Scoop: you are usually hard to disagree with but --I think ending the series is a wrong move. Geno waited forever and never got the UT apology he wanted, yet he is willingly playing UT again. That game was a rough game; many games with ND are almost for blood. If you recall Maya's final game --if that didn't end the series this last contest shouldn't either.
The game was hard fought and in the view (excluding Dangers/AO's incounter)
and not much more than we saw in the Stef Dolson era.
A.O. was way out of line in 2 maybe 3 instances--I don't put her behavior on the whole team. Uconn will face a lot of physical play trying to get one of the 6 in foul trouble knowing the team must then be less aggressive (ND's game plan). You can't stop playing all. I don't support that Uconn start choking or punching or driving to hurt that isn't the game I love. But don't hang the whole ND group for one or 2.
Exactly. The sport as a whole had a huge void in it for years when the UCONN TN rivalry
was cancelled by a bitter TN came to an end. UCONN/TN pulled strong national ratings every time out, a marquee game for ESPN sports in general, not just WCBB. I don't know about the TV numbers for UCONN/ND currently, but I'm hoping the game goes to that level at some point.
Right now, ND UCONN is approaching this level of 'hatred'. The poor sportsmanship and 'unnecessary roughness' in the place of toughness only adds fuel to the fire (I welcome it in a weird way).
The thing about TN is they rarely showed that lack of class (on the court) that ND has displayed. They played tough as hell, but didn't turn dirty, outside of the rare play that happens in these sort of contests.
WCBB seems to struggle a bit more striking that balance than MCBB. Not sure why. You don't usually find 'dirty' teams in MCBB. But I can think of past women's teams like Georgetown, Syracuse, ND and maybe a few others who took toughness to the level of dirty play. Coaches who seem to strike the right balance more often than not would be people like Mulkey or Jeff Walz.