OT: UConn chicks

[whaler11]

Here are some hard truths about women's basketball:

It's called good fundamentals because it confuses old people into thinking it's a 1958 NBA game. Its not good fundamentals it's a lack of athleticism.

The women's board hates the good ND player and one of the reasons why is she said she wanted to rain on TN's parade for Summit. You have to be kidding me. It's just silly on so many levels. Oh she talked about going on the road and ruining their night? The horror.

It's completely uncompetitive on a night in and night out basis. There is no other televised sport that is consistently dominated by such a small percentage of teams. A lack of competition is just boring.

You want the highest rated television show in Connecticut history. Set up a charity game between UConn WBB and Eastern's mens team. You'd pull a Superbowl like share in the state. Who wouldn't watch that game.

 

[mauconnfan]

Here are some hard truths about women's basketball:

It's called good fundamentals because it confuses old people into thinking it's a 1958 NBA game. Its not good fundamentals it's a lack of athleticism.

The women's board hates the good ND player and one of the reasons why is she said she wanted to rain on TN's parade for Summit. You have to be kidding me. It's just silly on so many levels. Oh she talked about going on the road and ruining their night? The horror.

It's completely uncompetitive on a night in and night out basis. There is no other televised sport that is consistently dominated by such a small percentage of teams. A lack of competition is just boring.

You want the highest rated television show in Connecticut history. Set up a charity game between UConn WBB and Eastern's mens team. You'd pull a Superbowl like share in the state. Who wouldn't watch that game.

Hopefully for blackbirds sake you're talking Bristol Eastern and not ECSU as they may hang with the Bristol HS...........although I forgot they are better defenders and definitely will run better offense so how could they guard them??

 

[whaler11]

Hopefully for blackbirds sake you're talking Bristol Eastern and not ECSU as they may hang with the Bristol HS...........although I forgot they are better defenders and definitely will run better offense so how could they guard them??

I was talking about ECSU. They could sell out XL for that game.

 

[mauconnfan]

I was talking about ECSU. They could sell out XL for that game.

Yeah but ECSU would hammer them despite their ability to D up and run offense........although I need to take in to consideration that ECSU would have trouble adapting to the small basketball!!

 

[whaler11]

Yeah but ECSU would hammer them despite their ability to D up and run offense........although I need to take in to consideration that ECSU would have trouble adapting to the small basketball!!

Yes I do think Eastern would beat them. I'm shooting for the highest TV rating.

 

[Devland]

The smaller ball actually hurts shooting percentage. It was originally put in place because women have smaller hands, but in general, WCBB players don't anymore. (One of Rondo's issues when it comes to shooting.) But the fact that the ball is smaller actually causes more pop outs.

That's actually been one of Geno's biggest talking points for a while. He wants WCBB to switch to the larger ball and he'd like to either place in a back court shot clock or shorten the shot clock from 30 seconds to 24. (I think the second one is a mistake though...)

So if I start playing golf with a baseball my putting will improve?

 

[61cygni]

Study on decreased FT% when using lighter/smaller ball

 

[zyron]

The smaller ball actually hurts shooting percentage. It was originally put in place because women have smaller hands, but in general, WCBB players don't anymore. (One of Rondo's issues when it comes to shooting.) But the fact that the ball is smaller actually causes more pop outs.

That is why when you go to county fairs the Carnies running the basketball shooting game have hula hoop sized rims and you shoot with a tennis ball. No one would ever get it in.

 

[Gurleyman]

Here are some hard truths about women's basketball:

It's completely uncompetitive on a night in and night out basis. There is no other televised sport that is consistently dominated by such a small percentage of teams. A lack of competition is just boring.

How many NBA teams have won titles in the last 30 years?

 

[zyron]

How many NBA teams have won titles in the last 30 years?

How many titles have UConn and Tennessee women's teams won in the last 30? How about 14 and UConn women were not even a factor in the first few years.

 

[Gurleyman]

How many titles have UConn and Tennessee women's teams won in the last 30? How about 14 and UConn women were not even a factor in the first few years.

The Lakers and Celtics have half of the NBA titles in the whole history of the league (33 of 66)

 

[whaler11]

How many NBA teams have won titles in the last 30 years?

The NBA sucks so not sure your point. There aren't many 90-30 blowouts anyway.

 

[61cygni]

Pretty poor comparison when one uses a 7 game series, and the other uses single game elimination. One tends to let better teams advance at a a higher rate than the other.

