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I have to say the MD-Duke game was the best I've seen all year in college hoops. I know it's the best two teams, and a game between crappy women's teams is painful to watch. However, the only thing a good women's game lacks compared to a good men's game is dunks, which count the same as a layup. They only thing the women's game as a whole is the lack of parity right now.

If you want to see some great team basketball, women's hoops can't be beat.
Is this the first time a former MAC women's coach has won a national championship? Brenda Freese once coached at Ball State. Her name was Oldfield then. She left Ball State for Minnesota where she stayed only one year before moving to Maryland. She is a great coach.
She started her coaching career in the early 90's at Kent where she was an assistant. Erica Floyd is an asst at Maryland now and she was an asst with Frese at Kent State and is a Kent Roosevlet grad.
Duke choked and MD took advantage of it. By the way, Stacey Dales-Schuman is really hot! :kobe:
FunkmasterFlash Wrote:I have to say the MD-Duke game was the best I've seen all year in college hoops. I know it's the best two teams, and a game between crappy women's teams is painful to watch. However, the only thing a good women's game lacks compared to a good men's game is dunks, which count the same as a layup. They only thing the women's game as a whole is the lack of parity right now.

If you want to see some great team basketball, women's hoops can't be beat.

03-yawn There was a college basketball game on last night?

Seriously, I missed it but I did hear it was really good.

P.S. One of the members of congress brought in a Terrapin for his opening speech.
RobertN Wrote:
FunkmasterFlash Wrote:I have to say the MD-Duke game was the best I've seen all year in college hoops. I know it's the best two teams, and a game between crappy women's teams is painful to watch. However, the only thing a good women's game lacks compared to a good men's game is dunks, which count the same as a layup. They only thing the women's game as a whole is the lack of parity right now.

If you want to see some great team basketball, women's hoops can't be beat.

03-yawn There was a college basketball game on last night?

Women's bball had a good thing going when they had their championship game on Sun right before the men's. It was at a convenient time to watch, and caught people in the right mood.

Then they had to get over-confident and self-righteous and make their game the finale.

Now there's a bright idea that worked out well. 03-hissyfit How about stop making political statements and do what's best for the sport and the players?
Some of the best fundamental basketball, coaching battles, and hard working players were women's games when I was in school (80's).

Those were some GREAT games.
FunkmasterFlash Wrote:They only thing the women's game as a whole is the lack of parity right now.

I don't know...when the Final 4 doesn't include UConn or Tenn, that seems like the field is leveling.
Quote:Women's bball had a good thing going when they had their championship game on Sun right before the men's. It was at a convenient time to watch, and caught people in the right mood.

Then they had to get over-confident and self-righteous and make their game the finale.

Now there's a bright idea that worked out well. How about stop making political statements and do what's best for the sport and the players?

I think that has more to do with TV ratings (less TV competition on Tuesdays) and the fact that the Sunday night is now the new Opening Night for Major League Baseball than any sort of "political statement," but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant.
Papa Lou BSU Wrote:
Quote:Women's bball had a good thing going when they had their championship game on Sun right before the men's. It was at a convenient time to watch, and caught people in the right mood.

Then they had to get over-confident and self-righteous and make their game the finale.

Now there's a bright idea that worked out well. How about stop making political statements and do what's best for the sport and the players?

I think that has more to do with TV ratings (less TV competition on Tuesdays) and the fact that the Sunday night is now the new Opening Night for Major League Baseball than any sort of "political statement," but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant.

Ratings are down since the move to Tuesday. But hey, why bother being right when you can *****, eh Papa Lou?
DrTorch Wrote:
Papa Lou BSU Wrote:
Quote:Women's bball had a good thing going when they had their championship game on Sun right before the men's. It was at a convenient time to watch, and caught people in the right mood.

Then they had to get over-confident and self-righteous and make their game the finale.

Now there's a bright idea that worked out well. How about stop making political statements and do what's best for the sport and the players?

