White House hosts S
Sep 10, 2024, 03:53 PM ET WASHINGTON– President Joe Biden honored 2024 NCAA basketball champions South Carolina and Connecticut on Tuesday at the White Home, celebrating the 2 powerhouse programs’ most recent national title runs.South Carolina went 38-0 on the way to its latest women’s title. It was coach Dawn Staley’s third champion with the Gamecocks since 2017. Biden cheered South Carolina for introducing an era of rising interest in ladies’s sports.South Carolina’s title game versus Iowa drew more audiences than this year’s guys’s champion, averaging 18.7 million viewers on ABC and ESPN and peaking at 24 million viewers.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated” I believe it’s fair to state everyone, everybody watches ladies’s sports now,”Biden stated.”When new fans watch for
the first time,
when young girls see their idols, they see the power of your example.” Later, at a separate event for the University of Connecticut men’s group, Biden marveled at the success of the Huskies’
squad, that included 4 first-round choices in the latest NBA draft. UConn coach Dan Hurley’s team went 37-3 in winning its 2nd straight title.”Clearly, you should have something in the water up there,”stated Biden, who also noted that 11 professional athletes who competed in this summer season’s Paris Olympics had UConn ties.South Carolina’s unblemished year came even after Staley lost all five beginners from her 2023 group that was defeated in the Last 4. The Gamecocks were dominant throughout their historical season, leading the country in scoring defense, margin of victory and obstructed shots.For UConn, it was the school’s 6th guys’s national title. The Huskies signed up with the 2006-07 Florida Gators and the 1991-92 Duke Blue Devils as just the third group to repeat given that John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and
’70s. The UConn Huskies commemorate their 2023-24 men’s basketball NCAA championship Tuesday at the White Home with President Joe Biden.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Hurley this summertime denied an offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers and signed a six-year,$ 50 million offer to remain at UConn. He said his focus is now on winning a 3rd successive title. No men’s program has accomplished a three-peat considering that UCLA won seven in a row between 1967 and 1973. It was the first White Home visit for South Carolina. Staley and the Gamecocks did not go to the White House following champions in 2017 and 2022.
Vice President Kamala Harris paid a visit to the group while she remained in Columbia, South Carolina, previously this year.Staley, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and coach of the U.S. ladies’s basketball team in Tokyo three years ago, just recently functioned as a member of the presidential delegation to the Paris Olympics.Several popular present and previous South Carolinian political leaders went to Tuesday’s event for the Gamecocks, consisting of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, and previous Columbia mayor Steve Benjamin, who is now a senior advisor to the president.Biden joked that the South Carolina officeholders might have some intense competition if the popular Staley were to provide politics a shot.”All of those of you who hold public office in South Carolina, you much better hope she keeps coaching and doesn’t run,” Biden said of Staley.