Well, Nan, it is clear, from what you tell us, that some mean-spirited posts never see the light of day on the Board, that you remove them at your discretion...as you should. Clearly, there is no place here for certain ad hominem attacks that don't deserve to be posted. Having said that, I think (with respect) that you, along with a core group of regular posters, are hypersensitive to basketball-related posts that call into question basketball decisions made by the players on our favorite team, posts to which you refer as "spewing." That hypersensitivity is, in my opinion, 100% gender-related, which constitutes, also in my opinion, a serious put-down of the players, however unintended. You, and the others, constantly refer to "the girls," or "our girls," as though they are some kind of delicate blooms. We often hear things like, "don't you realize that we don't post in a vacuum here, that the girls and their families actually read these posts!" I find that very demeaning toward them. The most distressingly ignorant of the responders will usually offer something worse, a "let's see if you could go out on the floor and do better" kind of thing.
We should get one important thing straight: These are NOT girls. In high school, they were girls. Now, they are young women, and not just any young women. They have dedicated a large part of their lives to basketball, have acquired extraordinary skills, and have accepted full scholarships to bring those skills to the collegiate level. In the case of UCONN, they have knowingly thrust themselves into the national floodlights, owing to its preeminence in the womens' game. They, I imagine, not being little girls, fully accept this, as well as the scrutiny that accompanies such a decision. Therefore, in my opinion, all basketball-related analysis, criticism, applause, is fair game on a Board that intends to be a basketball board, not just a "we-love-our-girls" forum. I have a daughter whom I love without reservation and whom I admire greatly. She is a highly-trained professional who is revered by her colleagues and who is a leader of other young women...and men. As her father, I can get away with a little "Daddy's little girl" talk, but, in short order, she'd be certain to roll her eyes and say, "Can it, Pop!" She doesn't seek to be treated with kid gloves because of her gender, and neither, I suspect, do the players.
As posters have pointed out, we lost three times to ND for a variety of reasons, many of which call into legitimate question both the abilities of our players in certain areas and the quality of their decisions on the floor. Other posters will find legitimate reasons for disagreeing with those who call attention to those deficiencies. The disagreements only make sense if its just basketball talk to which we're referring. That interchange is what consitutes a basketball forum. If it's "let's not be too critical of our girls" talk, well, I think I'm much more of a feminist than a lot of our fellow posters, females included.