Connecticut has wrapped up its second consecutive undefeated women’s basketball season and safely stowed the national championship hardware at home in Storrs.
Huskies center, Tina Charles, is now a member of the Connecticut Sun after being selected No. 1 in the WNBA draft, which is supposed to signify the official end of the women’s college basketball season.
But this is not an ordinary year.
A committee is discussing ways to change the postseason. There is talk of moving the start of the Final Four back to the Thursday after the men’s final. The women’s final would be played Saturday.
Putting some separation between the men’s and women’s tournaments isn’t such a bad idea. But why not think bigger picture instead of just a few days? Start the women’s season two weeks earlier so it can end before the men’s tournament starts.
That first fortnight could make women’s contests the only game in a college town. Football is in the lull between the regular season and bowl season. Except for a handful of teams alive in fall postseasons, there is little college activity.
By holding the tournament before men’s selection Sunday, the women’s programs wouldn’t have to fight for their dozen inches of space in newspapers, for their 15-second highlight clips on TV sportscasts.
That would be a positive change for the women’s tournament. Following in the footsteps of the men’s tournament when they add 32 teams to its 64-team bracket is not a good thing.
It’s not good for the men’s tournament and it’s ridiculously bad for the women’s tournament.
National finalists Stanford and UConn were top seeds. It was the ninth time two No. 1s met for the championship.
In fact, upsets are much less frequent in the women’s tournament than the men’s bracket. It’s not that the women’s selection committee is so much better, it’s because there is a greater divide between the have and have-nots.
This year only 11 higher seeds won in six rounds (63 games) of the tourney. That’s only 17 percent. Fifteen teams pulled upsets in 2009 (24 percent) and 10 (16 percent) in 2008.
Compare that to 20 upsets this year in the men’s tourney, a whopping 32 percent. Last year 25 percent of the games were upsets and it was 21 percent in 2008.
Jane Meyer, head of the NCAA women’s selection committee told The Associated Press she thinks “it’s fun to dream of the possibilities and the opportunities it could provide.”
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer supports the expansion.
“We need women in the gym improving and getting that experience,” she told the AP. “I think it’s a big carrot that could be used for teams and help develop our game.”
Really?
It hasn’t happened since the tournament’s last expansion. The women’s tourney made the jump to 64 teams in 1994.
Look back through the sport’s history. Year in and year out the same teams are battling for the title. Sure, some programs have kicked it up a notch over the last two decades.
But just because a handful of teams have improved, doesn’t mean the tournament should expand. Even UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who knows a thing or two about building a program, believes this is the wrong time to add teams.
He is in the group that doesn’t think there are an extra 32 worthy teams.
“Maybe someday there will be,” Auriemma said recently. I just don’t see it right now.”
He’s right.
This is supposed to be the tournament to determine the national champion, not a reward for showing up and working hard. Everyone works hard. And for that, they get to travel, play against incredible competition, and, oh, yeah, they get an education.
For many of the women at this level, it’s either a free education or a big chunk of one.
That’s a tremendous reward. But don’t try and say they also deserve a ticket to the dance. You want an invitation? Get better. Be one of the top 64 teams and you will get it.
Let’s not water it down to get an NCAA tournament light. It’s bad enough dealing with “there are no losers” in high school. We don’t need to extend it to college.
Sometimes teams don’t qualify. That builds character, it makes you work harder. When you finally do make the invitation-only dance, it doesn’t matter what your partner looks like or how long you party.
But if you make the dance because everyone is invited, all of a sudden when your feet get stomped on during your only song, you go home with a bad taste in your mouth.