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Message: [QUOTE="schmendrick, post: 4279185, member: 1951"] From Just Women's Sports: [B]In the least surprising news ever, [/B]ESPN’s Megacast of the women’s Final Four was a massive success. [LIST] [*][B]The national championship game[/B] between South Carolina and UConn was the most-watched NCAA Tournament final in almost 20 years, with 4.85 million viewers tuning in on ESPN networks. [*][B]The number presents [/B]year-over-year growth of 18 percent from the 2021 championship, and 30 percent from 2019. [*][B]The game peaked [/B]at 5.91 million viewers. The total number includes 4.46 million viewers on the traditional telecast and 218,000 viewers for the Bird and Taurasi Show on ESPN2. [*][B]For reference, American Idol [/B](running on ABC) drew 4.71 million viewers in the same time slot. [/LIST] [B]Friday’s semifinal games[/B] saw similar year-over-year growth: It was the most-watched Final Four since 2012, with 21 percent overall growth from 2021. [LIST] [*][B]The later game between Stanford and UConn[/B] drew 3.23 million viewers, an increase of 19 percent from 2021. [*][B]Friday’s opener between South Carolina[/B] and Louisville drew 2.16 million viewers, in an even greater year-over-year increase of 27 percent for the early game and the greatest total since 2016. [/LIST] [B]The national championship game[/B] also registered a sellout crowd of 18,304 fans. [LIST] [*][B]The 2022 tournament[/B] is on track to break the all-time women’s tournament attendance record after setting the tone in the early rounds. [*][B]Said coach Dawn Staley after the title win:[/B] “When you treat women’s basketball like a sport, it’s so freaking fulfilling. When you invest in our tournament like you invest in the men’s tournament, you (ESPN) need some competition as far as networks to drive the price up.” [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach