After Atalanta

How long have you been covering women's basketball?  The weirdness around Azzi Fudd being drafted to the Wings and thus rejoining her girlfriend, Paige Bueckers, is perplexing. The commentators at the draft and the press room afterwards did not mention the relationship, rather they asked Fudd about being back with her teammate.  How was this not discussed beforehand? Was Fudd prepped? It is clear Dallas was not prepped. A team rep at the press conference with Fudd, who was asked about her romantic relationship with Bueckers, shut down that questioning, leaving Fudd with an odd expression on her face. Hope folks figure this out soon--it is not as if they haven't had over a year to prepare.  Also, we should remember that these are 20-somethings.  The Coach of UConn Speaking of the past year...UConn had a stellar season before losing to South Carolina in the tournament semifinals. Will the season be remembered or will it be the loss--which was marked by atrocious behavi...

Summer lovin', happened too fast. Christine Brennan has declared the Summer of Women (in sports) over. And, today, she and I are on the same page. Eternal pessimist that I am, I suspected--as it was happening--that the surge of interest in women's sports that was ignited primarily by the Olympics but also by the concurrent news and (mostly) praise of Title IX during its 40th anniversary year, would dissipate. It's a roller coaster ride. Luckily we only have to go down screeching down that big hill of disappointment once every 4 years (and down a smaller hill of disappointment after the winter Olympics end). Brennan was brought back to her reality after hearing UConn women's basketball coach, Geno Auriemma, discuss his stance on lowering the rim in women's basketball to make it a more popular sport that people (i.e. men) want to watch. People who don't like women's sports are not going to watch them. And inferiorizing the sport only provides the haters mo...

(I'm not really sure exactly how that title is going to fit with the rest of the post, but I liked the way it sounded, so I am going with it.) So, in case you didn't know, men's intercollegiate basketball has its own tournament. It culminated last night in a final game between University of Connecticut and Butler University. Sure UConn has won the title three previous times, but this year they were only a #3 seed and Butler was a #8. The numerous upsets caused much disturbance in fans' brackets this year, so I can't imagine many people tuned in to watch this final game, which unfortunately aired at 9:30 on the east coast (which everyone knows is the bestest time zone!). And frankly, they didn't miss much. I think it's time we talk seriously about the inferiority of the men's game. Does the dunk and fancy schmancy above the rim play really compensate for lack of shooting skills so evident in last night's game? I mean, the score at the half was 22-19 (...

The smaller problem: the women's basketball team is losing freshman forward Samarie Walker. Walker was number 10 in her recruiting class--the number forward in the country coming out of high school (in Ohio). But apparently there was discontent from the start. Like Elena Delle Donne (though, yes slightly different, I know), Walker thought she didn't just want to play basketball any more--or at least that is what she told people last fall. But also like Delle Donne, turns out she just doesn't want to play for UConn allegedly because of the pressure and scrutiny. It seems that UConn was her mother's dream. Walker is headed to Kentucky where she will be eligible to play in spring 2012. She has already made the move to Kentucky and is a matriculated student. She will be practicing with the team. Obviously Auriemma has spoken about the situation as have some unnamed sources. But we'll never really know what happened, in part because it likely remains pretty confusing for...

Because Mechelle Voepel so adroitly wrote about the connection between Penn State's volleyball championship this weekend and UConn's streak-tying win over Ohio State yesterday, I thought I would attempt to talk about multiple, somewhat related, things in one Monday morning post. In general, I have avoided this whole streak thing because it seems like a no-win situation. (Check out One Sports Voice for Dr. Lavoi's oh-so-precient thoughts on how this would be discussed.) But now that it's here... (I was so hoping Baylor would have prevented this moment. Alas, accept and move on.) Regular readers--including the haters--of this blog might want to sit down. But I agree with (some of) what Auriemma has been saying. First, on the issue of hyper-media coverage: "There is way too much attention that is placed upon things and events that the average person, if you used common sense doesn’t really cares about. Do we really need an hour show to figure out where a guy is going ...

1. The moment, described as tender/nurturing/loving between West Virginia's Coach Bob Huggins and player Da'Sean Butler happened when the latter went down with a knee injury during the semifinal game against Duke. With Butler writhing in pain on the floor, Huggins came out and knelt down and cradled his head and kind of stroked his face and got really really close and was talking to him trying to calm him down. I read it is as quite a queer moment in men's basketball. Not a "that's so gay" moment. I just thought it was interesting, especially given that coaches often do not come off the sidelines when players get injured (I watched a women's hockey coach talk strategy with his players on his bench while one of his players was down on the ice for an extended period of time, eventually going off on a stretcher with a season-ending back injury.) And the ones that do come out to check on things don't kneel down and whisper comforting words while cradling t...

