Women's college hoops is a joke

[Capt. Tuttle]

Honesty, check out Uconns schedule, mostly 30-50 point wins. What is going on here? Are they good for the sport? No, but if they didn't dominate, those same 4-6 "awesome " girls they get every year would be dispersed on 3,4 teams and there still wouldn't be any competition in the game. Simply put, there isnt enough talented players in the girls game to make it watchable.

Why did no one feel this way about Pat Summit's teams?

 

[NineOneSeven]

I watched more women's basketball the last 4 days than I have the last 25 years.

 

[Brooky03]

She would OWN a guy like Kaleb Joseph, IMO. She'd pick his pocket whenever he was dribbling as well.

This might already have been addressed, but no, no she wouldn't. She looks crazy fast with a tight handle against other women. Against a decent men's college PG (or less than decent, perhaps like KJ), she would struggle big time because her quickness advantage would be negated.

I think the biggest disservice one can do to the women's game is compare it to the men's game. The athleticism difference alone is just not close. Candace Parker is the most athletic female basketball player I know of (there's probably somebody else a little better) and she's 6'4" with a 28 inch vertical. This would be pedestrian athleticism for a DI - maybe even DII - men's college bball player, and she's the exception in the women's game. Now, vertical's not the only measure of athleticism, but I would imagine similar disparities exist in shuttle, lane agility, and sprint times. And 6'4" might not be easy to find on a high school boys team, but you'd certainly find 28" verticals without much problem.

Then there's the skill argument. These girls are certainly skilled, no question. But even if they have more skill with a basketball than a man like KJ, it's not going to matter because they'd never get their shot off. They wouldn't be able to drive to the hoop and girls tend not to jump much on jump shots, so that would have a high likelihood of being blocked.

This probably sounds like a mini-rant. It's not. My high school had a really really good girl basketball player who went on to set records at a DII college and I would go to watch her games more than the boys team. I have no beef with girls/women's basketball. Like it for what it is, though.

 

[TheCusian]

Because there are 10-20 teams a year in the men's game that can win a championship and 100 talented teams that can beat you on any given night. There isn't ONE team in the women's game that can play UCONN to within 20 points. It's a slap in the face to the men's coaches. Jay Wright just went through more challenge and stress in this year's 6 tourney games on his road to one championship than Geno did in all of his 11 combined.

I get the competition argument. But it's really hard to quantify that exactly.

Are we really saying that if Geno stopped coaching at UCONN, they'd still reel off 4 championships in a row? Saying the competition is weak and then saying "that's why he's clobbered everyone by so much" is disingenuous.

Is it his fault that the other teams can't recruit or coach well enough to beat them? Are we sure it's the other teams not being good or just him being that much better?

(Also, I really dislike the guy and their program - and UCONN in general)

 

[TheCusian]

They are great for the sport. I don't know when America went from "hey, you are excellent, I want to be like you" and instead turned into "hey you are excellent, we should not let you do that." I think in coincided with every one gets a trophy. No one complained about Wooden's UCLA teams, and he cheated to hoard talent.
Geno is a great coach. Read up on his practices. These girls are great, as a team, in large part because of how he pushes them and demands excellence, if not perfection. If it was just about talent, Calipari would win every year.

I think it's both.

They are bad for the sport in that it's largely unwatchable. They are so good it leaves little doubt who will win. Why watch?

But that's not their fault. They should and will continue trying to win every game and get every great player. It's up to everyone else to topple them.

 

[NYCSUGrad]

They are great for the sport. I don't know when America went from "hey, you are excellent, I want to be like you" and instead turned into "hey you are excellent, we should not let you do that." I think in coincided with every one gets a trophy. No one complained about Wooden's UCLA teams, and he cheated to hoard talent.
Geno is a great coach. Read up on his practices. These girls are great, as a team, in large part because of how he pushes them and demands excellence, if not perfection. If it was just about talent, Calipari would win every year.

You have a point, in that he apparently recently has had a military guy come in and do boot camp style workouts with the women. That has to have helped their stamina and strength, and at some point soon other coaches may copy it.

 

[NYCSUGrad]

Why did no one feel this way about Pat Summit's teams?

Probably because far fewer people saw them. I certainly didn't. The women weren't regularly televised for one thing.

 

[Ish88888]

I get the competition argument. But it's really hard to quantify that exactly.

Are we really saying that if Geno stopped coaching at UCONN, they'd still reel off 4 championships in a row? Saying the competition is weak and then saying "that's why he's clobbered everyone by so much" is disingenuous.

Is it his fault that the other teams can't recruit or coach well enough to beat them? Are we sure it's the other teams not being good or just him being that much better?

(Also, I really dislike the guy and their program - and UCONN in general)

I agree in part, it's more of an indictment of the sport than it is UCONN. My argument is there isn't enough female talent in the nation to even have 2 or 3 COMPETITIVE teams. Geno recruits extremely well and that's the ballgame. Yes, Calipari recruits well but they still lose games, it's competitive.

 

[Brooky03]

They're great for the sport in the way the Patriots are great for NFL football... which is not at all.


I kid, I kid. Nobody is as bad for any sport as the Patriots are for the NFL. Seriously, those guys. amirite?

 

[Rage4CUSE]

They are great for the sport. I don't know when America went from "hey, you are excellent, I want to be like you" and instead turned into "hey you are excellent, we should not let you do that." I think in coincided with every one gets a trophy. No one complained about Wooden's UCLA teams, and he cheated to hoard talent.
Geno is a great coach. Read up on his practices. These girls are great, as a team, in large part because of how he pushes them and demands excellence, if not perfection. If it was just about talent, Calipari would win every year.

Back in the 70's when They made the rule changes to break up UCLA dynasty? That's my guess.

Btw I believe the "give everyone a trophy thing didn't start until the 2000's.

 

[Brooky03]

They are great for the sport. I don't know when America went from "hey, you are excellent, I want to be like you" and instead turned into "hey you are excellent, we should not let you do that." I think in coincided with every one gets a trophy. No one complained about Wooden's UCLA teams, and he cheated to hoard talent.
Geno is a great coach. Read up on his practices. These girls are great, as a team, in large part because of how he pushes them and demands excellence, if not perfection. If it was just about talent, Calipari would win every year.

Calipari gets talent with the tradeoff that it's in the form of freshman. UConn gets the talent and gets them for 4 years. Some people are talking about how only one of his recruiting classes was ranked #1 in the last 4 years. That doesn't tell the whole story when they stay though. I think UConn had 5 players who were ranked top 10, 2 #1's, 1 #6, and 2 #9's. That's pretty much ballgame.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Gino is a great coach, much like Roy Simmons was a great coach and the D3 football coach who wins national championships every year. The fact is his sport doesn't draw as much interest as many others, doesn't take away from what he has accomplished but most people don't care but we get force fed it by the media trying to create a buzz. It's really not that big a deal. Do I think he's a great coach? Sure, do I think he could be successful in the men's game? I do but still think Coach K is the best coach in college basketball and I think a guy like Bob Knight would coach circles around him. He's a sidebar in the national spotlight.

Gino is relentless, a master motivator, good coach, who pushes his girls probably harder than anyone else and he has the best talent. While I do think he can coach and could be successful in the men's game. I don't see too many kids buying into his style.

 

[upperdeck]

I'm sorry but the people calling Geno one of the greatest coaches in all of sports history is a joke, there is no competition. You can't compare him to a Wooden or a Coach K.

if wooden had the same rules we had today he would not have won most of his titles. he had good teams that had no competition since everything was so regional back then.

 

[upperdeck]

There's a thread for this game on the national board I visit. I casually mentioned that Geno wins because he has the best talent year-in and year-out, discounting his x's and o's ability, and a few UConn fans got all pi.ssy. While you can't exactly fault a team for being dominant, games like this don't do the sport any good. And I find it kind of lame to keep your all-star starters in the game when it's wayyyyyyy out of reach with a few minutes to go. The walkons and other bench players can't enjoy some time on the court? Don't want to mess up the 40 point spreads?

he has great talent. but you cant watch the game and not see they are well coached. the passing and spacing doesnt just happen by itself.

 

[We Are Syracuse]

I'm sorry but the people calling Geno one of the greatest coaches in all of sports history is a joke, there is no competition. You can't compare him to a Wooden or a Coach K.

HELL no he doesnt touch any of those guys. Look at his team. His team is just 150x more talented than any other team. They are bigger and faster then everyone.

 

[Brooky03]

he has great talent. but you cant watch the game and not see they are well coached. the passing and spacing doesnt just happen by itself.

Take the worst varsity boys basketball team you've ever seen, match them up against an 8th grade boys team, and I bet their passing and spacing would look fantastic. I'm not saying he's a bad x's and o's guy, I'm just saying I don't think he does anything special outside of recruiting. He gets excellence out of the best players. Kudos for that. I could probably get excellence out of a Ferrari, too.

 

[upperdeck]

Take the worst varsity boys basketball team you've ever seen, match them up against an 8th grade boys team, and I bet their passing and spacing would look fantastic. I'm not saying he's a bad x's and o's guy, I'm just saying I don't think he does anything special outside of recruiting. He gets excellence out of the best players. Kudos for that. I could probably get excellence out of a Ferrari, too.

there are a lot of talented teams that look awful at passing and some AVG talented teams that are good at spacing.

you can pass all you want but there needs to be someone in place to catch it.. the talent shows in the shooting and 1on1 plays.

 

[Brooky03]

there are a lot of talented teams that look awful at passing and some AVG talented teams that are good at spacing.

you can pass all you want but there needs to be someone in place to catch it.. the talent shows in the shooting and 1on1 plays.

Talented players know the game. A solid coach helps, but teaching your all-americans not to stand on top of each other can't be all that hard to do. It's something most top 10 talents instinctively understand.

 

[OttoMets]

Maybe, maybe not. I'm speaking specifically about Moriah Jefferson. I think she could give a bunch of D1 men's PGs fits.

Eh, I think even middling men with strong fundamentals (like Patriots and Ivies) would just put their ass into her hip and back her right into the basket. The difference in arm-span and strength is tremendous.

 

[OttoMets]

It just seems unseemly to listen to Doris Burke vomit up effusive praise about all these accomplishments of UConn and their players when it certainly appears like the equivalent of losing your mind over the 85 Bears going undefeated against the Rotary Club flag football team. When your sport's championship game has a 26 point line, it's more of an exhibition than a competition. I personally think what the SU players did is far more impressive than Yukon in relative terms. The SU women and coaches took a program from nothing to the championship game, while the Yukon women basically were a 15 year old who punched their 4 year old brother in the face 75 times and claimed the title of greatest fighter on planet earth with a record of 75-0.

That was pathetic, turned it off at that point.

That Doris felt the need to jabber on like that didn't reflect well on Connecticut or the game in general.

 

[OttoMets]

That's the nature of internet chat boards, and from probably caveman times people have argued about trivia and things they are passionate about. (I bet some animals do too; we just can't interpret it all). As you noted, there are worse offenders, like syracuse.com. Also on the Mets board I frequent, where a handful of posters refer to David Wright as "Whiffy Boy", despite his never having hit below .254, and that was about six seasons ago. After he went 0-4 with a walk in the first game there were at least ten threads saying what a waste he was and he should retire. Even today, when the Mets won and he got one hit, two walks and most remarkably not one but two stolen bases, despite the spinal stenosis, some people still whinged that he cost us a double play, even though no one scored as a result and you could also lay the blame on the throw from second to first that Duda muffed. I post there despite that nonsense 1. to try to correct the idiocy, inasmuch as it's even possible 2. because there are other posters who are great, and even some who are kind of nuts but are amusing sometimes anyway 3. because I do learn legitimate things about the Mets, and sometimes off topic matters too and 4. because the more sane and sober (and boring) Mets message board I also went to last season doesn't seem to exist now.

I call him 'Rag Arm.'

Liked those steals yesterday, though!

 

[Ghost]

Maybe, maybe not. I'm speaking specifically about Moriah Jefferson. I think she could give a bunch of D1 men's PGs fits.

Seriously? Was she the quick, short girl? People complained about Joseph dribbling too high, she dribbled above her head half the time once she tried moving with speed.

 

[Ghost]

They are great for the sport. I don't know when America went from "hey, you are excellent, I want to be like you" and instead turned into "hey you are excellent, we should not let you do that." I think in coincided with every one gets a trophy. No one complained about Wooden's UCLA teams, and he cheated to hoard talent.
Geno is a great coach. Read up on his practices. These girls are great, as a team, in large part because of how he pushes them and demands excellence, if not perfection. If it was just about talent, Calipari would win every year.

No, America is always about the underdog. Ppl that rag on Stewart do so because they admire the kid goes against the grain and leads the hometown team to glory instead of joining forces with the bullies. Hoosier, baby!!!!

 

[sabach]

Gino is a great coach and a great recruiter. Because of his recruiting, he could probably still win even if he was a mediocre coach, but the fact that he has the best talent on his team does not diminish the fact that he is a great coach.

 

[Doc5120]

Maybe, maybe not. I'm speaking specifically about Moriah Jefferson. I think she could give a bunch of D1 men's PGs fits.

She's 5'7" and 120 lbs. Any D1 male PG would abuse her. Yes, she appears to be very quick, but you have to remember who she is looking quick against. I agree she is an excellent women's player, but it is a real stretch to say she could handle a D1 male PG. I had a friend who I played HS b'ball with, who went to Uconn. He mentioned how mens intramural teams would play against the Uconn women's team and beat them pretty handily. And these are guys who just played high school ball who maybe could have played D3. The difference between the men and women's game is enormous.