Paul Finebaum gives harsh take on UConn-San Diego State national championship matchup

This year, the women’s NCAA Tournament may be a bigger spectacle than the men’s — due to a dearth of brand names in the men’s Final Four, meanwhile the women’s featured all kinds of fascinating storylines. You had Caitlin Clark, perhaps the best women’s scorer in recent memory, dragging Iowa to the title game over an undefeated and reigning champion South Carolina squad. After Clark’s heroics allowed the Hawkeyes to outlast the Gamecocks, Kim Mulkey toppled them in the title game to win LSU’s first title after just two years on the job.

On the other hand, the men’s Final Four simply fails to live up to that sort of hype or the level of excitement at last season’s final games. Programs like Florida Atlantic and San Diego State aren’t name brand schools with huge fanbases and neither is Miami, at least in basketball. UConn is more of a longstanding power but their fanbase ain’t quite that of a blue blood and they’re tucked away up a world away from Houston in New England.

So, given how the two tournaments unfolded, SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum says he found himself more enthralled with the women’s finals this time around. For folks on his station, LSU–Iowa with the generational star Caitlin Clark is a bigger draw than Connecticut and San Diego State. Here were his comments on the matter when he joined Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic on their radio show:

“When the (men’s) tournament started, of the two, we knew UConn was a good team. But I don’t want to say they’re off the radar, because if you’re a basketball junkie, you know exactly what’s going on there. But they’re not the kind of brands we’re used to. And again, we’re in the south, so we’re more focused on Alabama and Auburn and Tennessee, Kentucky, schools like that.

“San Diego State is an intriguing story, though, on the other hand. I mean, I really find what they’ve done with an experienced team, guys that have been around a long time, a fantastic story. I just, I was more compelled by the women’s tournament, though. And it had nothing to do with LSU winning. I would have bet my house, your house and Cole’s on South Carolina winning. So we’d all be homeless today if it were up to me.”

Heck, Finebuam was so wired in to the game that he was trying to check on Clark’s stats as he was driving down the road.

“What I find interesting is yesterday I was coming home from somewhere after the game started, and not only was I checking the score, but I was going deeper into the boxscore to see how she was shooting, because I knew she had to have a fantastic game. So, not that that’s a big deal, but I’ve never done anything quite like that before.”

What Paul Finebaum finds interesting is that he committed traffic violations to catch up on the latest from the women’s national title game. The good news for local drivers is that it sounds like he won’t care enough about the SDSU-UConn game to take his eyes off the road and look up Matt Bradley’s stateline.

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