One of the episodes of NBC’s Saturday Night Live focused on women’s NCAA Tournament and the level of anticipation and excitement the matchups have been garnering.
The set was TBS’s post-game coverage and saw Devon Walker as Kenny Smith, James Austin Johnson as Ernie Johnson, Kenan Thompson as Charles Barkley, and Heidi Gardner as LSU’s decorated head coach, Kim Mulkey.
Smith shared how the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four was watched by 14 million people and the faceoff of two stars, Caitlin Clark, the NCAA Division 1 all-time leading scorer against UConn’s Paige Bueckers.
The comical start was taken by Charles Barkley i.e. Thompson, and mentioned, “The women’s is turning up the stars. Caitlin Clark is going as for State Farm, Subway, XFinity and Nike. I’m only doing ads for three of those companies.”
Saturday Night Live began this week’s show with a cold open on women’s NCAA Tournament stars, viewership, and NIL.
“14 million… those are Young Sheldon numbers.”pic.twitter.com/CoIdaykE3d
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) April 7, 2024
Later in the video, Ernie Johnson asked Barkley about the Men’s NCAA Tournament and he shared, “The Men’s Final this Monday is I believe between Quimminac College versus Northern Southern State.”
To which Johnson replied, “Neither of those are real schools. It’s actually Purdue-Connecticut.”
Then Johnson asked Barkley to break down the matchups and Barkley mentioned, “Him and him, let’s see this guy on this guy. Half stash on braids, baby face versus baby face. Tall white vs Tall asian.”
Later Johnson asked questions from the head coach, Mulkey and how she has a reputation of being too tough on her players. Mulkey, who was played by Heidi Garner chimed in and stated, “Ohh please. People think I’m just mean because I have resting QAnon face. That is what it takes to win in a college game, and I work my girls hard every day. I make then run 10 miles breathing in Louisiana swamp gas. We practice full contact, and if I don’t see hustle, I’ll throw a live alligator on the court.”
The co-host then asked who she thinks will win regarding the Men’s final on Monday. To which the Hall of Famer head coach replied, “Oh. Northern, Southern State.”
Then Johnson said, “She’s clearly not watching it either.”
Smith later in the video mentioned that he would be going with the South Carolina Gamecocks as “they haven’t lost a single game this entire season.”
Barkley also shared, “Oh, come on Kenny, you know Iowa is a team of destiny. They’re hot right now. And they’ve got the greatest player of her generation. That’s why I bet $500,000 they are going to lose by ten.”
Johnson ended with saying, “You have a problem, Charles.”