That's the Jeopardy version of the answer posed by MSNBC columnist Mike Celizic who asked " Why no buzz about UConn women's reign ?" UConn demolished the University of West Virginia last night. UWV stayed close throughout the first half and a little bit into the second, then I turned my head away for a minute or two and it was pretty much over. I kept the game on for background noise as I finished my dinner. Then I turned on a rerun of the season finale of Glee w which was still more interesting but shared one similarity with the game: I knew how both were going to end. The Big East tournament was pretty much in my backyard and I didn't go because I didn't want to see UConn demolish everyone in its path. (Well I almost went to see Rutgers play Saturday because C. Vivian is my favorite!--but I was tired and cranky.) Absolutely the lack of interest reflects the sexist culture we live in. And while there has been some media coverage of the streak most of it imp...

NCAA basketball has begun. Now admittedly basketball is a sport that I have never truly embraced. It is probably the American sport I know least about. But I follow the women's collegiate game out of a sense of loyalty to female athletes. And, of course, I find it interesting from a sociological and cultural studies perspective. So here it is the first week of play and I am trying to jump in and be supportive right from the start this year. (This also serves a more solipsistic end: I know a little more when I fill out my bracket in March!) So last night, knowing the Tennessee/Texas Tech game was on, I kindly asked the bartender to put it on the big screen tv. And other people at the bar appeared to be watching. I was ready to have to fend of complaining whiners, but I didn't have to. Of course they may have changed the channel when I left at halftime but I did what I could. And this morning on my very early drive to the gym I caught the score of the UConn game on my local NPR a...

I am a little bit tired of talking about cheerleading but I have acquired a critical mass of stories (i.e. three) about cheerleading so it seemed to indicate that a blog post was in order. USA Today ran a point/counterpoint editorial on the merits of cheerleading. Or rather whether cheerleading is a sport. Karen Durkin of the Women's Sports Foundation said no --it's an activity and furthermore, it is being used irresponsibly to get schools out of complying with Title IX. She does not rule out the possibility that competitive cheer could be a sport, but that it frequently is not truly treated as a sport despite a school's designation of it as such. On the other side was a Presswire reporter stating his thoughts about why cheerleading and dance should be recognized as a sport and count towards Title IX compliance and also receive the benefits of other sports. His version of the story centers around the fact that cheerleading is athletic, that they have tryouts and practice a ...

As is tradition, the national champions went to the White House to get their pic taken with the president, give him a #1 Huskies jersey (but not a lady Husky jersey--after all, it's not Tennessee!), and get some well-deserved pats on the back. This time around though, they got to actually play ball. President Obama is, of course, a huge hoops fan. And he took the women out to his own private (no press) half court to play some P-I-G. And the president used the event as an opportunity to praise the visibility of women's sports. No mention of his own erasure of women's hoops when he failed to fill out a bracket for the women's tourney earlier this year. And I was a little but surprised to hear him say that his daughters get to see, while he sits down for a little Sports Center, "women staring back." Not sure where they see this. I rarely see women on Sports Center. I can't even get highlights of WPS games, so I don't hold out hope that they will make the ...

This is my week of incredulity, clearly. And it has been topped off by Dave Zirin, whose work I usually admire. Whose books I actually assign in my class. But his piece in The Nation really ticked me off. And what ticks me off more is that he's making a great point. A point that I have made in various ways for a while now. Basically that Geno Auriemma is an egomaniac, slightly off, and a grandstander who is taking away from his players. Unfortunately he keeps calling the UConn team the Lady Huskies. As I have mentioned previously, the UConn team actually does not use the term Lady to refer to its women's teams. (It's one of the few things that doesn't irk me about them.) Also, as I have mentioned previously, we shouldn't be using the term lady even when the teams themselves do so because it just reinforces all the negative stereotypes about women playing sports. A few years ago, Zirin spoke at the annual meeting of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sp...

Like I am not feeling ill enough with a yucky cold, now I read that Geno Auriemma is going to be the next national team coach . It's enough to make a gal want to stay in bed all day. I don't get it. Sure he's a good coach if you look at his record. I happen to think coaching is more than a record. And it's no secret that I am not a fan of Auriemma and his latest reward for coaching a national championship team has landed him a permanent spot on my "I really don't like you" list. It's not as if previous coaches have done such a bad job; at least the pile of gold medals would seem to indicate that. It's not as if there are not plenty of other people who can do the job. Because on the international stage and especially at an event like the Olympics where there still isn't gender equity, I think it's important that the US send a coach who is at least an advocate for gender equity and/or women's sports. But I think that Geno just likes being...

In fact, it's a little bit disgusting. When I was watching the championship game last Tuesday--or rather the pre-game--I thought I heard something about Geno Auriemma and Augusta National. But I was doing other things, I didn't hear the exact context, and when I googled seeking further information, I couldn't find anything. But a re-googling brought up this article about Auriemma's friendship with golfer Fred Couples. Couples promised his friend a weekend of golf anywhere he wanted if UConn won the championship this year. Auriemma's choice: Augusta National. People accuse me of "reverse discrimination" (no such thing by the way) and not believing in the better candidate getting the job (you know, the myth of meritocracy) when I start to go off about men coaching women's teams. And moments like these just affirm all my objections. So here's a guy who coaches women's sports; who is regarded as one of the best coaches in all of women's baske...