I think that has more to do with TV ratings (less TV competition on Tuesdays) and the fact that the Sunday night is now the new Opening Night for Major League Baseball than any sort of "political statement," but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant.

Ratings are down since the move to Tuesday. But hey, why bother being right when you can b****, eh Papa Lou?

The 2004 Women's championship, played on a Tuesday, featuredthe highest ESPN ratings ever for college basketball, men's or women's.
HuskieDan Wrote:The 2004 Women's championship, played on a Tuesday, featuredthe highest ESPN ratings ever for college basketball, men's or women's.

That was UConn v Tenn! A huge match up (and some friction between the two programs if I remember)

Anyway, didn't they have a different selection program for the women's tourney? What was that all about?

And when the game was on Sundays on CBS, this happened:

http://www.ncaasports.com/basketball/mens/story/7083996

"A SHOT TO REMEMBER


Ten years ago, Charlotte Smith's last-second three-pointer gave UNC the title. (NCAA Photos)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The thing is, you can think of dozens of reasons why it should not have happened. Yet it did. It wasn't "the game" or "the player" or "the team" that made the 1994 NCAA women's basketball championship so crucial in the development of the sport.

It was "the shot." In women's hoops, there hadn't been anything quite like it before, and there hasn't been since.

With seven-tenths of a second left in the title game, North Carolina's Charlotte Smith sank a three-pointer that lifted the Tar Heels to a 60-59 victory over Louisiana Tech.

It's now been a decade, and the most "fantastic finish" in the women's game still resonates.

The Magic Johnson/Michigan State vs. Larry Bird/Indiana State title game in 1979 is considered the matchup that changed men's college basketball. It was the rocketlauncher that took a popular sport and truly elevated it into a national institution.

The 1994 matchup between North Carolina and Louisiana Tech provided women's basketball with a similar crucial stepping stone.

In 1993, women's hoops had made a breakthrough with its first advanced sellout of the Women's Final Four, in Atlanta. That title game did have a superstar matchup of considerable note, as Texas Tech senior Sheryl Swoopes faced Ohio State freshman Katie Smith.

Swoopes stole the show, though, with 47 points and the championship. It was a performance so compelling that it garnered recognition outside the women's hoops world. Two years later would come Connecticut, a wildly popular program with more media attention than any previous women's hoops team.

No one knew it, of course, but in '94 what the sport needed was a bridge between "the player" (Swoopes) and "the team" (Connecticut).

It needed "the moment." A situation highly dramatic and yet so compact and easy for anyone to grasp that it could just be one brief clip of film -- symbolizing the hair-thread difference between ultimate victory and searing defeat.

How did it turn out so perfectly, almost made-to-order?

The path had unexpected obstacles for the Tar Heels. Their two losses during the regular season were to Virginia, a team North Carolina then conquered in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final.

But the Tar Heels were the NCAA East Region No. 3 seed in 1994, the first year of the 64-team field. They'd had to go through East No. 2 Vanderbilt without Smith, who'd been suspended a game for throwing a punch in the second round against Old Dominion.

Next was East No. 1 Connecticut, another North Carolina victory. Then, in the Women's Final Four semifinals, West No. 1 Purdue was conquered. Finally, another team that had overcome the seeding odds -- Mideast No. 4 Louisiana Tech -- awaited the Tar Heels in the last game.

The final wasn't particularly well-played. It was during a five-season period when the Women's Final Four semifinals and final were played on back-to-back days because of a CBS television contract. The players seemed a little ragged.

North Carolina shot 34.4 percent from the field, Louisiana Tech shot 35.7. The teams were tied at 32 at halftime. And it appeared Pam Thomas might be the hero when she hit a jumper with 15.4 seconds left, giving Louisiana Tech a 59-57 lead.

Had it ended that way, the game might not really be remembered -- outside of Louisiana Tech fans -- for anything except the fact that a future Olympic superstar was on the court that day.

