How I Came to Love Women's Basketball

[augustaTC]

Have followed as best as I could since the first NC. But what turned me into a lunatic of a fan was the increasing availability of TV games out here in the boonies.

 

[Tonyc]

For me it started in 1995 when the publicity started about an undefeated season. I have 3 daughters and we started watching the games on CPTV and I was hooked. I was at the American Legion in Norwalk one afternoon and was talking to one of the Vets and he told me about the Boneyard. His screen name is Kibitzer a purple heart recipiant. He lives about a half mile from me. We became good friends and went to many games together.

 

[ctfjr]

I attended Northeastern in the late 60's. Many of my friends were at UConn. We cross-pollinated by coming to each other's campus' for weekends. Usually there was some sports game we would attend on campus - basketball or football. Fast forward 10 years and several of our new friends also attended UConn. I was hooked on UConn sports, so when UConn joined the Big East in 1980 we started buying season tickets for the men's games.
When the points system was instituted it was less expensive to buy women's, soccer and football tix to get the points than make a donation. So I did.
At first I gave away most of the tix but eventually started taking my kids to the women's games (in the Field House). I was soon hooked. I still liked the men's game but there was something about sitting with 200 fans in that old building that was just a lot of fun.
It's been a great ride for both the men's and women's game!

 

[Patty Bailey]

My mother made me watch the girls....
It was around 94-95...The year they won their first title.. My father and I always watched the men play and my mother would sit in her bedroom watching the girls on cptv....We used to make fun of her for watching the girls...Of course we didn't watch them ourselves because we thought they were a joke.

Until one day I sat there and watched the whole game with her..And you can say I was hooked. You can probably give Jen Rizzotti credit too because I was definitely impressed with her... I also didn't think anyone could lose when they had a player like Lobo on their team.. Then they played Tennessee (the regular season game) and I was hooked. The rest is history.

Similar timeframe here, slightly different start. There was a girl at our local high school who was always in the local paper for her basketball feats. I heard she was going to UConn and also heard their games were televised sometimes so I tried to find one to watch the local girl and see how she was doing at the college level. That local girl was Jen Rizzotti and I've been hooked every since.

 

[Zinethar]

I was aware of women's college ball and watched a few games but got more intersted when Stewie went to UConn. I live near Syracuse and had seen articles in local papers about her. The games were on cable and I would often catch one. I think the thing hat got me totally hooked was the HBO season special and the 1995 making of the champions program. I was a coach for 40+ years and listening to Geno was a breath of fresh air. I loved his philosophy and methods. I think I now have watched every game available on the website. Love the women's game. Pure basketball in my view (like most of us old timers). I do watch men's college ball but almost never the NBA. It just seems like the men have not bothered to learn fundamentals and it is just a look at me game. Probably because that is what generates the most "me" money.

 

[dbmill]

I've posted something like this before, but here we go again. I started watching UConn women's basketball in the pre Geno years. I went to my first game during the 1982-83 season. I was a graduate student at UConn looking for cheap entertainment, and nothing is cheaper than free admission. I immediately took a liking to the game and the team, and went to a bunch of games during that season and the next two seasons as well. After that I graduated and moved away from Storrs. I went to one game during Geno's first season, and no games at all over the next few years, although I was always interested in picking up the odd snippets of news about UConn women's basketball that would occasionally leak out in those early Geno years.

During UConn's first trip to the final four, I found that their NCAA tourney games from the Palestra were on television (I believe CPTV picked up the feed). I watched these games as well as the final four game against Virginia, and found myself obsessing over the team again. My wife, who remembered me attending the women's basketball games while we were at UConn, took notice. The following November I found myself listening to a preseason (for the 1991-92 season) interview with Geno on the old Arnold Dean sports talk show. During the course of the interview Geno mentioned that an annual women's basketball yearbook was available for purchase. I decided that I just had to have it. I mentioned the yearbook to my wife, and told her that I was going to go buy it. My wife cringed, told me don't bother, ran off into another room, and came out with said yearbook. She had already bought it for me as a Christmas gift. That Christmas as a gift she also produced tickets to a game in Storrs against North Carolina State. We've been going to games consistently ever since, and we became season ticket holders for the 1994-95 season.

