I couldn't dunk then and damn sure can't now. Well, maybe if you lower it to 9.

Why are you taking this so personal?

I'm with ya. I have no idea what our girls' team record is. I can't name a single player. I'm not sure I can name a single player in the entire sport.

It's bad basketball. I could see better basketball at local high schools for free.

But to each their own. More power to people to like it.

(01-16-2014 03:12 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  I'm with ya. I have no idea what our girls' team record is. I can't name a single player. I'm not sure I can name a single player in the entire sport.

It's bad basketball. I could see better basketball at local high schools for free.

But to each their own. More power to people to like it.

Bad basketball? Ok.

We had two different girls lead the nation in scoring over a three year period(all 3 ~28ppg) one of which on top of leading the nation in scoring is the best player, male or female, I've ever seen at drawing a charge, the other girl is in the top three players, male or female, that I've ever seen with her back to the basket. we've had a few girls that hit NBA depth 3's with some regularity. We run a lot of high tempo full court press.

Good women's basketball is inherently less exciting than good men'sbasketball in the opinion of most people and there is a lot of bad women's basketball out there, but to call the entire game categorically "bad basketball" is laughable. There was a pretty fair amount of time in which our girls were playing far better basketballthan our boys. After a few years of leaving the arena shaking my head in disgust and/or bored to tears from bad passing, bad shots, missed dunks stupid fouls etc after men's games and leaving head held high and thoroughly entertained after women's games, it was pretty easy to become a fan of the girls game.

FWIW-by far the worst basketball I've ever seen was a men's game at our conference tournament a few years ago. We were tied with Denver 25-25 at the half and in that first half the two teams combined for 14-37 FGs.

(01-16-2014 03:49 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  to call the entire game categorically "bad basketball" is laughable.

Not really. NCAA Women's basketball is the most top-heavy organization in the world of sports. There are literally about 6-8 good teams and the rest are WAY, WAY, WAY below them. One could honestly argue that there is one good team (UConn) and the rest are below them.

Just my opinion, it's incredibly boring and without Title IX almost no school would even bother having womens' teams because they bring in no revenue and 95% of fan bases are completely apathetic towards it. Although I will say MTSU does seem to have a decent women's following.

But more than half average less than 1,000 a game. And I know for a fact that USM inflates their numbers. There's usually about 100 people there, as opposed to the reported 1,022.

I would like to see the IFC (Greek) intramural champions take on our women's team and see who wins.

And there is definitely some bad men's basketball too. Southern Miss for most of its existence comes to mind.

I care about women's basketball because it's a sport that my alma mater sponsors. I remember going to women's basketball games at Murphy Center in the late '70s just as scholarship ball was starting up at MT. Hell, in high school, I remember going to some girls games when the sport on that level was six on six, half court. A lot of small school gyms through the state of TN filled up for the girls games, and left when the game ended and the boys started to warm up for their games.

It's an entertaining game, and MT has been fortunate to consistently have a winning program, some good coaches over the years and some of the finest young female student athletes to play in blue.

If MT is sponsoring a sport I want them to do well, win championships, and represent the university. I try to make some women's soccer, volleyball games each season. These kids work just as hard, are coached just as hard as the guys, and deserve the support.

If MT is sponsoring a sport I want them to do well, win championships, and represent the university. I try to make some women's soccer, volleyball games each season. These kids work just as hard, are coached just as hard as the guys, and deserve the support.
[/quote]


Here, here!

Simple fact of the matter is that at MT, women's basketball matters. You've got hardcore fans of the team, myself included, and a large average fan base of around 3-4k who regularly attend games. Our program is built around success, hard work, and educational achievement and the young ladies on the team are some of the best you'll meet. I say that is true even at other schools like Miami where I know players personally (in addition to the MT team). They're all great kids, and they deserve support.

I've been watching the game long enough to be quite involved with it and keep tabs on it at an extremely high rate, and I can only hope others are open-minded enough to give it a shot. Hell, every sport might seem stupid and boring at first when you start watching. I hated baseball at how terrible the players could be and how incessantly long it was, and I now enjoy it. Just por ejemplo.

(01-16-2014 04:20 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(01-16-2014 03:49 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  to call the entire game categorically "bad basketball" is laughable.

