COLUMBUS – It is basketball’s biggest weekend and Columbus is getting more than its share of the spotlight as Nationwide Arena plays host to the Women’s NCAA Final Four.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Bulldogs of Mississippi State face off in the national championship game at 6:00 p.m. Sunday at Nationwide Arena. The game will be televised by ESPN.
Early-arriving fans can enjoy the Party on the Plaza at Battelle Plaza between 3:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. highlighted by the first-ever “red carpet arrival” for the teams playing in the title game.
At noon at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, Dr. Lisa Hinkelman, founder and executive director fof Ruling Our eXperiences, will release “The Girls and Sports Report” on the role that sport participation plays in the lives of girls, including its impact on friendships, school connection, confidence, social media and technology use and career aspirations.
The research was based on data from “The Girls Index,” which surveyed 10,678 girls across country and uncovered some surprising statistics, such as 46 percent of high school girls do not believe they are smart enough for their dream careers.
The weekend also marks the handing out of post-season awards and Ohio State, though bounced from the tournament, was no left out: Kelsey Mitchell became the first Buckeye to be named to the All-America first team all four years of her collegiate career, which she finished as the NCAA’s second all-time leading scorer with 3,402 career points.
A’ja Wilson of South Carolina is The Associated Press women’s college basketball player of the year. Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw is The Associated Press women’s college basketball coach of the year for the fourth time.
In addition to nationwide attention and an influx of thousands of visitors, Columbus received a few tangible gifts as a result of hosting the event.
Beatty Park is now home to the Final Four Dream Court, which was gifted to Columbus from the NCAA.
The NCAA and Columbus City Schools celebrated the success of their “Read to the Final Four” partnership with a huge pep rally Thursday at the NCAA Women’s Final Four Tourney Town, a festival of interactive games, giveaways, basketball contests, and youth clinics inside the Columbus Convention Center.
More than 2,000 third graders from 35 schools – about half of all the third-grade students in the district — have been tracking the minutes they spend reading and collectively racked up 16.258 million extra words over the past four months, district officials said.