Bigger and better: Women's Final Four teams filled with multi-talented frontcourt players
PHOENIX (AP) — Madison Booker has a midrange jumper that's almost unblockable, beats defenders off the dribble, plays in the post when she wants, shoots the 3 if she needs to. The Texas junior has great court vision, is an adept passer and is a menace defensively, bullying smaller guards on the ball, jumping into passing lanes off it. Had it been an earlier era in women's college basketball, Booker would have been a back-to-the-basket player.
But this is a new age, one where 6-footers are everywhere at this year's Final Four and Booker is a guard — at 6-foot-1. “You look at Madison Booker and, I mean, she’s like a mini-KD (Kevin Durant),” Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks said after Booker had 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists against his team in the Sweet 16. The average height for an American woman is 5-3, according to the CDC.
Women's college basketball has become the oversized outlier above the median, towering players spread across the Division I landscape, many of whom do more than just park under the basket. This year's repeat Final Four has a large collection of large players, UConn, South Carolina, UCLA and Texas arriving with a combined 36 players 6-0 or taller — 55. 6% of all the players in Phoenix.
UCLA's Lauren Betts is the tallest among the regular contributors at 6-7, anchoring a team with eight players at least 6-0. The two-time AP All-American is a matchup nightmare, using her height and skill to score in a variety of ways — mainly shooting over smaller defenders. Betts is just as dominant on the defensive end, swatting shots, altering many more, deterring opponents from even thinking about going into the lane.
Betts averaged 18. 5 points and 7. 6 rebounds while shooting 60.
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