Not really. NCAA Women's basketball is the most top-heavy organization in the world of sports. There are literally about 6-8 good teams and the rest are WAY, WAY, WAY below them. One could honestly argue that there is one good team (UConn) and the rest are below them.

Just my opinion, it's incredibly boring and without Title IX almost no school would even bother having womens' teams because they bring in no revenue and 95% of fan bases are completely apathetic towards it. Although I will say MTSU does seem to have a decent women's following.

But more than half average less than 1,000 a game. And I know for a fact that USM inflates their numbers. There's usually about 100 people there, as opposed to the reported 1,022.

I would like to see the IFC (Greek) intramural champions take on our women's team and see who wins.

How would you know for a fact that the numbers are inflated if you don't watch? As someone who is at every home game and 4 to 5 away games a year I can tell you that the actual number is closer to 1022 than it is 100. We have more booster club members than the attendance your claiming.
By not watching you don't know your school has the nations leader in assists.

(01-17-2014 12:27 AM)Thegoldstandard Wrote:  

(01-16-2014 04:20 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(01-16-2014 03:49 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  to call the entire game categorically "bad basketball" is laughable.

Not really. NCAA Women's basketball is the most top-heavy organization in the world of sports. There are literally about 6-8 good teams and the rest are WAY, WAY, WAY below them. One could honestly argue that there is one good team (UConn) and the rest are below them.

Just my opinion, it's incredibly boring and without Title IX almost no school would even bother having womens' teams because they bring in no revenue and 95% of fan bases are completely apathetic towards it. Although I will say MTSU does seem to have a decent women's following.

But more than half average less than 1,000 a game. And I know for a fact that USM inflates their numbers. There's usually about 100 people there, as opposed to the reported 1,022.

I would like to see the IFC (Greek) intramural champions take on our women's team and see who wins.

How would you know for a fact that the numbers are inflated if you don't watch? As someone who is at every home game and 4 to 5 away games a year I can tell you that the actual number is closer to 1022 than it is 100. We have more booster club members than the attendance your claiming.
By not watching you don't know your school has the nations leader in assists.

Pictures from the games on spacebook, BGN, EP, all that.

(01-17-2014 12:27 AM)Thegoldstandard Wrote:  

(01-16-2014 04:20 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(01-16-2014 03:49 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  to call the entire game categorically "bad basketball" is laughable.

Not really. NCAA Women's basketball is the most top-heavy organization in the world of sports. There are literally about 6-8 good teams and the rest are WAY, WAY, WAY below them. One could honestly argue that there is one good team (UConn) and the rest are below them.

Just my opinion, it's incredibly boring and without Title IX almost no school would even bother having womens' teams because they bring in no revenue and 95% of fan bases are completely apathetic towards it. Although I will say MTSU does seem to have a decent women's following.

But more than half average less than 1,000 a game. And I know for a fact that USM inflates their numbers. There's usually about 100 people there, as opposed to the reported 1,022.

I would like to see the IFC (Greek) intramural champions take on our women's team and see who wins.

How would you know for a fact that the numbers are inflated if you don't watch? As someone who is at every home game and 4 to 5 away games a year I can tell you that the actual number is closer to 1022 than it is 100. We have more booster club members than the attendance your claiming.
By not watching you don't know your school has the nations leader in assists.

Exactly! Especially at a school with a huge arena like MT, it's hard to say how the games are without actually going and experiencing them. MT games are exciting and the crowd is usually loud and energetic.

For the most part, I'm on par with SpaceRaider. I support them and hope they do well, but I don't get excited about it enough to come on a message board talking smack about it which was my original comment that got us to this point. I do look to see how they're doing, because let's be honest they've been the most successful program on our campus for several years.

Good basketball is a relative term though. Hell, some of Randy Wiel's single digit win teams would destory our current women's team. While those men's teams may have sucked against other comparable men's teams the brand of basketball is still better than most women's basketball...though I will grant there are some exceptions but we're talking about the entire body of WBB vs. MBB. There are a lot of sports where women can compete and be better than men, but in football and basketball the girls just don't have the strength, speed, size, and athleticism. I don't understand why we have to ignore the facts just because of political correctness.

It's not political correctness as we're not pitting men against women in bkb. Men play men and the women (despite not being as athletic) play other women. We know that they're not in the same category. I hope you don't have girls in sports or you'll probably bring them down because they aren't as athletic as men.

