at the risk of sounding sexist (too late! maybe), why do people watch women's basketball?

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so i'm here at work, and for some reason the main tv is tuned to the ncaa women's tournament, and i swear this is just painful to watch. to be fair, i've seen some wnba games that didn't seem so sloppy, but this college women's stuff is just pointless to watch. i'm sure it's more fun in person, or if you're playing it, but it ain't got nothing on the dudes' game.

okay, kill me now.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 03:56 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean seriously, even the congressional hearings on steroids were more entertaining.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 03:57 (twenty-one years ago)

http://web.ivenue.com/russgifts/images/RussTrollBasketballBlueYellow.JPG

― Silky Sensor (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Because Florida State women's basketball did soooooooooooooo much better than the men's team did, even though only 700 would show up to their games.

― Ian Riese-Moraine. Sweeter than a lorry load of white Toblerones. (Eastern Mantr, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Why do people bother to watch men's basketball?

― Miss Misery (thatgirl), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Why basketball in general? *hides*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm with Ned. I used to love playing basketball at school, but it's the most pointless spectator sport of all time.

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:12 (twenty-one years ago)

i disagree with both you and ned. tho perhaps that's for another thread.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually really enjoy the whole spectacle of March Madness more so than the sport itself, strangely enough. I love the immediate knockout highs-and-lows of such an accelerated tournament -- on that front I think it's the most exciting month of high profile sports in America on a yearly basis.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I've enjoyed it in person, I've attended several ACC tourneys because the men's tickets are impossible to get.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

just watching about five games tonight, it strikes me as incredibly sloppy, even when compared with the men's game (which hasn't been about finesse since the late 80s).

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)

i should add that i don't know why that is, the sloppiness, i mean. there are plenty of sports that women play where it doesn't seem as sloppy and willy-nilly and can actually be fun to watch. even the top ranked teams i'm watching seem to not have any plays, or any concept of how to pass the ball, or off-the-ball movement, or anything. i don't think it has anything to do with it being women playing it, other than, uh, it's women playing it (if that makes sense). women's soccer, for example, doesn't make me cringe like this.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

at the risk of sounding sexist

go a step further and claim that you could round up some college buddies and beat any of the teams in the women's tournament

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:43 (twenty-one years ago)

i wouldn't claim that at all. i am not a very good basketball player. this thread isn't about my skillz (or lack thereof) at the game, anyway.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:44 (twenty-one years ago)

This may say more about the state of men's basketball in Arkansas right now, but tonight's match-up between the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks and the Arkansas State Lady Indians was the talk of the day. The ASU Convocation Center had a record attendance for the night. It was the first meeting of the two in-state teams since 1983.

And this wasn't even the Women's NCAA, but the Women's N.I.T.!

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:46 (twenty-one years ago)

and, like, isn't your question close to the "you can't criticize a record unless you've made one yourself" fallacy?

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:46 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost - the men's n.i.t. is more worthless than the women's ncaa, i'll definitely admit that.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Why do people watch little league? Those fuckin' kids can't hit shit!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i wouldn't claim that at all.

i wasn't trying to put words in your mouth, sorry. that is what a buddy of mine once claimed, getting us all into unpleasant conversations.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:51 (twenty-one years ago)

the women's team at my small little division III (ie. non-scholarship) college were better than the men's team. that said, what i've seen of the women's ncaa division I tournament so far doesn't seem like it's that much higher a quality of play than div. III - whereas it'd be difficult to say that for the men's game.

and alex if you don't think little league kids can hit, you should watch the llws this year!

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:56 (twenty-one years ago)

In all seriousness, I actually think women's college basketball is a lot more fun to watch than the men's game. The teams actually look like they practice together. They pass. They can run an actual set play. They look well coached. Frankly NBA teams could learn a little bit watching women's teams.

Also I've heard a LOT of idiotic guys say exactly what Mookieproof just said. In fact, one of my former co-workers once claimed that he, apparently a marginally decent college tennis player, would have destroyed Martina Navaratilova. It's bullshit. These fuckheads are dreaming. I remember the best girls high school ballplayers wiping the floor with all the but the very best boys players in the little pick up games around the school.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:58 (twenty-one years ago)

"and alex if you don't think little league kids can hit, you should watch the llws this year!"

I was joking! Where the hell is your sarcasm detector?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:59 (twenty-one years ago)

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 04:59 (twenty-one years ago)

alex i knew you were joking, i was just trying to demolish it anyway.

i have seen very little in terms of set plays during these games. and the scoring has been slow, and low (that is the tempo).

xpost - good god blount! that is really unfair. or should i call you chris?

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Have you seen the ratings for women's basketball? No one watches it. That answers your question :).

― svend (svend), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

true story: the last pavement concert i went to was so dull/bad i spent a good chunk of the time watching the wnba game at the bar.

stence i know people who refuse to watch men's college basketball and college football for the same reasons you don't watch women's basketball!

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:02 (twenty-one years ago)

just don't call me colin cowhere and we'll be straight

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:03 (twenty-one years ago)

cowherd rather

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Well I will admit that only watch the final fours of either the men and women's games generally, but I went and saw the Stanford women play USF women and I also saw the Gonzaga men play USF men and quite frankly I didn't think the quality of the play was particularly higher in the former game than the latter.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:06 (twenty-one years ago)

What svend says. Why should women's teams be anything but sloppy? Nobody cares anyway.

