[DawnMTL]

1. I don't care for basketball -- not professional and certainly not college.
2. I only lived in CT for a handful of years.

And despite that:

1. I got excited about it when I was living there and Maya Moore was kicking butt (2007-ish to 2010-ish? sound right?).
2. Now I'm living in Montreal (Canada) and MM is no longer in college, and I *still* get excited when I hear that the team is kicking more butt.

I don't care for basketball, I don't live in CT anymore ... and, yet, when I hear how incredible they're doing (again!), it makes me so proud.

They're fabulous. Good for them. Good for Geno. Good for Connecticut.

[jp03]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

UConn Insider Podcast: Women's Beat Writer Paul Doyle On A Momentous Night At Gampel - Hartford Courant





Not just due to recruiting..

LOL thanks for the laugh. When there are about 80 great players in the country and you have 8 of em..THAT my friend is RECRUITING. Watching a blowout every night is embarrassing for the sport.

[clutchrider]

I can respect the streaks, wins, etc. But I'm not a UCONN fan, mostly because I just don't care about basketball that much. Maybe back in the day when Jordan, Bird, Price, etc. were playing it was fun as a kid but it's lost appeal. College basketball has never really gotten me tuned in either and honestly I think it has something to do with the fouls. It seems everyone is amped up to take a fall and get shots instead of just playing the game. I get that is "part of the game" but it's just boring.

Again totally a personal opinion but I guess not being more than a fairweather sports fan has that implication, I'd rather be doing yardwork or tending to my garden than watching a game.

[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

wrong.


MLB has some major deviations, too. DiMaggio's 56 game streak is 28% better than the 2nd longest.


Cy Young's win total vs #2-giant gap.

DiMaggio is a good analogy. Cy Young isn't. Right after that early era of baseball pitchers stopped pitching every other day and we reduced their extreme workload to three, then four, then five man rotations so they went from pitching every 2 days to maybe once a week or so. This lowered their chances to raise win totals. The increased use of relief pitching in the last 30 and especially the last 15 years have lowered win totals too.

Originally Posted by Neil Watkins

This thread is the epee tome of hyper bowl. You have to consider the level of play: It's not very good. At least compared to the men. How many games would the women win against the men? One? Maybe?

Given how dominant they have been, I think it would be more than that, I'm not saying they'd win 90+% of the games, but I think it would be a lot more than one. Also, it depends on whether they are playing a championship caliber team vs. a losing men's team.

But that doesn't make it less significant. It's still hard to develop a team that is THAT dominant. And why shouldn't the women have sports players to idol? My hometown of Mt. Vernon, NY has a 13 year old girls basketball phenom who unfortunately was killed by a stray bullet while waiting in her car (she nor her mom was not involved in it, it was an extreme case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and yes it was daylight, let's please not have a debate on this) a few weeks ago. She admired the UConn team and her dream was to play for them (and supposedly Geno was already watching her). They made her an "honorary member" of the team after her tragic death.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...llet/96445564/

[Neil Watkins]

But that doesn't make it less significant. It's still hard to develop a team that is THAT dominant.

It's likely not just hard to be that dominant in the men's game, it's probably impossible. That is a significant difference.

[JayCT]

Please stop the bickering and return to the topic of the OP which is the UConn women's basketball team. JayCT, Moderator

[basehead617]

Women's basketball at both the college and pro level has gotten WAY better. At the start of the WNBA, it was quite a joke, and NCAA womens hoops in the 80s and 90s was unwatchable. Great stuff now. If you don't watch the UCONN women, you wouldn't be able to comment on it though.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by basehead617

Women's basketball at both the college and pro level has gotten WAY better. At the start of the WNBA, it was quite a joke, and NCAA womens hoops in the 80s and 90s was unwatchable. Great stuff now. If you don't watch the UCONN women, you wouldn't be able to comment on it though.

The stunning thing is they lost girls who went 1,2,3 to WNBA last year, and IMO this year's team, expected to be good but not number one, could easily stay on the court vs last year's squad. That's Geno's genius at work, as their repeated success even when regrouping is systemic. I saw them at MSG a few year's ago, and a longtime fan told me watch their warmup. Regimented. Not shooting random jumpers. one girl throwing give and go no looks to same spot for a full 5 minutes. One passing for 5 minutes to opposite far corners swing pass style. Their Top 25 opponent warmed up more in random manner I am used to, and lost by 2 dozen.


Geno does get talent, no doubt, but not all of it. Skylar Diggins won NO championships, despite getting by UConn a few times. Griner won once. Dolson won twice, despite individually being less talented than either.


Great coaches often make one plus one equal far more than two. None do so more than Geno.

[WeHa]

I love the women, but have a love hate relationship with the win record. I'd be okay with losing a few games and gasp even a National Championship if it meant I got to watch a few nail biters each season. For the sake of the sport I'd love more competition.

As for the whole women's vs men's thing, I don't understand why women's and men's basketball always need to be compared. They're not the same thing, they both have their positives and negatives, they're fans and their haters. They're two separate sports that both deserve to stand on their own. As individual sports.

[JayCT]

Please note that the topic of this thread is UConn's Women's basketball team and not the merits of men's verses women's basketball. If you wish to discuss that, you may go to the Sports or Great Debate forums for that. Any more posts on it will be deleted. JayCT, Moderator