LOVING WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: HOW WE BECAME FANS

We’ve mentioned several times all three of us love basketball. For

most of our lives that meant following men’s college basketball and the NBA, with interest in boys high school basketball thrown in occasionally because of an outstanding team or player. Now, we’ve developed an affinity for women’s basketball, especially the women’s college game. We each have a story for how that came about.

Rob Finds His Two Loves

Late one afternoon in early 1981, brand new to graduate school at the University of Texas, I sat in my communication department cubicle when several of my graduate student colleagues stuck their heads in my door and asked that I go with them to that night’s women’s basketball game. In the interest of being sociable, I agreed, though I should have declined because work for my own classes and my teaching assignments was already piling up.

I got hooked that night on the Texas women’s team – the “Lady Longhorns” as they were then known. They played fast on offense, pressed all over the floor on defense, and demonstrated a contagious enthusiasm I couldn’t resist. I went back time after time.

In May, after basketball season ended, I began dating a law student named Ida Stewart. Early in our relationship, over drinks one evening, we discussed our mutual interests. She made clear she didn’t share my affinity for college football. 

“I play soccer,” she said, “but I’m not into spectator sports, except Lady Longhorn basketball.”

My ears perked up. “I go to those games too.” 

“I’ll go with you to that,” she replied. “I’m not interested in football.”

Over the next 29 years, we attended countless UT women’s basketball games together. After we married and had children, we took them along. The sport remained our shared interest until Ida died in 2011. I’ve often wondered if things would have turned out for us as they did without UT women’s basketball.

Oh, she finally changed her mind about football.  

  

It Took A Village To Bring Henry To Women’s Basketball

Rob correctly notes my love of basketball. Both my sons and a granddaughter played while growing up. I watched and enjoyed them as much as I could during my working years.  I told them they stopped playing before I wanted to stop watching.  I didn’t follow women’s college basketball as my sons and granddaughter played, though I kept up with girls high school basketball in Arkansas to an extent. Now, I watch my three young grandsons play AAU ball.

Henry's Grandsons: AAU Champions!!

My granddaughter chose not to play past high school although she was talented enough to go much further, as directors of basketball camps she attended insisted. At some point, I decided I wouldn’t push it. After all, it was her choice. As I reflect on it now, I believe how little attention girls basketball garnered compared to boys basketball may have influenced her.  Maybe I regret I didn’t push her as hard as I should have.  

My interest in women’s college basketball for the last eight years or so has been influenced by Rob and by a friend and golfing buddy, Jim Lewis. The reason for Rob’s influence is obvious. Jim’s experience coaching men and women at the professional and college levels, and the insight he brings to our conversations about the sport, has kept me even more interested. I’ve bought into the excitement of the women’s game and the skill displayed there.

I’ve also been influenced by one of my college roommates,

Norman Bender.  He  may be the number one fan of the UCONN women’s team. I know more about that team than I could have ever dreamed because of the joy he brings to our conversations. Because of that joy, I pay attention.  I have become a fan.

Woodson Came Late to the Women’s Game

Saying I’m late to the women’s game may stand as my personal sports understatement of the decade. I paid some attention to

women’s professional  basketball for about ten years though generally, only at the urging of my son, Chike. I found the game interesting, but not enough that I embraced it. Chike continued encouraging me to watch the women’s college game for the last 10 years. I wasn’t listening. 

I grew up in rural Conway County, Arkansas in the 60s and played basketball throughout high school. In those days, women played six-on-six, with a three-player defensive unit on one end of the court and a three-player offensive unit on the other. That rule assumed women lacked the strength or stamina for full court play. I didn’t find it an interesting brand of basketball. That experience kept me from taking a real interest in the women’s game.

Chike persisted. He told me watching the UConn women play

“was a thing of beauty” and that Geno Auriemma was a coaching genius. So I watched. I was partially sold. I followed the UConn women for several years. My real breakthrough came I went to see

    Woodson & Hope                      Teaira  & Woodson

Mississippi State play UALR in 2019, again at Chike’s urging. He wanted me to see Teaira McCowan, Mississippi State's 6-7 post player.  I saw her and even got my picture taken with her.  But it was the Lady Trojans who caught my eye. They are as well coached as UConn, have won their conference championship for 14 of the last 16 years, and play their home games within a 15 minute walk of my front door.  

UALR'S discipline and team chemistry are things of beauty.  Right now they are 14-2 in conference play. I am now hooked on the Lady Trojans and women's basketball.

