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Message: [QUOTE="cohenzone, post: 2633538, member: 504"] UConn is bad for the sport the way Tiger Woods was for golf at his best. They are great for the sport because they bring attention to the sport. A lot of people who pay attention to the women’s hoops are pretty interested in the success of or in the prospect of UConn losing. And because they appreciate how well coached UConn is. It’s almost impossible to compare major sports to women’s basketball in terms of fan interest because it’s still pretty much a niche sport. I think the niche would be smaller without UConn. UConn can’t do anything about how good or bad the competition is, but I’d wager casual fans pay attention, at least at tournament time, to how UConn is doing and: just instinct, not so much to how say Baylor is doing, and that’s no knock on Baylor. On the Tiger Woods analogy, I think the casual fan was far less aware of how Phil Mickelson was doing than Tiger even though Phil is a great golfer. I think most sports critics bring up UConn’s dominance just to fill space or air time and wouldn’t care less about the sport if UConn fell off the planet. To be fair, I wonder how interested in women’s hoops we would be if Geno hadn’t shown up at our door. I also think, sorry Tennessee fans, that it is the rise of UConn that spurred TV interest and has led to uncountable more little girls to play hoops then ever before. [/QUOTE]