CNN
 — 

Between all of the shocks, the super ability on present on the court docket and the drama off it, it’s been fairly the ladies’s March Insanity in 2024.

After the speaking factors of final yr’s nationwide championship sport, it appeared a tricky act to comply with. However this yr’s version of the ladies’s NCAA event has greater than lived as much as the hype.

And now, there are simply 4 groups left standing because the competitors enters its semifinal stage.

Right here’s all the things that you must know forward of a must-watch set of Remaining 4 fixtures.

After weeks of grueling motion, the remaining groups will go head-to-head on Friday, April 5 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.

Each Remaining 4 clashes shall be proven on ESPN, with No. 1 South Carolina dealing with No. 3 NC State first at 7 p.m. E.T.

Thirty minutes after the primary semifinal sport has ended, No. 1 Iowa and No. 3 UConn will hit the hardwood in the identical area for a spot within the nationwide championship sport.

One is the undefeated juggernaut trying to make historical past whereas the opposite is the upstart that’s shocked a few of the greatest names within the event.

The South Carolina Gamecocks enter the Remaining 4 because the overwhelming favourite to win the nationwide championship after a undefeated marketing campaign during which the crew has swept apart everybody and all the things put earlier than it.

After a 36-0 common season, the Gamecocks booked their fourth-straight Remaining 4 look with a 12-point win over No. 3 Oregon State.

Over its final 79 video games, South Carolina is 78-1 with the lone defeat coming towards Caitlin Clark’s Iowa in final yr’s Remaining 4 because the crew was aiming for back-to-back school basketball titles.

Throughout head coach Daybreak Staley’s 16 seasons on the helm, South Carolina has develop into the dominant drive in girls’s basketball, however final yr’s loss to Iowa nonetheless haunts her.

“Final yr rocked me. It rocked me as a result of we had a crew filled with gamers who did all the suitable issues. All the suitable issues,” she instructed reporters.

“In the event you might have been round that exact group of younger girls, you’d need them to win. We don’t know why, and we regularly attempt to ask God why. Why?

“As we speak, I stand right here as our why. Doesn’t make them really feel any higher about them not cementing their legacy much more, however I do know they’re joyful and pleased with this group they usually’re joyful and pleased with South Carolina, the place they selected to come back to highschool and create a legacy.”

Standing between South Carolina and changing into the tenth ever unbeaten Division I girls’s basketball champion is NC State, which has had a magical run to the semifinals.

Alongside the best way, the No. 3 seed has overwhelmed No. 6 Tennessee, No. 2 Stanford and No. 1 Texas. The Wolfpack’s 10-point victory over Texas booked their spot within the Remaining 4.

The Wolfpack’s look at this stage of March Insanity is its first since 1998 and solely the second within the faculty’s historical past.

“, individuals doubted us, and we didn’t care what the media needed to say,” stated NC State guard Aziaha James. “We didn’t care what anyone needed to say. We confirmed up on the court docket each time, and we proved who we had been.”

However NC State faces a frightening process in making an attempt to get the higher of South Carolina – the Gamecocks have trailed for a complete of simply 61 seconds throughout their 4 video games, and by no means by greater than two factors, this event. However Wolfpack head coach Wes Moore says there’s nonetheless purpose to be hopeful.

“Clearly, one of the best crew within the nation. However you’re not taking part in a four-out-of-seven collection. You’re taking part in one sport, okay?” Moore instructed reporters. “So we’ve simply bought to discover a technique to win one sport towards them, and it’s going to be an enormous problem.

“However, hey, proper now, , you would inform me we’re taking part in the [Portland] Path Blazers, and I’d really feel okay. We’re within the Remaining 4. Carry them on.”

Within the second semifinal, it’s seemingly all about Caitlin Clark, although UConn guard Paige Bueckers may disagree.

After a historic common season, Clark has virtually single-handedly propelled Iowa via March Insanity, culminating together with her 41-point efficiency towards LSU within the Elite Eight.

Not solely did that dominant outing banish some demons from final yr’s title sport, but it surely additionally cemented Clark’s standing as probably the most dominant participant in girls’s school basketball in the mean time with UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma saying, “We don’t plan on stopping her as a result of I attempted calling all the opposite coaches which have stopped her, and none of them reply the telephone. So we’re going to need to discover a completely different technique to win than stopping Caitlin Clark.”

Just one closing accolade stays for Clark earlier than she presumably heads to the WNBA: to win a nationwide championship.

After falling on the closing hurdle final time round, the three-point specialist as soon as once more has a superb opportunity to win that so-far elusive title – for each Iowa and herself – with simply two video games standing between her and school basketball’s most prestigious trophy.

“There’s nonetheless two extra [games] there to get,” she stated on Monday. “That’s what makes the Remaining 4 so enjoyable. Anyone can take it. Anyone can win it.

“I believe we’ve the facility to do this.”

Clark will take to the court docket within the Remaining 4 towards the Huskies, a crew which she thought she was going to play for rising up.

Clark admitted final month that she idolized former UConn star Maya Moore and needed to comply with in her footsteps because of this.

“I needed to be similar to her. I assumed I used to be going to go to UConn after I was rising up, however clearly, that’s not what occurred,” Clark instructed reporters final month.

“Caitlin, clearly, is an incredible participant, generational participant, but when Caitlin actually needed to come back to UConn, she would have known as me and stated, ‘Coach, I actually wish to come to UConn,’” Auriemma instructed the NCAA on Tuesday.

“So I don’t assume that both of us misplaced out. I believe she made one of the best choice for her, and it’s labored out nice. We made the choice we thought we wanted to make,” he added.

“I attempt to lock into who matches with us, attempt to lock in on them early. That’s what occurred with us and Paige. We felt actually, actually snug with that, and we went with it.”

Although the specter of what might have been hovers over the sport, the Huskies are formidable of their quest for a record-extending twelfth nationwide championship with their very own star guard.

Bueckers has been one of many standout gamers of March Insanity to this point, placing her crew on her again throughout their run to a twenty third Remaining 4 look.

The 22-year-old has been working her manner again from a misplaced season final yr attributable to a severe knee harm and has been hitting her stride because the event has progressed.

She has performed each minute of UConn’s final three video games in March Insanity, scoring 32, 24 and 28 factors in a formidable run of performances.

Arguably her most spectacular efficiency got here in UConn’s Elite Eight conflict with the No. 1 USC Trojans, when she completed with 28 factors, 10 rebounds and 6 assists to qualify the Huskies for the semifinals.

Though she has already introduced she is going to return to UConn subsequent season fairly than declare for the WNBA draft, Bueckers is among the stars of the Remaining 4 and can show a tricky impediment for Iowa to beat.