10 Maryland VS 1 Notre Dame Womens basketball

Big game tonight.
My Md Terrapins travel to South Bend to take on the number 1 ranked Notre Dame.
Its gonna be a tough game. Our best player ever graduated last year.
Our leading player is Lexi Brown, daughter of former Celtic great Dee Brown (now assistant coach Sacremento Kings)
Yea I know, not alot of basketball fans here.
Face inferred that to watch basketball is close to brain damage. Cant imagine what he thinks of Womens Basketball :-)
I jnow DRich is no basket fan either.
Anyway this post is actually for my fellow womens basketball fan forum member Mosca.
How about it Mosca, 10 bucks like the last couple of matchups between our 2 favorite teams :-)
I know I am at a disadvantage, MD lost its last game to an unranked team.
Its only 10, just to make the game a bit exciting for me.
ESPN3 tonight.

Women's basketball....LMAO.

The two handed set shot....need I say more? Ok, I will say more....Do they still shoot foul shots underhand? :)

I am just kidding terapined. Enjoy your passion.

"We think women should be able to play sports, just don't expect us to watch it." Paraphrased from last week's South Park.

With that said, at the highest level, women's college can be entertaining and worth the time if you have a horse in the race. Enjoy.

If the NCAA wants to make women's basketball more popular, the first thing it needs to do is to go back to the old Friday-Sunday format for the Final Four. If Friday night play is a problem, then do what CBS did for a few years, and play the semifinals on Saturday before the men's semis, then the final on Sunday night; the main problem is, if they're out west, you might get a 10 AM local start for the first game.

Playing the women's final on Tuesday is a mistake for two reasons; one, too many people think "college basketball season is over" after the men's final the previous day, and two, the game ends after Sports Illustrated goes to press that week, so the game very rarely gets more than, literally (and I literally mean literally), a line or two in the following week's issue. IIRC, the most coverage SI has ever given in print to the women's championship is when somebody on the Don Imus radio show said that one team looked like "a bunch of nappy-headed hos."

(Note to self: idea for a game - NCAA women's champions vs. the combined walk-ons from the men's final four teams. The problem is, how does the men's team not end up controlling the boards at both ends?)

Sure Ed, I'm in! Sooner or later I'm going to have to pay one of these off, I know. I hope it's not tonight though!

If I win, we're going to AC later this month. I'll drop the tenner in the $5 WoF, and whatever happens I'll split with you.

Edit: if I get a spin. If I hit the jackpot, sorry, I'm keeping it.

Bob, here's the thing about women's college bb:

1) the game isn't too big for the court, like it is becoming for the men's teams. Brittney Griner is really the only woman to have the dunk as a weapon, and even she only used it a handful of times. The women's game is about strategy and setting up plays. Once you understand the rhythm, it becomes fascinating.

2) I'll say it: it is fun to watch athletic women compete. There is something classically Greek about it. It is beautiful. They are intense as hell. For me, it can be basketball, volleyball, fast pitch; it doesn't matter.

3) This goes along with #2: these women play every single game like the fate of the universe depends on the outcome. It can be a non-conference game in the middle of December, and they play like it's the Final Four. If you watch tonight's game, pay attention; even when a team is down by 20 (and let's hope that doesn't happen) they bring the ball upcourt and set up like the next basket will put them ahead. (This is true for all the sports I mentioned in #2.)

If you watch it like you watch men's bb, then you will definitely be disappointed. It's slower and lower scoring, like watching college hockey instead of the NHL. But if you watch it as an athletic contest, the intensity is unmatched. These athletes want to win more than anything else in the world.

Another issue that plagues women's basketball is a huge gap in talent. The difference between the bottom half of a conference and the top two or three teams is gigantic. More than half the games are over before they begin. One could say the same about men's, but it is not as pronounced.

I did stats for women's college for a few years in a major conference, these are just observations that have stuck with me.

Quote: ahiromu

Another issue that plagues women's basketball is a huge gap in talent. The difference between the bottom half of a conference and the top two or three teams is gigantic. More than half the games are over before they begin. One could say the same about men's, but it is not as pronounced.

I did stats for women's college for a few years in a major conference, these are just observations that have stuck with me.

Yep, that can definitely be an issue, and sometimes it even affects the very top: last year #1 UConn played #2 ND in the championship and blew them out by 20 points, and it wasn't even that close. Usually the top 5 or 6 teams are pretty evenly matched, and the next 10-15 are evenly matched, and it goes downhill from there. But last year's UConn team was much, much better than anyone else.

You are right, I have zero interest in watching any womens basketball. I will gladly allow anyone catching me watching it to gouge my eyes out.

I understand there is one basketball game tonight that I may devote ten minutes to. It is Duke and Wisconsin. I have had an affinity for Duke for about the last 10 years because at that time my daughter was leaning to go to school there. I also have fond memories of spending time in Madison Wisconsin with thick women.

Quote: DRich

You are right, I have zero interest in watching any womens basketball. I will gladly allow anyone catching me watching it to gouge my eyes out.

I have a whole lot of sports that I feel the same way about. NBA basketball. Soccer. College baseball. I get it, they're good games, I'm just not interested. It's all good.

Quote: ThatDonGuy

If the NCAA wants to make women's basketball more popular, the first thing it needs to do is to go back to the old Friday-Sunday format for the Final Four. If Friday night play is a problem, then do what CBS did for a few years, and play the semifinals on Saturday before the men's semis, then the final on Sunday night; the main problem is, if they're out west, you might get a 10 AM local start for the first game.

I totally agree, they should schedule the semis and final right before the mens games.
Womens Final 4 is East Coast this season in Tampa where I live:-)
If Maryland makes to the the Final 4, will be at the game. I dont really watch Womens basketball overall but I do watch the Maryland Women.
Just a fun team to watch. Won it all back in 2003 and almost allways has a top 10 team.
Womens Final 4 fans (outside of the team fans) are an unusual bunch. Its a big lesbian thing. Many lesbians schedule therir vacations wherever the Womens Final 4 is.