halfway there.’
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No. 1 UConn beat Illinois to become the first team to clinch a spot in the men’s Final Four. Sunday we’ll see which teams will join the Huskies and Alabama in Glendale, Arizona.
Sunday’s Elite Eight games feature No. 1 seed Purdue against No. 2 Tennessee in the Midwest Regional and No. 4 seed Duke vs. No. 11 NC State in the South Regional.
Duke is headed to the Elite Eight for the first time under coach Jon Scheyer. The Blue Devils beat the top-seeded Houston Cougars 54-51 on Friday night. The Blue Devils face NC State, a team built around veteran shot-making guards and a magnetic post player in DJ Burns.
Tennessee crushed Creighton with its defense, then proved its mettle in the deepest moments to win 82-75 to reach the Elite Eight for the second time in program history. Dalton Knecht led Tennessee with 24 points. The Vols meet a Purdue team led by 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, who averages 24.6 points and 12.1 rebounds per game.
Here are USA TODAY Sports’ expert picks for Sunday’s Elite Eight games:
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(1) Purdue vs. (2) Tennessee, 2:20 p.m. ET (CBS)
Jordan Mendoza: Tennessee
Paul Myerberg: Purdue
Dan Wolken: Tennessee
(4) Duke vs. (11) NC State, 5:05 p.m. ET (CBS)
Jordan Mendoza: Duke
Paul Myerberg: Duke
Dan Wolken: Duke
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LOS ANGELES — Alabama guard Rylan Griffen looked up at an imaginary wall and thought about all of the legendary athletes and teams that have been at Tuscaloosa.
There’s Heisman Trophy winners. Hall of Famers. National champions.
Now he and his teammates will be among those names for being responsible for Alabama achieving its first Final Four in school history.
‘We get penciled in history,’ Griffen said.
It’s a major accomplishment for a program that has long lived in the shadow of its football team and located in a place where sports rule. Not only is football good, but so is softball, gymnastics and golf, with all of the sports making finals and most importantly, winning national championships.
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Now this team can add itself to the list, and it has the chance of creating even more history with the first national championship in men’s basketball.
‘We want to be great in whatever we do. It’s the University of Alabama, we should be,’ athletic director Greg Byrne told USA TODAY Sports. ‘People care about the University of Alabama like no other, and so it’s really cool to see that happen on the basketball court.’
It was another outstanding offensive performance from Alabama on Saturday night, but with a twist. The Crimson Tide didn’t come out shooting great. It started 6-for-27 from the field and 1-for-13 from 3-point land. All the makings of a lackluster performance.
But the twist was Alabama was making Clemson work offensively, something not seen much from the Crimson Tide this season. Clemson didn’t shoot the ball well in the first half either, and Alabama’s defense prevented Clemson from ever getting too far ahead. Then the Alabama offense found rhythm. It went on a 22-6 run to end the first half, and from there that’s when the offense did the rest.
Clemson’s offense was much improved in the second half, but it wasn’t nearly as good as Alabama’s. The Crimson Tide made 16 of its 23 second half shots. The Tide made 10 3-pointers. Not many teams would be able to keep up with what Alabama was doing, and the Tigers found out the hard way, falling just short of making their first Final Four.
‘We can have the No. 1 offense in the country; we had it for the majority of the year,’ said head coach Nate Oats. ‘Let’s put a top-20 defense together and we can make a Final Four. I think we did that.’
AD, players give Nate Oats credit
Byrne has seen his fair share of successful teams since he took the position at Alabama in 2017, and even though the basketball team was in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight season, he knew some improvements were needed to make the Final Four. Alabama needed to sharpen up its defense since it was in the bottom of the country in scoring defense. The defense did enough to let its offense flourish in the tournament.
That’s where Byrne gives credit to Oats. And his coaching this postseason is likely what Byrne envisioned when he hired him in 2019. When he offered him the position, Byrne said he told the former Buffalo coach to remember his beginnings when he was coaching basketball and teaching math classes at Romulus High School in Michigan. Remember when he sold ‘Capri Suns and Cheetos’ out of his office during that time so he had money to take his team on trips. If Oats didn’t forget that humility, then Byrne believed he was capable of achieving greatness with the Crimson Tide.
His players made sure to give Oats his due. People thought last year’s team that was the No. 1 overall seed was Alabama’s best chance to make the Final Four, but it was bounced in the Sweet 16. There wasn’t much outside belief Alabama could make it this year, yet here they are.
‘He’s just a great coach all around. He lost a lot from last year,’ said guard Mark Sears, who was named the West Regional Most Outstanding Player. ‘Just for him to rebuild a group, like he got us. It just goes to show how hardworking he is and how much of a competitor he is as well.’
Achieving basketball success at a football school
When Oats took the job at Alabama, he couldn’t deny football lived in the spotlight, and other sports were also winning titles. So he made it his mission to get the basketball team to the same level. Even going into this season, the basketball team was having winning seasons, but it hadn’t achieved a Final Four, something Oats felt would validate the team.
So Oats used his resources to his advantage. He tried to learn everything he could from seven-time national championship winning coach Nick Saban. Oats would watch football practices, sit on staff meetings, go on his road trips and even shadowed him. Quotes from Saban would consistently be used by Oats. He figured if he could just see how a coach consistently in the national championship picture operates, it would benefit his team.
