Why the end of Iowa vs. UConn was the perfect basketball controversy

The dynasty everyone will remember from this NCAA women’s basketball season is South Carolina, which punctuated an undefeated season with a hard-earned title game win Sunday over Iowa.

The player everyone will remember most from this season is of course Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who shattered all sorts of records and more importantly was the leading character as women’s basketball took a massive leap forward in popularity.

But the play I will remember most from this women’s basketball season -- maybe you, too? -- came near the end of Friday’s semifinal between UConn and Iowa. UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards was called for an illegal screen in the closing seconds after colliding with Iowa’s Gabbie Marshall just as the Huskies’ Paige Bueckers was about to possibly rise up and shoot a jumper that could have put UConn ahead.

The ensuing moments and days after that call was made provided a lesson in the eye of the beholder -- making it a perfect sports controversy, as Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

When I first saw the play, my reaction was that there is no way a referee can make that call in that moment. How dare they deprive us of players deciding the drama?

As is the case with heat-of-the-moment social media missives, I fired off the strongest tweet I could imagine.

A lot of people agreed with me, and I gave far more credence to the affirming voices than the dissenting ones for a while. Women’s basketball great Kelsey Plum chimed in on X (formerly Twitter): “To call that on a game deciding play is so wrong WOW.”

UConn coach Geno Auriemma groused afterwards: “There’s probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession. I just know there were three or four of them called on us and I don’t think there were any called on them. So I guess we just gotta get better on not setting illegal screens.”

That lined up with my initial sentiment: An illegal screen is like holding or pass interference in football. Some of it happens all the time, and it needs to be especially bad to call it in such a big moment.

Enough people popped up in my feed to question my point of view, though, that I finally decided to look at the play again with neutral eyes.

Watching it over and over, it looked more like Edwards had taken a significant slide over and raised her arm. It looked less like Marshall was simply selling it and more like her progress had been derailed.

It was egregious enough to warrant being called at any point in a game, even with the game on the line. The fact that nobody wants the game decided that way doesn’t trump the facts of the play.

But the swirl of everything around it? It sure made for the perfect controversy.

Here are four more things to know today:

*I’m not sure why a Naz Reid towel made it into WrestleMania, but you have to love the fact that it came on the same night Reid went for 31 points and 11 rebounds in a key Timberwolves win over the short-handed Lakers.

*Reid is starting because Karl-Anthony Towns is still out with a meniscus injury, but a report Monday from Shams Charania suggested KAT could return before the start of the playoffs. The Wolves have four regular-season games remaining, including a huge one Wednesday against Denver.

*Reusse and I also talked about the freezing cold Twins offense. We’ll see if they wind up getting rained out again Monday night.

*Vikings writer Andrew Krammer is expected to join me on Tuesday’s podcast for a fresh look at the Vikings’ draft options and their pursuit of a quarterback.