A reader asked me why we don't publish the University of Connecticut women's basketball box scores.
To me, that's like printing the final vote of an uncontested election. With an average winning margin of 39.1 points, do the final tallies really matter?
UConn (22-0) has won 61 straight games. They are not ruining women's basketball, only stunting its growth.
Whenever I suggest this, some people insist I am criticizing the Huskies, who have the most protective following in sports.
That’s not true, unless the highest form of praise – that they are too good – is criticism. Your choice.
Some point to 2005-08, when UConn went without a title and made the Final Four only once.
But that was then.
UConn ’10 resembles John Wooden’s glamorous UCLA teams, which catapulted the men’s game into the big time.
Eventually, though, the pack caught up to UCLA. That’s when March Madness became sheer madness.
With the Huskies, the gap is not narrowing. It’s widening.
No. 2 Stanford’s only loss was by 12 to UConn. The Cardinals actually led in the second half, but the Huskies led by 22 with six minutes left.
No. 3 Notre Dame (20-1) fell 70-46 to the Huskies. No. 6 Duke lost to UConn by 33 at home.
Florida State trailed by six at halftime but lost by 19.
Watching the Huskies is less like going to a contest than going to an art museum, and admiring the beauty of a rare sculpture – only more boring.
UConn beat West Virginia 80-47 Tuesday. The lead was eight at halftime, which is not really close, but feels like overtime in Huskyville.
After the game, the Huskies dutifully talked about how the game was good for them, and how it was important to earn it. Like it had gone to the wire.
Ladies, you won by 33!
Phil Taylor of Sports Illustrated wrote about the UConn dilemma last week, but I’m no plagiarist. I thought about it on Jan. 2, when the Huskies beat Seton Hall 91-24.
Good thing Seton Hall had homecourt advantage, or it might have been a blowout.
Three UConn starters, including Maya Moore, will be back next year. Geno Auriemma has elevated the program to where he can recruit the best and the brightest, and leave America to split up the rest.
We still try to con ourselves into thinking they can lose. They won’t play Tennessee until the NCAA tournament, if then.
They’re in South Bend March 1, but after leading Notre Dame 42-19 at halftime in Storrs, will that matter?
Maybe Stanford could do it on the right night, on a neutral court. But I doubt it.
The Huskies are too great, too wonderful, a credit to all that is good in sports. Somebody, anybody, please beat them.