Basketball, however, wasn't even Marion Jones' top sport. She started most of the 1993-94 season as a freshman guard for the Tar Heels, but track is where she would become world-famous.

But the game didn't end that way.

Jones had a crucial role in that final play -- after North Carolina had missed a shot, she tied up the ball with seventh-tenths of a second left. The possession arrow went to the Tar Heels.

North Carolina called a timeout and set up a play for center Sylvia Crawley. Inbounds passer Stephanie Lawrence saw it was covered, and called a second timeout. That's when Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell switched plays and chose Smith for a three-pointer -- even though Smith was only eight of 31 from behind the arc for the season.

Years later, Crawley would recall that Smith actually didn't pick up the call, saying, "Sometimes you 'hear' things in the huddle, but you find out you weren't really listening."

As they went back on court, Smith asked what the play was. Crawley told her, trying to sound calm, "Charlotte, it's you."

Smith put up the shot ... and in some ways that's really "the moment." Smith at full extension, the ball suspended in mid-air and the fate of two teams hanging there with it.

It could have bounced off and been a missed-chance "phantom" that flitted around Smith and North Carolina forever. But it swished, and the haunting moved to Louisiana Tech.

"It was like destiny," is how Hatchell described it. For North Carolina and for women's basketball.

-- Mechelle Voepel "
Are you suggesting that a clash of the titans would garner more interest and higher ratings than Cinderella attempting to extend their night at the ball? ;-)
Ratings are down generally for all the big events--sporting and otherwise--on TV. They have been trending down for quite some time. Simply, there are more choices, and the choices are better than they were in cable TV's formative years.
To isolate one event and deduce that it is the event itself for which there is less interest is to ignore the bigger picture.
Not to bash the women's game, but the average margin of victory in this tournament was 16 points. Close games are pretty rare. And that's why I don't get very excited about it.
HuskieDan Wrote:Are you suggesting that a clash of the titans would garner more interest and higher ratings than Cinderella attempting to extend their night at the ball? ;-)

Under certain circumstances, yes. But, there were no titans in this year's men's event. That was my earlier point. I'm not some gullible Kent St grad. 03-razz
Just a BG guy whose point was destroyed when it was pointed out that the most watched women's game ever was on a Tuesday night, not a Sunday. lmfao
axeme Wrote:Just a BG guy whose point was destroyed

Destroyed? How about the trend? And how do the Tue ratings compare w/ Sun?

Before you preach my demise aksme, post some facts.

Also worth noting was the thread on here a while back about HS teams switching the nights of girls' and boys' events (aka basketball) in order to be more "fair" to the girls.

Anyone else care to cite that before bashing me. Damn, you'd all be less pathetic if you'd just be right instead of taking every desperate shot trying to prove me wrong. I suppose we need to re-define midwest again.
DrTorch Wrote:Ratings are down since the move to Tuesday. But hey, why bother being right when you can b****, eh Papa Lou?

It seems to me that the right comparison is between the aggregate rating for the Friday/Sunday format and the aggregate rating for the Sunday/Tuesday format because both the semis and the finals would be relevant in pricing the contract.

Sundays may generally be better TV nights than Tuesdays, but I'd guess that both are better than Fridays.

But, then again, I'm not nearly as big a know-it-all as you are.

(BTW, would it kill any of you motherfuckers to post links to back up your assertions? Jesus!)
Facts? I did. Ratings are down universally.
I have neither the interest nor the patience to factor in the overall trend to this one instance. Are the ratings down in the switch from Sunday to Tuesday in greater proportion than the amount they are down overall ? You want to do it? Have fun.
Are you and Schad going to the same therapist these days who has got you on a program of nit-picking and isolating facts out of the whole to prove points that are specious in the first place? Tree, meet forest.
Do you also believe that $1.4 million is less than $.5 million? And can you stand that horse on it's ass to prove it, too?
And when did you quit having fun here, and why? ;-)
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