Three, what I'm trying to say is that we support our school and the teams that they produce. It's that simple.

(01-17-2014 01:48 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  Three, what I'm trying to say is that we support our school and the teams that they produce. It's that simple.

Well, I do too.

My initial post was addressing the smack talking. That was a little much I thought. Surprising to me, because I have been all over the country watching women's basketball and the excitement and interest just isn't there. But again to each his own.

Women's hoops at MT just isn't the same as it used to be under Stephanie Smith (who left for Alabama).

As a guy who never used to go to the women's games (maybe just caught a second half), folks who do not go to the games now are missing out.

My 4-year-old daughter won't miss a game. She is already hooked. We brought thousands to Hot Springs (SBC hoops tourney) each year, and most came for the ladies.

Insell is a mastermind at getting folks in his corner. He is a big money raiser and he wins. Wish some of our other coaches were more like him.

Count me as one of the Lady Raider faithful. I'm sure the folks in Ruston and ODU understand.

By the way, here is one of our assistants, former Lady Raider and current Seattle Storm player Alysha Clark

(01-17-2014 01:55 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 01:48 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  Three, what I'm trying to say is that we support our school and the teams that they produce. It's that simple.

Well, I do too.

My initial post was addressing the smack talking. That was a little much I thought. Surprising to me, because I have been all over the country watching women's basketball and the excitement and interest just isn't there. But again to each his own.

When you have a sport and you have dedicated and passionate fans you will have smack talk. To each his own is the correct phrase here

Can't wait to see how the rest of the season shapes up.

(01-17-2014 12:56 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  Good basketball is a relative term though. Hell, some of Randy Wiel's single digit win teams would destory our current women's team. While those men's teams may have sucked against other comparable men's teams the brand of basketball is still better than most women's basketball...though I will grant there are some exceptions but we're talking about the entire body of WBB vs. MBB. There are a lot of sports where women can compete and be better than men, but in football and basketball the girls just don't have the strength, speed, size, and athleticism. I don't understand why we have to ignore the facts just because of political correctness.

This is broken logic, men's basketball and women's basketball are two different sports. Good DII teams with any size and athleticism would beat the UCONN ladies, that doesn't mean the Huskies don't play good basketball.

You might as well be comparing men's NCAA basketball to the NBA, the best college team in any given year would get smoked by the worst NBA team for similar reasons. I usually agree with most of what you have to offer, but you're not only wrong in this instance, you're arguing a different point them most of us defending girls basketball are arguing.

Ok. Whatever. I'm pretty sure basketball is basketball whether mens or women or in the US or in the Ukraine.

I know I have seen enough WBB to know in its whole it's often not good basketball.

I give Insell his due. He does an amazing job at recruiting talent and coaching them to their fullest potential. But what happens at UConn and even at MT is the exception not the rule.

(01-17-2014 03:33 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  Ok. Whatever. I'm pretty sure basketball is basketball whether mens or women or in the US or in the Ukraine.

I know I have seen enough WBB to know in its whole it's often not good basketball.

I give Insell his due. He does an amazing job at recruiting talent and coaching them to their fullest potential. But what happens at UConn and even at MT is the exception not the rule.

So, you're admitting that there is good basketball played at the ladies' level. Hell even #1 team in men's hoops looks like ^%&! sometimes too, but that doesn't mean it's not "good" basketball. It all depends on what STYLE you're playing and what LEVEL of play it is.

(01-17-2014 04:02 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 03:33 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  Ok. Whatever. I'm pretty sure basketball is basketball whether mens or women or in the US or in the Ukraine.

I know I have seen enough WBB to know in its whole it's often not good basketball.

I give Insell his due. He does an amazing job at recruiting talent and coaching them to their fullest potential. But what happens at UConn and even at MT is the exception not the rule.

So, you're admitting that there is good basketball played at the ladies' level. Hell even #1 team in men's hoops looks like ^%&! sometimes too, but that doesn't mean it's not "good" basketball. It all depends on what STYLE you're playing and what LEVEL of play it is.

Seriously?! Men's basketball isn't basketball for the most part. No defense, no passing. It is all about showboating and hot dogging. Women's basketball is true basketball. Even Coach Wooden was a WBB fan because it is played "below the rim, where it was intended."