Please Stop the Hard Sell on Chick Hoops

The women’s Final Four is set.

(Hey, how ‘bout that?)

In case you were wondering, it’s Tennessee, Rutgers, North Carolina, and LSU.

Just about every year, ‘bout this time, I seem to get the odd caller or emailer lecturing me about how I should give more time to the women’s game. They trot out the standard old lines used to attempt to sell an inferior product: the fundamentals are better. There’s more passion. The rivalries are great. Etc. etc.

Truth is, the women’s game already gets TOO much exposure, and too much coverage given its limited appeal. ESPN runs full “selection shows” on the women’s bracket, they carry live games, and even run score crawls on the bottom of the screen along with other sports scores people actually care about.

(Note: It remains a great mystery to me, why ESPN does not use a slightly different font to show the women’s scores. It need not be anything considered condescending like PINK, but perhaps a light demi-italic or something. Since everybody just glances at those scores, you don’t want to force people to read and recognize that the little tab on the left says WBB when you see Michigan State 62 Wisconsin 50, when you were pretty sure those men’s teams were NOT playing tonite. This would be a simple viewer convenience in my mind, but I assume political correctness prevents it from happening. Hell, I would even gladly let them put the MEN’s scores in PINK, just so I can ignore everything else. But I digress…)

Women’s basketball is not as good as the men. Period. Not in any tangible way. They don’t run as fast, jump as high, shoot as well… and oh yeah, it needs to be said, they don’t dunk. (Candace Parker’s once in a blue moon breakaways don’t count either).

This is why a great percentage of WOMEN who love basketball, also don’t watch the women play. They want to see something better!

It is not to say that the women’s game doesn’t have ANYTHING going for it. In fact, I will – on occasion – get into watching a game for a little bit if it has something to keep my interest.

That included the UConn v. Tennessee showdown several years ago when Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi were running together for a UConn team that was their sport’s version of the 1927 Yankees.

But since then, I’ve pretty much stayed away. Not out of malice, or sexism, its just nothing has caught my eye (although I do love seeing and hearing the hoarse voiced, and twangy Sherri Coale of Oklahoma scream at her players in those ESPN promos. Rrrrrrow!)

The only thing that bothers me is the constant “selling” of the sport. I bet I’ll get several emails off this post, saying: “Czabe, you really should watch MORE… and here’s why…. Blah, blah, blah.”

No.

No, I don’t need to, or want to watch more. I know when enough is enough. A local team like Maryland last year, winning the whole thing? Great. I watched the final game. That’s it. That was enough.

I’ve said for a while, that the women’s game would get a real nice shot of popularity by lowering the rim to 9 feet. Of course, they are opposing that vehemently in women’s circles, out of typical female stubbornness and pride.

I try to point out that in the men’s game, somebody 6-5 is called a guard, and in the women’s game that’s a franchise center. It’s idiotic to play the same rim. Hell, even the ball is smaller, which helps on shooting percentages and ball handling.

I try to point out that LPGA golfers play shorter courses, and women’s volleyball has a shorter net, and……

… eh. Never mind.

If you like the game, great. Just stop lecturing everybody else about it.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

An oldie, but a classic. Word. Heheh.