Jim Fuller: Looks like Uconn - Baylor series will NOT be renewed

[alexrgct]

Mulkey has no responsibility to grow women's basketball. Her responsibility is to her team and her university. Let's blame all the other folks who can't find a way to make this game happen in pre-season instead of in the middle of conference play, not Mulkey. It's just hateful talk about a coach doing what she feels is best for her program.

We are going to have to agree to disagree here. There are very few high-profile programs in WCBB, and those there are do very much have an obligation to showcase the sport. I will never forgive Pat for cancelling the series with UConn, not because it's hurt either program one iota, but because it has hurt WBB not to have that game. Similarly, UConn will be fine without playing Baylor during the regular season (though I'd love to be able to go to the game in Hartford again), but it's bad for WBB for an emerging rivalry to be discontinued. Rivalries are extremely important for bringing in casual fans, and they take time to develop. As is, we've lost UConn-Tennessee, we're losing Baylor-A&M, and we're not going to get UConn-Baylor. That's bad for the sport. That's bad for long-term TV contracts. It's bad when young girls don't get to see matchups they can dream of participating in one day. I'd rather UConn owned a smaller but significant piece of a larger pie than all of a smaller one. Mulkey should feel that responsibility; call it noblesse oblige.

I have to ask again: who is really projected to be that dominant in the Big XII the next couple of years? I see Baylor and...no one else really poised to be anything above a top 15 kind of team.

BTW, if next year's game was in Hartford, the return game in 2013-14 would be in Waco. There is likely to be something of an attendance dip after Griner graduates, and I'd think Baylor could use a hot ticket home game like this.

And again, there's no hateful talk here; we don't have the whole story, and I'll reserve judgment until such time as we do. The issue is IF the issue ladybears4eva posited is actually a driving factor at all in all of this, I don't see it as a remotely acceptable justification for discontinuing what should be one of the premier rivalries, if not THE premier rivalry, in WCBB.

 

[easttexastrash]

I don't think the family issue is a factor in the least. There has been absolutely no talk of that in the Baylor world. This is an assertion by one person.