It’s Monday night, you’re laying in bed watching Caitlin Clark and her Hawkeyes take on the West Virginia Mountaineers in the second round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament. You’re just a random guy, middle aged tuning in to see this girl Caitlin Clark play. Everyone at work has been talking about her, your group chat comprised of old friends you used to shotgun beers with in college have mentioned her a few times because their wives love her and they figure, well at least she’s talking about sports.

Monday is a breathing day. You just spent 4 days in a row watching countless hours of basketball. Remote in hand, shuffling from CBS to TNT to not miss any action. Rooting for underdogs like Yale or for your 6 team parlay to hit. Best 4 days in sports. You’re exhausted, mentally drained from doing the math on your over/under in the 2-15 game. Your phone battery is low because that group chat you have…..has constant messages like, “March is still undefeated”, “Whats the play at 4 o’clock” or “I think I played against the Gohlke guy in my men’s league last year”

There’s nothing to watch on this Monday. You can’t possible tune into an NBA game right in the middle of the tournament so you decide, let me check Caitlin Clark out. You’re way too late on her but you might as well familiarize yourself a little. Four minutes into the game, Clark has hit her first 3 threes and you’re hooked. The game is solid, it’s fast, it’s physical. Clark talks shit every play and treats the referees like she’s Luka Doncic. Fans are yelling, boo’s are directed at WVU players as they come off the court or treat Clarke like anything less than royalty. You think, this ain’t bad and stick with it.

10PM comes around. Iowa is going to pull it out. You learn that it’s Caitlin Clark’s last home game ever and can’t seem to turn the game off because Caitlin is a show! She’s at half-court egging the fans on to get louder. She’s supposed to be at the free throw line. It’s now 10:04 and the game ends. The timeline is important to my bigger point of all this, I promise. Four minutes ago the USC-Kansas game has tipped.

Here comes Holly! Everyone’s favorite WBB reporter Holly Rowe. Caitlin and her are best friends at this point. Interviews begin with Caitlin and her teammates, it’s 10:06. You listen to Caitlin Clark speak for 20 seconds, realize you’re not that interested so you check your phone to see when the Men’s games are back on this week. Thursday, great! It’s 10:07. You tune back into your television, ESPN is back at studio. Kelsey Riggs catches your attention as Rebeccah Lobo and Nikki Fargas talk about the great Caitlin Clark. It’s 10:12. You decide you’ve covered Caitlin Clark enough and you’re going to put on Yellowstone because you figure Rip will get your masculinity back. It’s 10:15.

IT IS 10:15 AND THE FIRST QUARTER OF USC KANSAS IS OVER!!

Why am I angry? ESPN had the chance to take the Women’s game to another level. Everyone was tuned into Iowa’s game on Monday night. Shoot, a regular season game against Ohio State had 3.39 million viewers just short of a month ago. This was a Monday night with no other competition. I would have to think viewership was similar. EVERYONE TURNED IT OFF!!. ESPN wasted 16 minutes on interviews and studio coverage when they could taken all that viewership and put JUJU WATKINS in front of them.

Watkins is a freshman at USC. She’s ridiculous. The 6’2 guard moves like she’s on skates. She just glides in transition. She’s big, she’s strong, her handle is legit. She has every shot in the bag. Last night she did her Curry impression with a 40 footer, just to later pull up and hit a 8 foot jumper off the glass in transition like she was Larry Bird. She is the highest scorer in the country behind Caitlin Clark. She dropped 51 points against the 4th ranked Stanford this season. She has scored over 30 points in 13 games. She will be a better scorer than Caitlin Clark when it’s all said and done. She is the best women’s basketball player the game has seen since Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi and Candace Parker. BUT…..Caitlin Clark? Yea I know she’s great. Juju is better.

The major problem is ESPN allowed half of America to go to bed last night instead of getting the game on immediately. You still want to do the Caitlin Clark interview? Great, I am all for it. Split the screen, put Holly Rowe in the bottom right corner. It’s 2024, you can do whatever you want! JUST GIVE THE COUNTRY JUJU!

Why is it a major issue? We’re growing the game, the game is hot. Women’s basketball is on the rise. Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese. There are stars all over the place. Young girl’s are obsessed. Adults, men and women love it. This year we had Holy Cross player’s posting “don’t meet your heroes” after playing against Caitlin Clark. Another player in the same sport, the same age. They look up to her. Did you see Jon Stockton asking for Michael Jordan’s autograph after the game? These stars have changed the outlook on our sport. Angel Reese is a mega star! I’ll give ESPN credit, they have supported the game and have really made strides to elevate the sport. Holly Rowe is a major player in the women’s game. The game’s coverage and popularity has multiplied over and over.

What happens when Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are gone? Well there will be another star. Yea, maybe. Luckily we have Juju Watkins but if ESPN isn’t going to use their common sense how do we stay hot? If you take a breath, it will slip. I don’t know TV, I have no idea how ratings work. I don’t know how to produce a show or a channel but as a fan, I know what I want to see and I know what is important for a non fan to see. ESPN, you had the attention of Caitlin Clark and basketball fans, you had more than just the women’s basketball world watching. John Doe who works a 9-5 and is too old to enjoy shotgunning a beer with his old buddies was watching, and then he got his buddies to tune in. What did you do? You brought it back to studio so we could listen to Chiney Ogwumike attempt to carry Nikki Fargas’ monotone thoughts and lack of eye contact. You failed. You missed out on millions of people being introduced to the best women’s player in the world.

I hope you do better.