March is such a wonderful month, no? Especially good if you're UConn and you're going into the tournament (starts this week!!) undefeated and with the number 1 overall seed. But also many kudos to the 14 teams in this year's tournament who have perfect graduation rates. Connecticut is actually included in this group and is the only number 1 seed to be so. The other schools are: DePaul, Evansville, Florida, Lehigh, Marist, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Sacred Heart, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, Vanderbilt and Villanova. Only two of the 64 teams had graduation rates of less than 60 percent. In the men's tournament less than half of the field has grad rates higher than 60 percent.

Looks like I wasn't the only one interested in the financial figures Jim Calhoun put out there the other day. [Oh, and I was wrong about his salary: it's $1.6 million; not $1.7 million. My bad.] Also, the $12 million he referenced was not, as I hypothesized, the combined men's and women's revenues. I should have known better than to assume the head of the men's program actually knows or cares about what's going on on the other side (unless of course it negatively affects him). According to the Chronicle of Higher Education (h/t to EBuz), Calhoun's $12 million figure comes from the revenues reported in the Equity in Athletics data Act plus the $5 million from corporate sponsorship. This reveals some of the issues with the data collected by the Department of Education. Basically, it doesn't tell the whole story. Obviously the $5 million is income but it doesn't get reported under revenues. Also, as Calhoun himself noted, he earns a lot more than $1.6 ...

So here's an interesting twist on the current economic situation--you know, the one that is affecting almost every state budget, including Connecticut. UConn men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun gets paid $1.7 million a year making him the highest paid state employee in Connecticut. And a reporter called him on it the other day in a post-game press conference and Calhoun was not too pleased with the line of questioning. (See You Tube video below.) There is talk every once in a while (usually around the time that a new million dollar plus contract gets negotiated) about the amount of money coaches make but this seems to be a new lens through which to look at the situation. Not a lens Calhoun was interested in a taking a look through. After he got over his initial lackluster defense (just shut up!) he noted that they bring in $12 million to the university. Of course he meant the combined basketball program. Men's basketball brings in $7.3 million. And its expenses are $2.3 mill...

Greg Schultz has this column up at ESPN.com in anticipation of his interview with former b-baller, current University of Delaware volleyballer Elena Delle Donne. The interview airs tomorrow at 9am (EST) on ESPN. [Note to self: record that.] I find it so hard to believe that people find it so hard to believe that Delle Donne left a sport in which she was a superstar to play something else; that she doesn't miss basketball; that she likes volleyball; that she does not long for the spotlight and adoration playing b-ball would have brought her. And mostly I am talking to you, Geno Auriemma, who says: "I don't know how you can play that much basketball and be that good at it and say, 'I hate it since the time I was 13.' To me, those two things don't go together … that you would be that good at something and not enjoy any of it. It's hard for me to come to grips with. "I'm still not able to see how that makes any sense. I didn't understand it and hav...

So I am watching the Holy Cross at UConn game. UConn seems to be riding high after their resounding win over #4 Oklahoma last weekend which was aired on ESPN (or ESPN2--I don't remember). I only watched a few minutes of it at the end of the first half before I turned on the penultimate episode of Tru Blood* . Tonight's game is being aired on Connecticut Public Television which airs a lot of UConn basketball, which is nice. Of course they also use the games as an opportunity for fundraising with pleas for money at every time out and half time. As with most public television fundraising there are incentives for various donations. CPTV is offering the in-demand (the first printing is already gone) media guide. Also there is an auction for a basketball signed by members of the team. In describing these items the CPTV host keeps referring to the players' numbers; as in "featured in the media guide is #31" and "the ball has been signed by #30 who we just saw score ...

The Washington Post has a very good feature on what former hoopster Elene Delle Donne is doing now. After leaving UConn at the start of the summer and then turning down her scholarship in August, Delle Donne went to Delaware where she is nowing playing volleyball. And it sounds like she is having a really great time. Not surprising. I mean she gets to play a sport that she seemingly likes, for a female coach who is happy to have to her, at a school not stuck in the middle of nowhere and where she can actually mingle with other students as a regular student-athlete. Makes sense to me. I hope this article and Delle Donne's story reaches parents and other young athletes. Specialization is not a good thing. Delle Donne said she was burnt out on basketball by age 14 or 15. And her parents weren't even pushing her into the sport. Perhaps that is why she was able to walk away. And she may walk back some day. But at least it will be on her terms.

This past fall and into the winter (aka baseball and football seasons to some folks) I was continually dismayed that The Boston Globe would put sports stories on the front page of the Sunday paper. I understand when they put the BIG stories there like World Series winners or Superbowl...well losers. But there seemed to be a sports story, one that took up a lot of inches, on the front page that should have been on the front page of the sports section. With all the "stuff" going on in the world I thought it was a poor editorial decision to highlight so prominently what was a relatively minor story. So my prior discord made me stop and have to think about what I thought about UConn's Maya Moore's front page appearance this past Sunday. Of course this story started on the front page (way below the fold) and ended in the sports section. And it wasn't about a game or a season or a series, it was about one player which, in some way, suggests that the women's sports ...