The South Carolina Gamecocks defeated the UConn Huskies last night to win the NCAA women’s national championship. And South Carolina did so with relative ease, winning 64-49.
Organizers hype the annual NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament as “March Madness.” They do so to exploit “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” inherent in low-seeded (a.k.a. Cinderella) teams upsetting top-seeded ones — often with buzzer-beating hail marys.
Except that this year’s tournament did not live up to that hype. After all, despite all the song and dance, top overall seed South Carolina ended up playing second seed UConn for the national championship.
And, with all due respect to UConn’s valiant effort and vaunted reputation, it looked like South Carolina was preparing for a coronation more than playing for a championship.
The name of the game Sunday was defense and offensive rebounds for the Gamecocks, who controlled the game from the start with a 13-2 lead in just the first six minutes of the game. It was the fewest points the Huskies had scored in a quarter this season.
‘I know our players were exhausted, but they were determined to be champions today,’ said South Carolina coach Dawn Staley. UConn was 11-0 in national championship games before Sunday, which all came under head coach Geno Auriemma.
(CNN, April 3, 2022)
In the interest of full disclosure, I decided years ago to forego the cheap thrill of filling out brackets and feigning agony as my picks got knocked off like ducks at a carnival shooting gallery.
Mind you, if I were still an indentured servant at a big law firm, I would’ve welcomed the respite from drudgery, which Bracketology for office pools provides. The aim is clearly not to guess the result of each game; it’s to see whose bracket sustains the least number of casualties throughout the tournament.
But I no longer buy into the NCAA hype because it’s just so brazenly sexist. I’m on record decrying this in “UConn Routs Louisville to Win NCAA (Women’s) Championship,” April 8, 2009.
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One can be forgiven for thinking that North Carolina winning the NCAA (men’s) championship on Monday is the biggest story in Basketball this year. …
[But] the biggest story … is the way UConn crowned a perfect season by winning the NCAA (women’s) championship in a rout over Louisville 76-54 last night. Because UConn not only ended its season 39-0, its players were so dominant, they won each game by double digits with unprecedented ease.
Now just imagine the hoopla if North Carolina had won the NCAA (men’s) championship in such convincing fashion. …
[Meanwhile], instead of commanding network coverage in primetime, like the men’s championship, the women’s was relegated to cable last night, which guaranteed only a fraction of the viewership. TV executives wonder why they can’t get better ratings for the fledgling women’s professional league — the WNBA. Well, it might have something to do with the way they keep dissing women’s college Basketball in this fashion.
Moreover, what does this disparate coverage say to female college athletes, as well as to young girls, who we encourage to have the same interest in sports as young boys? Frankly, it says that male chauvinism, sexism, and discrimination against women in sports not only still exist but are blithely tolerated.
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Clearly I’ve been griping about the unfair TV coverage for over a decade. So imagine my dismay upon learning that, instead of airing the women’s game on (free) network TV, the NCAA decided to redress this unfairness by relegating the men’s game to (pay) Cable too.
If you want to watch the NCAA basketball final on TV, you won’t be able to find it on basic cable. That’s because the UNC vs. Kansas game is not airing on CBS this year but rather on TBS.
To watch Kansas vs. UNC on TBS, you’ll need a traditional cable package … which will let you watch the NCAA championship game on TV.
(Rolling Stone, April 3, 2022)
Evidently, the NCAA would rather decrease the popularity of the men’s game than give the women’s game network TV coverage to increase the popularity of theirs.
I know many people (men and women) think there’s no way women’s Basketball can match the excitement of men’s. But I used to think there’s no way women’s Tennis can match the excitement of men’s. I still watch a lot of tennis, but I haven’t watched men play in years.
In any event, I hope my testimony disabuses you of any sexist thought you may have in this regard. If you couldn’t be bothered to flip through channels to find the women’s game on ESPN, or if you chose not to pay for it, I urge you to give women’s basketball a try.
Congrats to South Carolina! And special kudos to coach Dawn Staley on becoming the first Black coach (men or women) to win multiple national championships. (Look out, Geno!)
NOTE: Kansas is playing North Carolina for the men’s championship tonight. Truth be told, the only reason I want to see North Carolina win is that it would mean both the women and men’s championship teams were headed by Black coaches for the first time in NCAA history. And that would be one small step for America (of thousands it has yet to take) on its road toward a more perfect union.
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