MUSINGS ON MARCH MADNESS

All three of us love basketball.  One of us (Woodson) even once owned a semi-pro team. So, this is our time of year.  It’s hard to find a time there’s not a basketball game on television.  With the NCAA tournaments hurtling toward coronation of 2018 champions, we have a few thoughts on the proceedings to this point.

UPSET FOR THE AGES

No matter what else happens, one thing will always define this year’s men’s tournament – the 74-54 win by Maryland – Baltimore County (UMBC) over top

seeded Virginia. Even though UMBC came crashing to earth when it lost in the round of 32 to ninth seeded Kansas State, 50-43, the Retrievers’s victory over Virginia will always have a special place in NCAA lore.  It – a 16 seed beating a one seed – had never happened before in the men’s tournament (it happened once in the women’s tournament, 
a 71-67 win by 16^th seeded Harvard  over an injury --depleted number one seeded Stanford in 1998).  We can only guess when this might happen again. 

Regardless of why the UMBC-Virginia game turned out as it did, lessons abound in it for power five bluebloods and upstart mid-majors.  For the big boys, it’s a reminder not to ever, ever assume victory.  Virginia no doubt believes it took UMBC seriously.  Deep inside, however, the Cavalier players and coaches probably know they didn’t.  They likely understand now they didn’t get emotionally ready to play in the same way they get ready for Atlantic Coast Conference foes like North Carolina and Duke.  It’s human nature (after all, who is UMBC?). The March 16 game, and the resulting lost opportunity for Virginia, proved the risk in succumbing to that instinct. 

For the upstarts, the UMBC-Virginia result demonstrates the reason for keeping hope alive.  Play the game as hard as you can and let the chips fall where they may.  Who knows what might happen?  Think there’s no point in showing up? Think again, says this outcome.  Contests turn out funny sometimes.  Balls take strange bounces.  As ESPN’s Chris Berman so often exclaimed, “That’s why they play the game!”

GODZILLA AMONG THE WOMEN

One of us (Rob) intensely follows the women’s game, so we’re aware of what’s going on in that bracket too.  The tournament’s first weekend suggested not much has changed.  Despite losing in the national semifinals last year, Connecticut appears poised to capture another title.  Unbeaten Connecticut won its tournament opener, 140-52, scoring 92 points in the first half, and their second game, 71-46.  Does anyone not seeing the world through glasses tinted with their home team’s colors really believe Connecticut won’t swat away the pretenders in its path masquerading as challengers?

Pundits don’t quite know what to do with the dominance that’s seen Geno Auriemma’s team win four of the last five national titles and six of the last nine, not to mention being a number one seed 21 times in 25 years and reaching the Sweet Sixteen 24 consecutive times.  Some celebrate Connecticut’s excellence, an understandable response in a culture that’s always revered dynasties (think Green Bay Packers, UCLA men’s basketball, Pittsburg Steelers, the Damn Yankees, etc.). 

But there’s a side of the Connecticut reign for which other coaches in the sport need to answer.  They necessarily lag behind in player evaluation and development, court strategy, teaching, and other aspects of the coaching craft. Notice that list doesn’t include recruiting.  The usual explanation for Connecticut’s superiority is that it has the best players.  Connecticut recruits great players, but those who follow women’s college basketball recruiting know it doesn’t get ALL the top players.  Connecticut, in fact, hasn’t had the nation’s number one recruiting class since 2012.  UCLA, Duke, Maryland, and Tennessee ranked at the top in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 respectively.  Yet, during the last four seasons, Connecticut lost just two games.  Something’s wrong with that picture.

WHAT ABOUT THE PLAYERS?

Returning to the men’s side, the sellout crowds, big television contracts, and saturation media coverage inevitably raise questions about why the players don’t share in the mega dollars the tournament generates.  This matter merits serious debate, as illustrated by recent scandals involving college coaches and agents.  It’s terribly complex, however, raising issues of justice (why should colleges pay coaches million dollar salaries while players struggle just to live?), fairness (if the players get paid, does the guy at the end of the bench get as much as the stud center?), gender equity (female athletes don’t generate nearly as much money as males, but do we really want to tell our daughters their efforts deserve pats on the back while our sons get hard cash?).

The three of us don’t agree on many ideas tossed around as solutions to this problem.  College basketball involves huge amounts of money and entrenched interests driven by deeply felt ideological, political, and economic considerations.  We assume that when the 2019 tournaments roll around, the issue will remain with us.  Given that, we see nothing to do this year but return to our brackets and try making sense of the remaining games.