There has been much ado about the star power of the 2024 NCAA women's basketball tournament compared to the relative lack on the men's side. "Saturday Night Live" became the latest to draw attention to the disparity.
NBC's sketch comedy show highlighted the Caitlin Clark phenomenon and poked fun at the lack of buzz for the men's tournament in its cold open, which also included its latest impression: Kim Mulkey.
SNL has featured plenty of sports bits in the past, including impersonations of ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith and spoofs on the antics of the "Inside the NBA" crew, including Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.
The show brought out the latest iterations of the Johnson, Smith and Barkley impressions Saturday night, as the group has been part of the analysis team for the March Madness games on TBS, TNT and CBS.
Here's what you need to know about the NCAA Tournament sketch.
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SNL March Madness cold open
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The sketch began with the introductions of the March Madness panelists, Johnson (James Austin Johnson), Smith (Devon Walker) and Barkley (Kenan Thompson). They started off by discussing the results of the men's tournament, with UConn beating Alabama not long before the start of the live show.
There's just one problem: No one has been watching the men's games.
"Ernie, can I be real with you? I didn't watch it," Barkley says.
Smith replies: "Me either. It's hard to get excited when there's better games on."
Johnson assumes Smith means the NBA, but Smith corrects him: He is talking about the women's tournament. Smith draws attention to the 14 million people who watched Iowa-UConn, calling the record-breaking ratings "'Young Sheldon' numbers."
MORE: UConn-Iowa sets viewership records on ESPN
The women's tournament is where the stars are all playing, according to the spoof Barkley.
"Caitlin Clark is doing ads for State Farm, Subway, Xfinity and Nike. I'm only doing ads for three of those companies," Barkley says.
Smith asks if anyone saw the shot Clark made in the UConn vs. South Carolina game. While Johnson is puzzled, as Clark doesn't play for either of those teams, Smith clarifies that she made the shot from a different arena. Barkley then recalls Clark dunking on him during a Subway commercial.
The parody version of Johnson steers the conversation back to the men's side, and Barkley relents, only to get both team names wrong. And in a breakdown of the matchups, he gives vague descriptions of the starters based on thei physical appearances.
Then comes Mulkey (Heidi Gardner), who is wearing a bright, feathery pink jacket reminiscent of the attention-grabbing outfits often worn by the LSU coach. She describes it as a custom-made shirt, which she asked to look like "the Riddler went to Talbots."
MORE: Kim Mulkey NCAA Tournament outfit tracker
Johnson asks about her reputation as a stern coach, but Mulkey denies that she is too tough on her players.
"People just think I'm mean because I've got resting QAnon face. But that's what it takes to win in the college game and I work my girls hard," Gardner as Mulkey says. "Every day, I make them run 10 miles breathing in Louisiana swamp gas. Then we practice full contact.
"And if I don't see hustle, I'll throw a live alligator on the court. You better box out that gator and don't get ate up now."
Asked about the men's national championship game, she predicts "Northern Southern State" as the winner — to which Johnson replies that she's clearly not watching the men's tournament either.
The panelists are then asked to give predictions for the women's game, leading Barkley to stumble upon some poorly worded search results. Ultimately, though, Smith (Walker) and Barkley (Thompson) both wind up picking South Carolina to win at the end of the sketch.
