The Things I'll Try

My motto of late is, "I'll try anything twice."

I may have to change that motto.

I tried to watch women's college basketball today. Figured that you had 2 games tonight that involved two dynasties and two teams that have been 1-2 in the rankings all year. Let's just say that I lasted about 10 minutes during the first stretch. UNC was beating up on Tennessee, and it was sort of ugly to watch. So I wandered off to do some work. Of course, since I'll try anything twice, I tuned into the 2nd half of Duke-UConn. I couldn't do it. There were a couple nice shots that were made. Nothing spectacular. But a nice little fadeaway in the lane off of a good post move by Duke player. And then they also had their little guard make a nice move off the dribble and hit a fadeaway in the lane. And that was the highlight. Let's put it like this. It was a 2 point game with under 2 minutes left. Even though I've been frustrated at men's hoops, if this was a UConn-Duke men's game at the same juncture, you'd have to pry me away with a crowbar. I left of my own volition, just wondering if the women's game will ever become good enough to really watch on it's own absolute merits (not just that it's a well played game for women).

I don't see the answer being "yes" anytime soon. And the answer is absolutely NOT because they don't dunk the ball. The answer is because their forwards and centers are absolutely horrible to watch. These chicks, in general, have very little athletic ability, and often, the play in the post is just ugly. They're tall, they're big, and that's about it. I'm actually reasonably impressed with the guard play that I've been seeing. There are some solid players that I've seen who have good handle, make solid passes, and can shoot and create. If you could enforce a rule that all women's players had to be under 6'0" tall, you may actually get a game that's fun to watch. I don't want to see these huge women plodding along with no real skill. You see it in the men's hoops, for sure, but you don't typically see it at the higher levels. And when you see some of the really huge men's players out there, they often have surprising athletic ability. This has not been the case with the big women players that I've been watching. And for all the talk of the women's game being more fundamentally sound, with better ball movement and better shooting? Well, I have to say that I wasn't particularly impressed. Maybe I just caught a couple ugly stretches, but there's as much of an issue with fundamentals in the women's game as there is in the men's game. And this was with elite programs. I don't even want to think about average mid-major or low-D1 women's hoops. Or... heh... JUCO women's hoops. Wow. On the list of things that will make me vomit, I just added two.

For women's hoops to make the leap, there needs to be an overall change in the game, where Candice Parker isn't a freak of nature, but is one of many players that can make the game more interesting to watch. And it will have to happen without the loss of fundamentally sound basketball. I think that the day will come where women's basketball will become watchable. It just doesn't happen to be today.

-Chairman