 

[Ozimoto]

For me, it started in high school when I had a crush on one of the players on the team and went to their games.

 

[and one]

I have told this story several times on the BY before but thanks for the opportunity to repeat it. On the occasion of my 5 year HS reunion I had a very casual conversation with one of my HS teammates where he mentioned that our former BB coach had gotten the head job at UCONN. He said nothing about Women's basketball or the name of specific coach. FF a few years and I run into the same guy at a family function-Geno is doing goods things up there at UCONN he said. Really I said I'll have to check them out. I started looking for UCONN games and was actually surprised to find that the Coach was Jim Calhoun. I though, Geno must have been fired already. FF to another family function a few years later and I see the same friend again. What happened to Geno up at UCONN I asked him. He still there doing big things he said. Well who is this guy Calhoun? No.no .. he said Geno has the women's team up there. I finally found the UCONN women that fall through some cable package or company that probably doesn't exist anymore. I've been hooked ever since. Was blessed with two girls that played the game at a very high level and got a chance to play with and against several UCONN prospects and former players. This has just furthered my addiction to UCONN WBB.

All of the "how I got into UConn WBB" stories are terrific and are hereby Liked. A special, superduper mention goes to Cocohuskie. Referring to Geno as my former coach is an astonishing thing to be able to say. I want to hear what that was like! Could you see in the embryonic Geno of your youth what we have seen of him at UConn.

Another mention goes to CPTV. The first UConn WBB game I watched was in person and was the famous Tennessee game. I came to the game with 3 or 4 workmates, all of whom were UT fans, as was I to a lesser extent, having lived in Knoxville from 1985-91. I left the game a UConn fan, which didn't please the workmates. It might have more or less ended there except...CPTV broadcast most games and I was able to watch most of them. CPTV always claimed their UConn broadcasts were the highest rated public TV in the country. I seriously doubt I would have followed the team as closely as I have if their games weren't all televised.

 

[cbraarj]

Two of the women on the first FF team were from my hometown and they went to the same high school. I used to go scrimmage against them as a friend of mine was the HC and still is right now. Laura Lishness was a Sr. in 1991 and Kathy Ferrier was a So. I have seen every game since 1987. Their hometown is also home to a place called ESPN! For me I started watching my HS girls basketball team in 1977. Since I played for the boys team and we supported each other. I also had a crush on the starting pg and dated that year until she left for college. I was only a freshman.

The player I really loved to watch was a player from the Real USC, Cheryl Miller! She was a player before her time!

I played and coached a long time boys and girls. The one thing that turned me towards the women is they always were looking to learn the game! Where as the boys never showed that. The worse boys player always thought they were going League LoL! Women easily!

 

[Mdoggie]

Two of the women on the first FF team were from my hometown and they went to the same high school. I used to go scrimmage against them as a friend of mine was the HC and still is right now. Laura Lishness was a Sr. in 1991 and Kathy Ferrier was a So. I have seen every game since 1987. Their hometown is also home to a place called ESPN! For me I started watching my HS girls basketball team in 1977. Since I played for the boys team and we supported each other. I also had a crush on the starting pg and dated that year until she left for college. I was only a freshman.

The player I really loved to watch was a player from the Real USC, Cheryl Miller! She was a player before her time!

I played and coached a long time boys and girls. The one thing that turned me towards the women is they always were looking to learn the game! Where as the boys never showed that. The worse boys player always thought they were going League LoL! Women easily!

You just may have become my favorite poster with your comment on the women players wanting to learn the game. I’ve only ever coached females and have learned from my players as well.

 

[Dokey]

Many years ago I mentioned my love of women’s sports and how I coached fast pitch pitchers to a fellow bookseller at a mystery convention where we were both exhibiting. He told me he had season tickets behind the team bench at UConn games. He was a little gnome of a guy, gone now, but I took his advice and caught my first UConn game On tv. It was more 20-25 years ago. I took my own daughter to Colorado games during the Ceal Barry years when the Buffs played NCAA home court tourney games to packed houses. Ranked No. 2 in nation, everyone was looking forward to Colorado vs UConn in championship game but they were upset. so UConn was on my radar.