 

[Mattydog]

I don't think it makes any sense to compare the women's game to the men's. But it does make sense to evaluate the Uconn women against other teams. I don't think Geno got out-coached in any of the losses this year. He got out-talented. If you consider who from the Uconn team would start for Baylor or Notre Dame, IMHO only Mosqueda-Lewis and perhaps Kelly Farris would be good enough. I think the girls had a deer-in-the-headlights look all night. If you look at the stats, Uconn had more rebounds, more assists, more blocks and shot for a higher percentage. Turnovers and free throw shooting did them in. Unfortunately, I don't think this loss will help them in the post-season but who knows?

Like comparing apples to oranges.

 

[Mattydog]

Most of you would be dead today if this thread was on the gals board.

Ha ha. How true.

 

[CTFIRERETIRED]

If any of the officiating that I saw happened in a men's game, I would have gone through 3 tvs this season. Its deplorable.

Thats the way it has ALWAYS been. Don't know why the officiating is the way it is. Some of the womens officials are not bad, but most of them are terrible. Hell, I have not officiated games since college 1974, and I think I could do a better job than some of these pukes.

 

[DanDar]

UConn women will be heavily favored to win at least the next two championships. Griner and Diggins are both seniors. While this year has had some disappointments, it's not over yet. They get another shot at Notre Dame in the Big East Tournament in Hartford next week. I'd imagine they will be favored in that game.

Yes, they lost to Baylor, but hung with them for 30 minutes and lost by 5. Anything is possible in the tourney. All UConn needs is for Bria Hartley to rediscover her sophomore form.

 

[meyers7]

You're right. They're slower.

And.....

They're not as fast

Brilliant. Kind of like some posters are dumber and not as smart.

 

[meyers7]

You forgot jumping. Has anyone ever measured a women's players vertical leap? I expect it would take the total of 3 women to get near the vertical of Ryan Boatright.

Actually yes they have. Saw some SPARQ test results a few years ago. Lorin Dixon, who played a couple years back, recorded a 33" vertical.

 

[Gurleyman]

Pretty poor comparison when one uses a 7 game series, and the other uses single game elimination. One tends to let better teams advance at a a higher rate than the other.

Well, hell. How many sports are there to compare, now? The original point was that it gets boring when the same teams always win. You want another? Men's Lacrosse. Only something like six schools have ever won titles. Or softball - the Pac 10 has won almost every title. Or women's soccer, which is pretty much North Carolina's invitational. But do these rise to the level of "televised sports"? Probably not. So if we screen for only televised sports that are single elimination (or sports that don't suck), we are basically down to men's and women's basketball, and the NFL, which has all sorts of rules to ensure parity. Yeah - wbb ranks a distant third behind those sports entertainment-wise. I won't argue that.

In truth, UConn has twice put together teams that were too good for the whole country (2002 when we beat Oklahoma, and 2009 when we ran a dogsled over Louisville for 40 minutes) and it was certainly a bit boring. Other than that, they had to battle for them. In other years, we trailed Virginia late in 1995, had a tight regional final with LSU, needed Taurasi to bail us out against Texas, trailed at the half by double digits against Stanford, etc.

The biggest reason why you have juggernauts from time to time in WBB is that elite players don't leave early. In 2002, Bird-Cash-Jones-Williams were seniors and Taurasi was a soph (then Taurasi carried us to two more with an ordinary supporting cast). In 2009 Montgomery-Charles-Moore were all still there as a senior-junior-sophomore. If you have early entries, who knows how many of those people stay that long, and maybe we never win any of them. If the men stopped having early entries, the Squid would have four or five titles by now (so we can be grateful).

 

[sparky]

This was a final four year and the next 2 will be NC's. As for fundamentals they are no worse than the guys. It all goes back to AAU and HS where the coaches don't teach the fundamentals, and Geno and KO are up the creek when it comes to teaching what the kids should have learned with their trainers and coaches. Stewie is a product of AAU and coddling. Hopefully she will wake up before it's too late.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Actually yes they have. Saw some SPARQ test results a few years ago. Lorin Dixon, who played a couple years back, recorded a 33" vertical.

I think you get the point, men's basketball fans like watching the incredible athelticism across the board combined with 1/1,000,000 skillsets.

