Trash talk is good for women's college basketball — up to a point | Whitley

It’s not every week that women’s basketball is the talk of the town. Then again, it’s not every week the star of the women’s Final Four talks trash to the first lady.

LSU’s Angel Reese was not pleased that Jill Biden wanted to invite both the Tigers and Iowa to the White House. In case you haven’t heard, LSU beat the Hawkeyes in the NCAA Tournament championship game last Sunday.

And if you haven’t heard, you must have spent the week at an Aaron Rodgers darkness retreat.

The LSU-Iowa final averaged 9.9 million viewers, more than double last year's championship game. People were talking about it in restaurants, bars, operating rooms, on radio, TV and all over the internet.

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There were a lot of reasons for the boom, not the least of which was America discovering that players such as Reese and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark aren’t just capable of playing some serious hoops.

They can also talk a pretty mean game.

“A Little Trash Talk Is Just What Women’s Basketball Needs,” was the headline on Time.com.

Well, yes and no.

How far should trash talk go on women's basketball court?

Trash talk generates a buzz, and women’s basketball can always use that.

“I think the competitiveness of it and the attention it has drawn to women’s basketball as a whole is very positive,” Florida coach Kelly Rae Finley said.

But things can go too far. Where that line is has fueled much of the past week’s chatter.

Clark didn’t just score 41 points in Iowa’s semifinal win over mighty South Carolina, she did it with a playground swagger. The most popular highlight was Clark leaving South Carolina’s Raven Johnson unguarded and waving for her to shoot.

In the Elite Eight win over Louisville, Clark scored 41 points and chirped: “You’re down 15 points. Shut up,” to an opponent.

LSU more than held up its theatrical end, especially Reese, aka “Bayou Barbie.” In the final seconds of the title game, she covered her face in front of Clark, mimicking the “You Can’t See Me” gesture made famous by WWE star John Cena.

Reese then held up her hand and pointed to her ring finger, rubbing in the fact that she was about to get one and Clark was not. Critics pounced. Then critics pounced on critics for not criticizing Clark over her antics.

Not lost on anyone was the fact that Clark is white and Reese is Black. The internet melted down in debates over racism, sexism and the proper role of trash-talking.

I prefer there be no tongue-wagging, but I also prefer that everybody wash their hands after using the bathroom. Humans can be a strange breed, and some need to stream insults at opponents during sporting competitions.

Truth be told, the bombast can be pretty entertaining. Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and other NBA icons were legendary trash-talkers. You can’t say it’s OK for men to do it but women should be verbally prim and proper.

But there’s a difference between trash-talking and taunting. Bird ran his mouth during the NBA Finals, but he never approached Magic Johnson and pointed at his ring finger. That would have triggered a non-fake WWE brawl.

Speaking of which, at least a couple of men’s games are marred by fights every season. It seems women are increasingly taking a cue.

The Gators got into a scuffle against Kentucky. A Memphis player was charged with assault after she punched a Bowling Green player in the postgame handshake line. You can bet they’d exchanged a few words during the game.

P.T. Barnum had a point, but did he ever play basketball?

P.T. Barnum famously said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” And conflicts certainly provide that.

Barnum would have loved how Reese tweeted that Iowa being invited to the White House "was a JOKE.” And how the Tigers preferred to celebrate with the Obamas rather than the Bidens.

In the two days after the championship game, Reese picked up 500,000 Instagram followers. Demand for Iowa season tickets became so intense that the school suspended sales to figure out how to handle the surge.

The buzz continued through Friday when Reese announced that she and her teammates would visit the White House.

All this confirms that it was a great week for women’s basketball. A little trash talk really was just what the sport needed.

But as we eagerly wait to see whether Reese will give President Joe Biden the “You Can’t See Me” treatment, let’s hope everybody remembers that a little can go a long way.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley