Arena Third Time's a Charm: The Arena's New Official Attempt at WNBA/NCAA Women's Basketball Discussion

Brittney Griner.

Enough said.

 

Not going to lie, but the first interview I ever heard with her in it was when I was in the other room, and I wasn't necessarily watching the TV. I swore it was some interview with a man. lol

 

It is a shame that the Uconn women will be possibly playing their 89th win at the XL center in Hartford, rather than at Gampel. The atmosphere would almost certainly be better at the campus arena, even if its only like 2/3s the size.

 

How many of their games do they play off-campus?

 

"I just know there wouldn't be this many people in the room if we were chasing a woman's record."

Number 88 is written in stone. Quite impressive, needless to say!

 

I think its about a 50/50 split between Gampel and the XL center for both men and women.

 

UConn is on ESPN2. #89 on the line tonight. Get there!

 

I'd like to disagree with Auriemma's statement about it being a women's team as the reason people are rooting against his team. At least, as much as I don't care for women's basketball, and I've made that clear, that's certainly not why I'm pulling against them. It doesn't even have anything to do with tonight's opponent being Florida State (Go Noles!). It does, however, have everything to do with disliking UConn. If this were, say, Baylor or Stanford (picking two random schools I neither like nor dislike that have good women's basketball teams), I wouldn't care one way or the other about it.

 

I disagree with that part of his statement for the reason that unless people are necessarily loyal to another team, I really don't think anyone is rooting against them at all. If folks dislike UConn or are loyal to another team on their schedule, that's understandable. For me, I grew up watching UConn basketball and dreaming about playing like these women... I really don't have any allegiance to any team, so I certainly am rooting for UConn to go as far as they are capable. Without an allegiance reason, there probably aren't too many folks rooting against this record or them as a team. Tonight's win will be praised by everyone everywhere. You won't find anyone complaining that they beat the UCLA men's streak.

That said, I feel like I understand Coach Auriemma's frustration, which was misplaced, in my opinion. Any woman who has ever played a team sport that has a men's side of the house, too, understands it; however, we're certainly a long way away from where women's basketball started, and I think the acknowledgment and attention due it is improving and growing. That should be praised... it isn't something to continue dwelling upon and complaining about.

 

One of my least favorite athletes in any sport at the moment. She is beyond obnoxious during games and got off very easy after that vicious punch she threw last season.

 

I read some of Geno's comments after game 88, and he just comes across like a moron. Sarcasm doesn't translate well when written down most of the time, but still, you would think that he'd want to say something that's more positive. It's a great accomplishment for the women's game, and that's how he reacted? He and John Wooden couldn't be farther apart, in terms of personality. Wooden was humble and classy, Geno is obnoxious.

Then again, I don't care for UConn basketball on the men's side, either.

 

My dislike of Auriemma goes to back to when I happened to catch a couple minutes of a women's game on TV some years ago... UConn was playing someone, I don't even remember who, but they were (not surprisingly) up big fairly late, something like a 30 point lead with 5 minutes to go or so and the officials made a call that happened to go against his team. I don't remember what the call was beyond thinking it was a good call - foul, out of bounds, traveling? I forget - and Auriemma completely went insane. You would have thought the refs had made the worst call ever in a tie game with the National Championship on the line. I still don't know how he didn't get T-ed up for that (I've certainly seen many, many coaches get technicals for far less) because that was insane. Ok, he didn't go Bob Knight crazy and throw chairs, but still. I got a distaste for him then and its just gone downhill ever since. And it continues to go downhill with his recent comments

 

Former Huskey Diana Taurasi busted for performance enhancer

 

Has anyone followed up on the Taurasi story?

And I just happened to go to ESPN.com, and saw that they're loosing to Stanford by 12 with under a minute left...looks like that streak could end tonight.

Edit - And it's official. The Cardinal tops UConn.

 

What a fantastic run for the team! Things are going to be crazy around Stanford now.

 

The streak ended on a whimper with UConn sort of sleepily walking through the game. They never led against Stanford, if I recall correctly! Ultimately, it was a pretty boring game for what should have been a hell of a competition. lol

Baylor and Stanford know they can beat UConn on a good day. Now the danger is that UConn doesn't have the huge burden of the streak on them anymore... could Stanford do it again, or could Baylor finish the job next time? Maybe. UConn's not likely to stumble too much like that again, though, on the way to what is likely another championship. It'll be interesting to see what challenges they get down the road and into the tourney!

 

I'm watching Gonzaga and UCLA right now... congrats to Courtney Vandersloot for being the first NCAA ball player with 2000+ points and 1000+ assists. She's been very impressive in this game... something like 16 assists so far with five minutes left.

Duke squeezed out a win tonight. Marist almost scored the upset, but Duke ultimately prevailed. UNC is over Kentucky right now, but it appears Kentucky is putting up a bit of a fight with eight minutes to go. Everything else is sort of happening according to the seeding right now, but there have been some good match-ups today and some near-surprises!

Gonzaga up on UCLA, 77-70, with two minutes left! Upset in the making!

EDIT: Nice game and win from Gonzaga! UNC looks to be edging out Kentucky in the last few minutes, too.

 

Courtney Vandersloot is ballin' it up again... she just set the NCAA single-season record for most assists. She's pretty much the most awesome point guard ever. Gonzaga is up on Louisville by 20 with 15 minutes left in the second half.

 

UW Green Bay vs Butler tonight.

I hope UW GB gets the upset like the Butler mens team has been upsetting top seeds.

 

I think they played Baylor, actually. I saw where Brittney Griner had something like forty points on the day, but the final score wasn't bad or anything... Green Bay just couldn't pull off the upset, unfortunately.

 

Yeah, I actually saw part of that game. It was the only thing on at the restaurant I went to tonight. It did not, unfortunately, improve my opinion of women's basketball.

 

Notre Dame just topped Tennessee for the first Final Four spot! Gonzaga and Stanford are playing now! Get there!

I think you've got to choose your games wisely, R...J. You didn't have an option, but a game like this Gonzaga/Stanford match-up will probably be a good one and way better to watch than Baylor/Green Bay. Gonzaga can be pretty fun to watch and, for some reason, I keep catching them on TV, so I've been pulling for them and really enjoying watching Courtney Vandersloot break all those records and whatnot.

EDIT: Yikes. Stanford is up by 13 and is looking pretty powerful right now with eight minutes left in the first half.

EDIT: Holy mess. Vandersloot in usual amazing form... she's already scored nineteen points and is getting Gonzaga back into this game practically by herself!

EDIT: Dern. Stanford just can't be stopped. They can't miss from anywhere on the floor and are just too powerful tonight. They're just killing Gonzaga, sadly.

 

I haven't paid much attention to women's BB this year. Apparently I should have, because the Georgia Tech men's team was dismal this year, while the women were a 5-seed in the tourney.

 

You are forgiven of your sins, my child. Remember that women's basketball always loves you no matter how long or how far you may stray from it. Go now, and walk in the light.

In other news, Texas A&M is causing a bit of a ruckus against Baylor tonight. Go Aggies!

 

The proper cheer is Gig 'em, Aggies!

Whoop! Final 4!