I knew what I was going to write about this week for quite a while. I wasn't sure how to write it or how to articulate my feelings until this morning. The problem is that you can't touch on this subject without someone getting defensive, offended or just flat pissed off.
So, what the hell? I'll take a stab at making enemies!
Last night at dinner, I ran this thought by an opinionated, strong-minded female friend. I was surprised to see that my thoughts weren't exactly contrary to hers, but they needed some fine tuning. She brought up good points and I was able to mold my opinion a bit thanks to hers.
This morning, Geno Auriema was on The Dan Patrick Show. He gave me my final touch on this subject. Dan Patrick essentially asked him whether it cheapened the accomplishment to compare it to UCLA. Geno said Patrick was 100% correct. It's exactly what I've been thinking.
Let's be honest, the depth of quality men's basketball teams today is so much more than women's basketball that you can't compare the two sports. Boys grow up wanting to throw balls around, be rough and tumble, etc. I don't want to get into the ins and outs of that, because there are all kinds of theories we could throw around as to why, but the fact of the matter is, from the time he could, my son was throwing balls around our living room. My daughter didn't have any interest until we started playing catch in the front yard when she was two. This is the norm everywhere. So, when you have more males interested in playing sports than females, you have more opportunities for elite athletes to be driven to basketball in men's sports. That's just basic statistics.
That all being said, the UCLA basketball team under John Wooden dominated teams in its era the same way UConn is dominating teams today. So, can we possibly think that the lack of depth of college athletics in the '60's was beneficial to UCLA the same way it has been to UConn this decade? Who knows? And that's the problem.
I don't think we should compare the two accomplishments. What UConn has done is amazing. In fact, I don't think there's ever been anything like it in sports. Auriema has built a machine that we haven't witnessed. Tiger hasn't dominated like this. Federer isn't this dominant. We've never seen this, even from UCLA. UConn gets ANY athlete it wants. It is extremely rare for Auriema to lose a recruit he covets. Therefore, they have eight McDonald's All-Americans on the team. They're beating ranked teams by 30 points. The vast majority of their wins are by double-digits. It's ridiculous.
Auriema could coach anywhere. He doesn't need to prove anything. He's incredible and will go down as one of the best coaches in any sport in history. He's that good. So, when I heard him going off on the media in the press conference this weekend, I was baffled. Why? There's no reason to call out the media. The fact that they're in the room is good for your sport and your team. Why the anger? He explained it as poking fun at the men's basketball beat writers who had to be there to cover his team. My experience tells me there's a little truth in his rant. He truly feels disrespected and probably uses that every day to motivate himself.
There's no reason to compare men's and women's basketball. It does us no good. It's comparing apples and oranges. There's absolutely no reason to argue about whether the women can play and compete with the men. They don't play against each other. We don't argue about baseball teams against football teams.
So, let's leave it at this: UConn women's basketball just broke the record for wins in a row in college basketball. They didn't break a men's record, like the media is trying to cram down our throats. They broke a basketball record, and it's an amazing feat. The accomplishment can stand on its own. Let's not cheapen it with worthless discussion and bickering.
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