As the years rolled by and UConn came to have every game televised, thanks to the explosion in cable and satellite tv, I became a bigger fan as Colorado lost its own winning ways. The men’s game never appealed. Watching giants play a game designed for scrawny junior high kids held no interest. Dunks were a snore. Watching women pass and cut and play defense was more my game. But the main reason I focused on UConn is because I love excellence.

 

[Siestakeyfan]

I expect that this thread has been seen before, but not since I have begun reading the Boneyard.

I have been a sports fan for all my life. I first followed baseball by listening to WMGM out of New York for games of my beloved Brooklyn Dodgers and with Red Barber describing the action. Football and basketball came later. My brother took me to a number of Trinity College football games in the 1950s and several baseball ones (saw Moe Drabowski as a freshman) and I remember listening to Chris Schenkel’s broadcasts of the football New York Giants. He was such a homer that I reacted by becoming a Cleveland Browns fan at the time Otto Graham was the quarterback. Attended a number of football, basketball, and baseball games at college, together with an occasional hockey one. I saw Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins playing on the Army hockey team. While in grad school in the 1960s, I went to a number of UConn basketball games at the old Field House. The Dream Season and first national championship in 1999 stand out, particularly since the Huskies defeated hated Duke to win it all.

As mentioned in my initial post, I first became acquainted with the women’s team in the fall of 1994 when a student worker told me that the team should be real good that season. I attended around a dozen games in 1994-95 sitting in the general admission student section behind the home basket. At the time, one could walk up to the ticket office a few days before the game and pick up a ticket for a nominal price. Included was the monumental win over Tennessee on Martin Luther King Day in January 2016. One of the last games my wife and I attended was Geno’s 1000th victory in 2017. We attended the 1995 Regionals at Gampel Pavilion, a tromping of Alabama and a hard fought victory over Virginia. In the latter game, UConn got off to a ten point lead in the first half and then fell apart and UVa was up by around five points at half time. Everyone in the stands was in a state of shock. Have t-shirts from the 1994 Super Show and 1995 national championship.

My family and I attended the huge rally in Gampel on Monday after they returned home from Minneapolis. What a team! Four present and future All-Americans. The team had it all - outstanding inside play, good guards, excellent shooting, and good defense. The featured players - Rebecca Lobo, Kara Wolters, Jen Rizzotti, Nykesha Sales, Pam Webber, Jamelle Elliott (pound for pound the toughest player on the floor), and Carla Berube. The team was put together before UConn had much of a national reputation and all the players came from the northeast. Elliott from DC was probably the player who came the farthest to join the team. After the core seven, the bench was composed of Missy Rose, Kelley Hunt, Kim Better, Jill Gelfenbien, and Brenda Marquis. The last five came into the game after Geno decided to call off the dogs and they seem to have performed better than the benches in recent seasons. I remember a woman I knew who was not a basketball fan telling me that she burst into tears after the victory over Tennessee. The 1995 victory supplied much of the initiative for the passing UConn 2000 by the General Assembly.

UConn has had a number of great teams but this was the first and the most memorable.

I am a 1962 Grad - Living in Florida since 1965. Enjoyed your comment !

 

[cbraarj]

You just may have become my favorite poster with your comment on the women players wanting to learn the game. I’ve only ever coached females and have learned from my players as well.

Absolutely and Thank you! The women are smarter and pay better attention to detail. I always felt it was more rewarding to me personally than coaching the boys!

 

[Mdoggie]

 

[Zinethar]

I usually enjoyed coaching the girls more than the boys. Most listened and were coachable. Many of the boys thought they already knew more than I did I think a lot of that came from home. When the boy's team lost they usually found someone else to blame, the girls cried. Sounds sexist today I know but that was my experience. However on the other side some seasons the girls were far more clicky and cattie. They never forget a slight. Boys tend to blow up then get over it fast.

 

[Mdoggie]

I cut a player her senior year because of her attitude. Parents went crazy!. Some years later the mom called me to thank me. Her exact words were “Coach, thank you for teaching my daughter a lesson, we’ve told her for years about her attitude. You were the only coach with enough “balls” to do something”. end quote. That player is now a mother and coach. She calls me often for advice and is running some of our old sets and quick hitters. Basketball is more then just a game.

