Now that the BG era is over.....

[Adesmar123]

Having what some have argued are the two best players in women's basketball for 3 years, Did Kim Mulkey under achieve with only 1 NCAA championship ?

 

[uconn_nyc]

2 championships, isn't it?

 

[EricLA]

2 championships, isn't it?

Nope. Just the 1 with Griner, et al. Mulkey won another NC several years back with Sophia Young...

 

[speedoo]

1 championship with Griner and Sims, plus the rest of that crew, is definitely underachieving.

Never been a Mulkey fan.

 

[pap49cba]

Paging ETT and Baylorprof...

 

[UConnChapette]

Winning one championship with a given group of players is incredibly hard, let alone two. And if not for Louisville being completely unconscious from beyond the arc Baylor would be moving on. I don't think it is fair at all to say they underachieved.

 

[rbny1]

With Griner, the dominant player of her time in women's basketball, and Simms, a terrific point guard - yes, I think they did underachieve with only one championship. It's hard to win one championship let alone two, but other teams with outstanding players have risen to the challenge and done more than Griner, Simms & Co. Maybe bad luck or hot shooting by an opponent or erratic officiating played a role in Baylor's winning only one championship. One measure of greatness, however, is the ability to overcome those problems.

 

[MilfordHusky]

When will we hear from ETT again?

Diana had 3. Sue, Tina, and Maya had 2. One is hard. Two is really hard. Three is other-worldly.

 

[katiecrum1992]

Nope. Just the 1 with Griner, et al. Mulkey won another NC several years back with Sophia Young...

That 2005 team was similar to Texas A&M's championship team from what I've heard. They came out of nowhere and surprised everyone, and they weren't highly ranked.

 

[EricLA]

That 2005 team was similar to Texas A&M's championship team from what I've heard. They came out of nowhere and surprised everyone, and they weren't highly ranked.

plus the brqcket sort of opened up for them - it was michigan state in the finals. Not exactly UCONN or Duke or Stanford...

 

[Phil]

Winning 2 NCs, with two different crews is an incredible accomplishment.

It didn't quite move her into GA/PS stratosphere, but knocking on the door with TV. Still deserves the term "elite"

 

[triaddukefan]

Not only just 1 championship with the Sims/Griner combo... but only 1 final 4 appearance. Yes an underachievement... but an underachievement that 99% of wcbb programs would take... including the one I fervently root for

 

[cohenzone]

Points out how amazing UConn and GA have been. One crazy hot shooting night can do you in. But LVille did not look to be in Baylor's class. They lost in the Sweet Sixteen, not the FF. I think the year Iowa St. did the same to UConn, UConn was not in the same category as Baylor supposedly was this year. A pretty shocking loss, especially given how unusual it is in women's hoops.

BTW, I'm too lazy to research. When was the last time in Women's hoops that two #1s (I hope the number doesn't grow 2nite) didn't make the FF, let alone get knocked out in the round of 16? Ever? Certainly not before the round of 8. Parity? I don't quite see parity yet, but the talent pool is definitely deeper. The coaching pool needs to get a bit deeper, too, but even there, there is some growth.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Agree Baylor underachieved especially this year even though they only had two losses. One of the losses was when Sims only played 4 minutes, which is understandable The only reason I say they underachieved this year is because they didn't get to the Final Four. If they lost in the Championship to either UConn or ND then I would have said it was bad breaks or those teams played a better game that night and wouldn't say they underachieved. Griner with Sims should have won two National Championships.

 

[alexrgct]

I would say that Mulkey absolutely overachieved in 2005 and slightly underachieved in the Griner era. BG was the kind of player where you were almost guaranteed at least one championship if you had her, and Mulkey got one. Not winning at least two, and missing out on the Final Four twice, is a bit less than I would have expected with BG at center...and certainly not more.

Having said that, Mulkey is not done by a long shot. Whether she has a Par or Geno kind of legacy remains to be seen (and I think it unlikely), but she is going to go down as a very, very successful coach.

 

[Waquoit]

Baylor should have won this year in a cake walk. I think Griner loses points in the All-time discussion. She didn't step up to the challenge Sunday. She's still an all-time Top 10. But compare the cast she had this year with Taurasi's last two teams. How badly would this year's Baylor team without Griner have beaten those UConn teams without DT? Twenty points? More?

 

[dtbtbtb]

IMO DT is the all-time greatest player in WBB and Griner is the most dominant player ever and top 10 but can’t be considered one of the top 5 as she did get to only 2 FF and got 1 NC while having arguably the top PG in the game on her team and many other HS All Americans.

 

[Deadrody]

I would say they underachieved. I would also halt any premature talk of Kim Mulkey as "elite". They caught lightning in a bottle in 2005. Outside of the Griner era Mulkey is 1 for 9 in conference titles. That doesn't exactly scream "elite" to me.
I think the jury is still out on exactly how "elite" Kim Mulkey is.

I would put Muffet McGraw ahead of Mulkey on the "elite" list of WCBB coaches - especially - after this season.

 

[UConn990411]

By itself, the one National Championship doesn't mean Mulkey and co. underachieved, particularly since they ran into an unstoppable force in 2009-10.

But getting to just two Final Fours - and only one after Griner's freshman season - is kind of pathetic. It would be hard not to say Mulkey/Griner underachieved.

(Oh, and like I said in another thread, there's no longer any credence to the silly argument that Griner's the best WCBB player of all time.)