‘I came to Alabama loving the fact that I was going to be able to work in the same athletic department as arguably the best – maybe not even the best football coach – the best coach of any team sports in modern history, or college sports, anything,’ Oats said. ‘I didn’t want to bother him. But I certainly picked his brain when it was appropriate.’
Saban has communicated with Oats during the NCAA Tournament run, encouraging him to get ready for the next challenge, which Alabama has been able to do so far. It’s learning from the football team’s success that makes it perfectly fine that Alabama is primarily a football school, regardless of how this postseason ends.
‘I love the fact that we’re a football school, and we’re going to try to add another sport to the championship school level because I think we’re knocking on the door there,’ Oats said. ‘Only 18 national championships behind them. We have a few to catch up. Let’s just keep grinding. Let’s get to a Final Four first, and let’s put ourselves on a big stage.’
So sure, Alabama hasn’t won a basketball championship yet. But achieving a Final Four spot, that’s something that could certainly launch another era of success in Tuscaloosa. This time, maybe it won’t just be football shining in the spotlight.
‘We’re never quite been able to get over this hurdle,’ Byrne said. ‘I certainly think this could be a springboard to a lot of other great things ahead.’
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ALBANY, N.Y. — Ever the entertainer, Caitlin Clark delivered the show the entire country has been clamoring to see.
Iowa and LSU in a rematch of last year’s title game. Clark and Angel Reese, toe to toe again, only one of them advancing to the Final Four.
“I think everybody is pretty excited for it. Twelve million people tuned in last year to see this game, might be the same this time,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said after the Hawkeyes routed Colorado 89-68 to set up a date with LSU in the Elite Eight on Monday night.
“These are two really good basketball teams, and it’s almost unfortunate they’re meeting this early,” Bluder added. “But everybody that’s left now is really good. LSU is certainly that.”
The game actually peaked at 12.6 million viewers, but Bluder’s point is made. Clark and Reese’s trash talking and playmaking in and ahead of last year’s game was an absolute gift to women’s sports. The interest in women’s sports that already was growing exploded exponentially, and that’s only continued this season.
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That they are meeting again in this year’s NCAA Tournament — the last for Clark and possibly for Reese — is a gift to us all.
‘Anytime you have a chance to go up against somebody you lost to, it brings a little more energy,’ Clark said. ‘At this point in the tournament every single team is good, whether you’re playing West Virginia, whether you’re playing Colorado, whether you’re playing LSU, you prep the exact same way. You come in with the exact same mindset.
‘Overall it’s just going to be a really great game for women’s basketball.’
Making it that much better was there were times, both during the season and during this tournament, that it seemed as if it wouldn’t happen. Even after they were put on a collision course by the selection committee.
What, you think the committee was going to pass up an opportunity to stage a rematch? Committee members are fans of the game, too.
LSU, a No. 3 seed, has had a streaky season and got all it could handle in its first-round game against Rice. Reese had a season-low 10 points against the Owls, though she did have 19 rebounds.
Iowa has looked vulnerable since the Big Ten Tournament title game. The Hawkeyes needed overtime to beat Nebraska for a three-peat before being pushed by Holy Cross and pushed around by West Virginia. It looked as if the frenzy that surrounded them during Clark’s assault on the record books had finally caught up to them, and it didn’t help that they’d lost starter Molly Davis to injury in the regular-season finale.
But Clark plays best when the spotlight is on her, and Saturday’s game was no different.
She set the tone for the Hawkeyes with a driving layup on Iowa’s first possession and fed Gabbie Marshall and Kate Martin for the next two buckets. After Jaylyn Sherrod’s layup cut Iowa’s lead to three, Clark fed Martin and then Hannah Stuelke to start an Iowa run.
By the time Clark hit a step-back 3-pointer that she might as well have taken from Massachusetts, Iowa was up by 14 and the game was effectively over. Colorado managed to get within single digits twice more in the first half, only to have Clark answer back each time.
Iowa led by double figures the entire second half.
“This was the first time in about three games we were able to put together what felt like a complete basketball game on both ends of the floor, whether it was in transition or on defense or really executing our offense,” Clark said. “I think being able to build off that and take that momentum into our next game.”
Even more important than Clark getting her groove back, however, was the rest of the Iowa team finding theirs, too.
Four other Hawkeyes finished in double figures, including a double-double by Stuelke (11 points, 10 rebounds) and a near-one by Martin (14 points, nine boards). Sydney Affolter, pressed into the starting lineup after Davis’ injury, had a monster performance, going a perfect 6 for 6 from the floor and finishing with 15, her second-most of the season. Marshall finished with 14.
The Hawkeyes also held Colorado below 38% shooting and won the rebounding battle, 43-34.
“Obviously there’s a lot of attention on Caitlin, and she’s going to get one or two people who have to look at her throughout the whole possession. So I think that leaves other people open,” Marshall said. “And I think that’s kind of what you saw tonight is just a complete basketball game.”
It couldn’t have come at a better time, because Reese and LSU await.
In a season when almost every game Clark and Iowa played seemed like a historic event, this one’s going to be truly epic.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
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