Huskies bad for women's hoops? Hardly
By Graham HaysESPN.com
David Butler II/US PresswireMaya Moore and UConn are six games away from a second straight unbeaten season.Editor's note: This page will be updated throughout the 2010 NCAA tournament as the Huskies continue to pursue their second consecutive perfect season.
We come to bury Connecticut, not to praise it.
So begins the tournament of foregone conclusions, three weeks supposedly devoid of drama with an ending already spoiled by a team that hasn't lost in nearly two full turns of the calendar, a team that hasn't seen its margin of victory sink into single digits during that time.
Something must be wrong for something to be this good, or so the thinking goes for those certain they could find the forest if not for the trees obstinately blocking the view.
There will be tournaments in the future with more intrigue, as there have been in the past, which is all the more reason to appreciate this one for what it offers.
It's a chance to appreciate a team that is considerably more than the sum of its not insubstantial parts. A chance to appreciate rooting for the Huskies if you're so inclined, and most definitely a chance for the majority to appreciate rooting against them. The Huskies aren't the continuation of the past or representative of the future of women's basketball. They belong to this moment.
And this moment is anything but a bad one for women's basketball.
Those whose hands were too occupied with wringing in the wake of Connecticut's dominance in reaching record-setting proportions on the eve of the NCAA tournament might have been better served holding a remote. Instead of worrying about the state of women's basketball, they might have tried watching a little more of it.
They might have seen South Dakota State hold off Oral Roberts in a 79-75 overtime thriller in the Summit League title game in front of 5,460 fans -- roughly 2,300 more patrons than stuck around for the men's final between Oakland and IUPUI. They might have found time on the day after Connecticut broke its own record for consecutive wins to mention Middle Tennessee's Alysha Clark, who scored 48 points to lead her team past Arkansas-Little Rock and into the NCAA tournament.
Women's basketball as it exists outside of Storrs, Conn., is doing just fine. As fans around the country can attest, watching Nebraska's Kelsey Griffin, Stanford's Nnemkadi Ogwumike, Texas A&M's Danielle Adams, Iowa State's Alison Lacey and more names than will fit in this space over the next three weeks will still feel more like March Madness than the march of the condemned.
If women's basketball was regressing, a post player like Adams, whom Texas A&M coach Gary Blair likens to Charles Barkley, wouldn't have such soft hands or bring the crowd to its feet when she pulls up for a 3-pointer in transition. We wouldn't see Stanford's Kayla Pedersen, a 6-foot-4 wing who might have been confined to the post in another era. We wouldn't see a 6-1 point guard like Courtnay Pilypaitis -- who grew up idolizing Connecticut -- leading a mid-major program like Vermont into the NCAA tournament with realistic hopes of playing beyond the first weekend.
The talent pool is vastly deeper and the competition significantly better than it was when Texas went undefeated in 1986 or when Connecticut and Tennessee traded perfect seasons in the 1990s, better even than when the Huskies finished a perfect season in 2002. And what this Connecticut team is doing is worth appreciating precisely because it stands in stark contrast to the environment in which it exists.
To read the entire column, click here.
Three ways 2010 could end for UConn
ESPN.com
You know exactly what you would see then, right? Or at least you're pretty darn sure. There's a prohibitive favorite to win it all, and not much optimism that somebody else will step forward to stop that favorite. But …
Hey, lots of DVDs do have "alternate endings," don't they? So what if this season didn't turn out the way that it's predicted?
What if No. 1 Connecticut didn't run through its six NCAA tournament opponents, win its second straight national title and extend its victory streak (all by double digits) to 78?
What if at least one team really pushed the Huskies along the way? What if the players and fans, really for the first time in a long while, felt that heart-pounding exhilaration of a game going down to the final seconds?
Or … what if -- dare we even say it? -- it doesn't end at all like predicted? What if UConn actually loses?
Well, here's how we think the DVD would look with three different kinds of endings for the NCAA tournament:
1. UConn continuing to dominate its competition and winning the program's seventh NCAA title;
2. UConn taking a more harrowing path that reveals some vulnerabilities -- but still getting the championship;
3. The real Hitchcock-like shocker. As in, the big star of the movie, Janet Leigh, takes an ill-fated shower and … er, the No. 1 seed, UConn, is eliminated before the picture's even over.
To read the entire column, click here.
Women's NCAA Division I Win Streak In Hand
Seven years after setting the NCAA Division I women's mark for consecutive victories, UConn has done it again. The Huskies won their record-breaking 71st game in a row on March 8 in the Big East tournament semifinals. A look at ESPN.com's coverage of the achievement.
• UConn as close to perfect as possible: With a record winning streak in hand, UConn's 71st win ended with an injured Huskies player, a reminder of how fragile even a juggernaut can be. And of how consistent UConn has been for 16 months. Mechelle Voepel
• Recapping 1-71: How do you make up for losing in the Final Four? Come back and win every game since. From UConn's season-opening win on Nov. 16, 2008 to the Huskies' Big East tournament victories, ESPN.com retraces memorable wins along the march to 71. Melanie Jackson
• Stuff streaks are made of: When a win streak spans two seasons and 16 months of games, many memories are made along the way. Here are our favorite anecdotes from UConn's win streak. Story
• Statistically speaking: How do UConn's NCAA Division I-record 71 consecutive victories compare with the Huskies' string of 70 straight wins from 2001 to 2003, a mark that UConn eclipsed in the Big East semifinals in Hartford, Conn.? Mechelle Voepel
• Defense is UConn's biggest weapon: On a night when Tina Charles became UConn's most prolific scorer, the Huskies' ever-consistent defense was an even bigger part of the victory. Graham Hays
You must be signed in to post a comment