Last night, in a pretty awful game, I watched the UCONN men’s basketball team disassemble Georgia Tech. Now they’re national champions.
Tonight the UCONN women held on to beat Tennessee. This was much more of a game – really a dream game pitting two teams which are perennial rivals. National champion number 2.
Geno Auriemma, UCONN’s coach and Pat Summit, coach at Tennessee, couldn’t be more different. She scares me. He seems warm and fuzzy – though I am sure I don’t want to be on Geno’s bad side.
Last season I went and watched a UCONN women’s game at Gampel Pavilion on the Storrs campus. As soon as I saw Geno, only one thing went through my mind – wow, what a suit. He was wearing the best looking, best fitting suit I had ever seen. Call me crazy, but it was that obvious that this was quality goods.
Nationwide, women’s basketball is far behind men’s in terms of popularity. Not here in Connecticut. As good as the men are, I wonder if the women aren’t more popular?
To me, the women’s game is something I can more relate to (though my relating to any athlete or athletic accomplishment is laughable at best). They are more finesse and less power. The game is lower scoring but just as intense as the men’s.
Both teams will be decimated as players graduate, or drafted as underclassmen into the NBA. It will be interesting to see how the two coaches and two programs rebuild. Or, will we ever dominate these two sports again?
UCONN WINS TWICE. What an incredible feat. I am a UCONN alum and I mentioned to my husband that when I was an RA on campus in 1992 I used to have to beg my residents to go watch the women’s basketball team play. BEG. And the games were free back then. No lotteries. Ofcourse you could barely get a ticket to the men’s games back then.
My first taste of the broadcast world was covering a Women’s game for WTIC when I was a Promotions Intern. They needed someone to go with the truck and get the stats. I remember walking out onto the floor and sitting in the press area. I’ve been hooked on the women’s team ever since.
I have always kept close tabs on both teams and I am a very proud alumni tonight. Will it ever happen again? In my wildest dreams I never imagined it would happen this time!
As for the women’s game being lower scoring, you are right but there’s not much difference. The men’s ppg was 78.8 and the women’s was 75.5. I think we notice the men’s scoring more because many of the baskets are more spectacular. We are lucky to have two such fine programs at UConn.