*slouches*

*kicks dirt*

*huffs*

― sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:08 (twenty-one years ago)

anyhow the standard response, which alex in sf is getting at i guess, is 'fundamentals' though to be honest i've never really noticed this being that much of a strength of the women's game vs. the men's. alot of it's purely be true to yr school too obv.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:08 (twenty-one years ago)

(xpost)Except that clearly the Stanford women (even without their point guard) were the best team of the bunch and probably had the best player on the court (although Adam Morrison was very impressive for the first ten minutes of the game.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:08 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm watching stanford's women's team right now, they've actually been sort of entertaining.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Candice Wiggins was the amazing player on Stanford.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i watched a little of the uga-texas game earlier tonight

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean the one indisputable fact about women's college basketball is that at this point the talent is still pretty concentrated. It's definitely much better distributed currently in the men's college basketball. But I think the women's game is getting better and more and more schools are taking their programs seriously (Oklahoma is gonna be the shit next year btw, they recruited both of Bubba Paris' twin girl and one is 6'4/220 or so and the other is 6'2/195. DANGEROUS!)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

most pointless spectator sport? are you insane??? christ there are people who stand at a green and wait for dudes to hit a lil white ball onto it. or watch cars go around in a oval for 3 hours straight.

― ()ops (()()ps), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I watched Purdue v. U of New Mexico yesterday. Purdue had some very good shooters and a post player that knew what she was doing, but both teams were pretty sloppy and I was surprised to see that at the championship level. They certainly didn't play a 'purer' form of basketball(I'm not big on 'purity' anyway, NBA or Streetball((!)) is the only bball I bother with), to the contrary they seemed to have much less patience and team fluidity than I'm used to from male NCAA games, but this is just an observation on that particular game, I remember being very impressed by UConn or whoever that was a few years ago.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:32 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.geocities.com/zoidberg_fan/episodes/images/amazon.gif

"Did you tell him about good fundamentals!!!?"

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:38 (twenty-one years ago)

b/c women's basketball is the only sport at which rutgers (my undergrad alma mater) seems to excel.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:46 (twenty-one years ago)

(that said, these days i am kinda crossing my fingers for the men's bball team from my OTHER alma mater -- it's been 20 years for the 'nova, you know)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 05:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Dammit Trayce beat me to it. :)

― Richard C (avoid80), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 10:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not really for watching basketball unless it's being played by kids on a public court...and then it's just great to listen to. The commotion...the rhythm and bounce and the sound of the bounce...it's very musical. Makes me think of ESG or Sesame Streetfor some reason.

Okay, none of that makes sense to anyone but me.

― Ian Riese-Moraine. Sweeter than a lorry load of white Toblerones. (Eastern Mantr, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

The only women's basketball I've actively enjoyed watching (and, yeah, I'm biased, being from here) has been the UConn women's team. Not only because they've had the best batch of talent in the NCAA (like the year their starting 5 included WNBA All-Stars / Olympians Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash and Tamika Williams) (I'm forgetting the 5th starter - she's doing A-OK in the WNBA as well, from what I recall), but because they were THE picture-perfect basketball team. Fundamentals up the wazoo - perfect passing (in the halfcourt set and in transition), great on defense, fantastic play execution (no doubt thanks to Geno Auriemma riding them like packmules every day). And they were great individual players, esp. Taurasi, widely touted as The Best Women's Basketball Player Evah (by most accounts). (I know some other ILXers have stepped up w/ Taurasi luv, too - Blount?)

Stence (or any other doubters), if you get a chance to watch any UConn women's games from the past couple of years on ESPN Classic (which'll probably feature them against Tennessee), you might want to give them a look-see. Granted, watching them play is going to probably be the pinnacle of the women's basketball experience (and please offer non-UConn examples, if you have any, folks), but, still, it can't be denied when it's done this well.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

It took me a while to get into women's ball, but one day it just kinda clicked--the best analogy I can think of is that it's like figuring out what makes a different genre of music work--you don't come to jazz with the same expectations that you have for metal or whatever.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

or maybe going back to a sports analogy, the difference between city ball and country ball (for men's basketball) or italian football vs german football.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

hmm well i'll give it another shot. nice analogy, teeny.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

The Lady Vols have always been a pleasure to watch, fast breaks, pick and rolls, etc. The ball seems to get swung around the perimeter a lot more than in the men's game which I think is actually kind of cool. It's almost like you can see the plays develop better. Maybe there's a steep drop-off after your UTs and your LSUs and your UConns and that class of team. Women's ball hasn't been a serious thing for more than about fifteen or twenty years which might explain part of it - i.e. parents thinking it's cool, moms showing daughters how to dribble, the whole support network - both social and technical - at high schools and colleges. When Pat Head Summit (always affectionately called "Pat Summit-Head" in my house) started her job as UT women's head coach she had to hold bake sales to buy uniforms for her players.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

two of Tennessee's "three Meeks" - Tamika Catchings and Semeka Randall:

http://web.utk.edu/%7Esmarshal/catch157.jpg

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i've never seen a womens game, but I was into basketball for like, a year, back in 95. from what i've been hearing, it sounds a lot like men's college basketball - a bit rough around the edges.

i can definitely understand why it's popular, and why i would watch it if i chose to watch basketball ever again.

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

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