I'm pretty surprised by the smaller ball hurts shooting percentage contention. And frankly shocked that there is an actual research paper. The physics are not debatable (smaller helps) but I think there is some ratio of person to ball that makes shooting easier, possibly illustrated by how biggest players are poor free throw shooters. And if the women played with a bouncing marble they'd probably shoot even worse. Anyway its irrelevant since the premise of the argument is silly smaller ball proves nothing, although using a large ball for softball definitely proves woman's softball is inferior to men's baseball

 

[Gurleyman]

I think you get the point, men's basketball fans like watching the incredible athelticism across the board combined with 1/1,000,000 skillsets.

I'm pretty surprised by the smaller ball hurts shooting percentage contention. And frankly shocked that there is an actual research paper. The physics are not debatable (smaller helps) but I think there is some ratio of person to ball that makes shooting easier, possibly illustrated by how biggest players are poor free throw shooters. And if the women played with a bouncing marble they'd probably shoot even worse. Anyway its irrelevant since the premise of the argument is silly smaller ball proves nothing, although using a large ball for softball definitely proves woman's softball is inferior to men's baseball

I know you were only using a throwaway line for humor, but what the heck - for the sake of discussion for the unenlightened, the size of a baseball and softball is appropriate for their respective pitching deliveries. Overhand, to put spin on the ball, you tend to use just the second and third fingers (except for specialty pitches like a circle change or a palm ball). Underhand, you use all four. If you used a baseball for softball, and vice versa, you'd make pitching much harder. Putting spin on a softball throwing overhand is difficult, and a submarine delivery in baseball where the ball does move is actually illegal in softball (the release point has to be at the hip).

But there's also 60 feet between bases, no leading, etc. So you can find some other ways to establish inferiority.

 

[meyers7]

I think you get the point, men's basketball fans like watching the incredible athelticism across the board combined with 1/1,000,000 skillsets.

Oh I understand, but since you asked, just thought I'd answer.

I'm pretty surprised by the smaller ball hurts shooting percentage contention. And frankly shocked that there is an actual research paper. The physics are not debatable (smaller helps) but I think there is some ratio of person to ball that makes shooting easier, possibly illustrated by how biggest players are poor free throw shooters. And if the women played with a bouncing marble they'd probably shoot even worse. Anyway its irrelevant since the premise of the argument is silly smaller ball proves nothing, although using a large ball for softball definitely proves woman's softball is inferior to men's baseball

I don't believe FIBA uses a different ball for guys/girls.

 

[ctchamps]

Hartley is horrific this year, never got the game back and is always dribbling around like a chicken with her head cut off.......Doty, well the injuries in her career took away her athleticism and with that her game, same place too often dribbling......Faris is solid always, throws some whacky passes but she's a toughie.........Dolson, bad bad game - looked lost - take another shot when you've missed 8 in a row?. Mosquito is really really good but can't guard anyone as good as McBride.........Tuck is going to be real good just needed to make some layups.......Stewart is whacked but she made big plays without trying, blocked shots, kept balls alive and rebounded, needs to relax...........Geno has not been too good either this year quite honestly in big games, Muffet owns him right now!!! Bring the freshman in (#4?) the 2nd half when things are falling apart?? Smart move......how about getting her comfortable slowly since she's a better option than Hartley or Doty?? The funny thing is they seem to need to hand the ball off so much and why? No one could get open...........and they throw passes to spots because the offense should run smoothly and when they finally play someone good and the other team can guard them, they still throw it there because they are running the offense? Unfortunately the other team is there awaiting the arrival of the awful pass......there's no skeleton defense out there anymore ladies!!

Womens refereeing is a joke.......women can't ref normally but the dude in this one was clueless....the call on Dolson for her 2nd was enough to assure the guy should never referee anything but women's HS JV games.........but seriously the ref's are always clueless and even the real good ones wouldn't be able to do a good mens HS basketabll game!!

Finally Fishy is so right, you saw what happens in a women's game, both way, when both teams are pretty good. All that supposedly smooth passing and cutting is out the window and they look kinda like Fishy outta the water!! ......these teams are so used to being so much better than 95% of their schedule that's an issue!

Screw Fishy. I'm putting this up again in spite of his hatred in doing this. Your analysis is spot on imo. Real good understanding of that team. Only point I disagree with is Dolson taking a shot after going o for. She can be streaky and they were playing off her. But I'm not going to argue that point.

And Fishy is right on about the women's game not being more fundamentally sound than the mens game which he carried over from the women's board. There are only four or five teams that have superior athletes and when they play each other they neutralize one another similar to what takes place with 150 to 200 men's programs. But when the 4-5 superior women's teams play the 200 or so inferior teams it's like the Globe Trotters playing against canned opponents.