This is half the equation. The school itself has to step up and make a commitment to its women's team rather than treating it as some annoyance tolerated as a sop to Title IX. Jim Jabir was head coach at Providence and did a fair to middling job there not because he's a poor coach - anyone watching Dayton can see he's a very good coach - but because he didn't get the budget and support to recruit and and retain really good players. Support from the Athletic Department is vital to a team's success.
And he's getting a tattoo now!
Interesting idea. The NCAAs once had 40 and then 48 team fields back in the 1980s with byes that eliminated some of the blow out situations, but as the field got expanded and teams from the smallest conferences were pitted against the top teams in the nation, the killing fields ensued.
I really found his remark about "blaming" Geno a little troubling. As Geno himself has mentioned, it's not his problem that other teams aren't more competitive and why is it his team should be LESS to bring parity to the game????? You want other teams to start to excel in order to bring the game up! Playing down to another team is the most condescending thing on the planet and what team would get any satisfaction if the only way they could be competitive is if the other team had to play lousy or undisciplined in order for you to compete. That speaks badly for sports of any kind to have that scenario. Geno has invited fellow coaches to practices and allowed them to see how he brings his team to another level. He's willing to help any coach become better and share his knowledge. Does that sound like someone whose motivation is to DESTROY the competition. There was a time where UConn was the dominated team and he inspired his players and made them more competitive and that, in turn helped get better talent to jump on the UConn bandwagon. There's no reason that other schools can't build their programs in a similar fashion and inevitably be highly competitive year after year. There is more talent every year to go around and to suggest that Geno should be BLAMED for building a great program and drawing players with that team first mentality is SAD!
This is another suggestion that would eliminate a team who has had a somewhat lackluster year, maybe because of injuries or something else to have any hope of making the NCAA tournament. Every kid who has worked hard should have a chance at a fairy tale ending and for some, that's as simple as playing in the NCAA tournament, with the big boys. I do agree that occasionally, it means a really good team (who has an off day) doesn't make the tournament but that is somewhat rare. You could see the joy that UConn's first round opponent had, even in a loss, to have had the opportunity to compete in the tournament and to play against players (like Stewie) who one day may be considered legendary. A great story to tell your kids and grandkids. Why should that be taken away from them?
I think it was the timing of ESPN really getting into women's basketball and how they ran with it. It obviously worked in Geno's favor and Rebecca was a nice face to women's basketball with how eloquent she was along with her obvious basketball skills and then too, her Mom's courageous battle with breast cancer was compelling. UConn became the poster board for women's basketball and maybe that's one of the reasons that Tennessee fans resent the Huskies so much.
2Husky~
That, plus possibly it could have been kicking their *sses the first 3 times we played, 4 out of the first 5, all 4 times we've played in the NC game, etc etc.
I stopped paying attention to the NFL when players on the losing end of the scoreboard began celebrating 1st downs and routine tackles.
I don't see any needs to add another 16 teams, some the teams in the tournament are already pretty low in skill as of now!. How about the top 16 teams get two rounds bye, and
we do not have enough quality teams around for the tournament, and you are suggesting to invite more teams? interesting approach! Just do not see the logic behind it. The teams that survived the first round of playoffs are still 15-16 seeds at best...
Top 16 teams are no longer playing the bottom 16 that they now get that result in the blow outs. They are mainly eliminated by playing 16 additional teams of better quality. Do you understand the difference between a team of St. Francis's ability to a a team of Arkansas-Little Rock's? The teams rated #248 like St. Francis get cleaned out in the first "play-in" round of 16 games, and the top 16 teams in the second round with 32 games are now playing teams at least in the top 100. That will likely lead to less blow outs.
A professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that arranged parity worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.