Women's final - bulletin board material

[Jimgolf]

Originally posted by JRutledge
I am sure there are fans that think ... the NHL is the best sport alive.

It's still alive?

[Gator]

Originally posted by JugglingReferee
...Around here, women's college ball is little different from VG ball. I would rather officiate a men's HS regular season game than women's college ball.

You sure live in the wrong place! Around HERE is fortunately a conference with at least 5 WBB teams in the top 25 and at least 2 consistently in the top 10 in the 5 years I have been here. In 3 of those years, one of our conference teams has been in the final four. One of our coaches has more than 800 wins and is in the Naismith Hall of Fame, another has 500 plus wins. Two of our "young" coaches have taken teams to the final four in the last four years - and one took home the gold this year. One of our teams consistently out draws their male counter parts and the conference as a whole ranks as one of the two top conference in WBB game attendance. AND, as icing on the cake: for "my" team, our "star" from our final four team a couple of years ago is now in medical school. Two role players from that team are in medical school and law school, One of this year's seniors is excited about beginning her career as an elementary school teacher and another is expected to go in the first round of the WNBA draft. I believe that the GPA of players in the conference averaged more than 3.0 last year and I know that "my" team's average is well above 3.0.

Oh ya, one more thing: in all of the WBB games I have attended, I have NEVER heard ANY player call "ball".

It IS different than the game played by the guys and for a LOT of fans in this conference, it is WONDERFUL! For those for whom it ain't BB unless there is dunking? To each his/her own. The good news for WBB fans is that the talent levels are rising each year - more good ball being played in high school equals much better players entering college. Better college balls encourages more kids to get involved earlier. UConn and Tennessee are legends but the depth of rising talent means that more and more schools are becoming really competitive in D1. 10 years ago, my school WBB games drew about 500, max. Now attendance is routinely 5,000 plus. Improve the "product" and the fans base explodes. Will WBB ever out draw MBB? Who knows. I'm not sure I care. God forbid it gets so popular that it starts breeding the type of player you see all too often in the NBA - super "stars" with feet of crumbling clay.

[JRutledge]

Gator,

That sounds great if you are working games where all the top teams play each other. That is not really what most of us are talking about. We are talking about when a top team plays a team that is in the middle of the road. I used to officiate Women's college basketball. A 50 point blowout was not out of the question. I worked Men's college game this year in a tournament. One team was a JV team player a middle of the road program. The JV team almost won the game in the final minutes.

If you look at the D1 Tournaments, the Men's side was wide open. Teams that you would have never guessed got to the Elite 8 and even Final Four. On the Women's side, there were blowouts all over the place and the teams expected to make noise did just that. There were a couple of blowouts on the Women's, but not as many as the Men's side.

You can always find somewhere in the country that has great basketball. We are just saying it is not the norm.

Peace

[Gator]

Originally posted by JRutledge
You can always find somewhere in the country that has great basketball. We are just saying it is not the norm

All too true, My main point was that it wasn't all that great here 10 years ago and look at us now - ie, I think better WBB is on its way in lots of places. Success seems to breed success - ADs in this conference are no longer content to "let things slide" - 3 of our 12 schools have made MAJOR coaching upgrades in the past 3 years - it was either that or continue to be embarrassed by being door mats. And it has a siphoning effect. More head coaching jobs paying $300,000 PLUS (sometimes plus a LOT) draws more good assistant coaches and high school coaches into the pipe stream because they can see there is a brass ring to reach for - etc. (I know - "for which to reach" is proper - but dull - grin) Same thing with players. If gym rats get rewarded, more girls will stay gym rats rather than get embarrassed about it.

Just wanted to give folks who hadn't seen evidence of a upswing yet a view from another place.