 

[Ozimoto]

Reminds me of people who raised holy heck about the way my father (a middle school math teacher) treated them and then came back to him as adults thanking him for helping them grow up.

 

[cbraarj]

I had a system that would help themselves self police each other about the attitudes. Whoever was the one with the attitude and it could have been more than one. They would stand next to me while the rest of the team ran. Of course they ran until I got tired! Only had to do that once a year. Of course I had a meeting with the players and parents and explained everything to them and what I expected from them and what they could expect from me.

 

[Pinhead]

I love all your stories. I just hope that the Women's game doesn't change. I just hope they keep playing for the sake of hard-nosed basketball, and not getting involved in politics and social issues.

As a younger man I would have concurred. As I've aged I've come to value the famous quote credited to everyone from Hillel the Elder to John Kennedy: "If not me/us, who? If not now, when?" One might add: "If not here, where?"

 

[Pinhead]

While I have no personal experience with BB, I grew up as a fan of the Knicks championship teams, and my men's HS team was very good. We had a 7-footer, rather rare at the time, but the "Lew Alcindor Rule" was in effect and dunking was illegal in school BB. One of my vivid memories is in a packed gym, late, in a big, tight, emotional game, 7FT gets the ball all alone on a fast break and absolutely thunder-slams a 2-handed dunk. Only thing that erupted louder than the gym was the chorus of ref whistles that lit-up 7FT and sent him to the showers. I loved and hated at the same time the outrageousness of the act and the penalty for it. MBB's above-the-rim action was not a big part of the Knicks game, and unavailable in HS, but was relatively fresh in general and I was hooked. Dominique; Dawkins shattering backboards; all the J's: Dr. J, MJ, etc.

Over time though, MBB and I changed. While early-on I was mesmerized by the sky game, I became bored as it seemed to be at the expense of the ball-movement the Knicks were renowned for and successful school teams were forced into. I came to realize this ball-movement was the game's attraction for me, and as MBB morphed to it's current state, I lost interest, (you might see where this is headed). At present, IMO the athletes in MBB have completely outgrown the playing venue, not only the height of the basket, but the court size as well. As a relatively diminutive player can cover the length of the court in a handful of strides and show-dunk, never mind an agile 7FTer doing the same, MBB has become a snoozefest for me. I'm also no fan of all the showboating, but that's another thread in it's own right.

Then I had daughters only and everything changed! While previously I hadn't given women's sports much attention in any capacity, my daughters became competitive athletes and I became a fan and coach. No BB, but lacrosse, track, and XC formally in HS and college, and lifelong skiers, cyclists, and runners recreationally. As I grew into a women's sports fan in general I learned to value the athletes vs. their peers, and completely dropped what I came to realize was the ridiculous notion of making gender comparisons. At present the only major men's sport that I watch with any regularity is hockey.

Naturally, if one is a fan, one seeks and recognizes the pinnacle in any sport. As I began to watch WBB it quickly became apparent that UCONN was that program, and it didn't hurt that I enjoyed Geno's wisecracking, and that we shared the love for those Knicks teams as well as our favorite player: Clyde! As I became more immersed I came to enjoy the ball-movement and assists that I missed in MBB and I'm a fan. I don't miss the above-the-rim aspect of BB at all and I vehemently oppose any proposal to lower the WBB rim. At present I always look for women's sports first!

 

[Zinethar]

I had a system that would help themselves self police each other about the attitudes. Whoever was the one with the attitude and it could have been more than one. They would stand next to me while the rest of the team ran. Of course they ran until I got tired! Only had to do that once a year. Of course I had a meeting with the players and parents and explained everything to them and what I expected from them and what they could expect from me.

I was a cross country and track&field coach. My cross country team got T-Shirts with the message "Your punishment is our practice". So true . In my 40 years of HS and College D3 coaching I only had to remove 2 players. Hardest decisions I had to ever make as I felt part of my job was teaching what was right. The first one was the hardest as he was clearly the best runner on the team and sitting him would mean the team would be severely damaged. Had a meeting with the assistants and all agreed with the decision so we suspended him. His Dad had a hemorrhage and pulled him from the team. Years later he came to me to say he regretted what he had done and to tell me I was right. His Dad never did. End result was that I learned kids reflect what they get at home. You really can't do much about that but you can eliminate the problem.