Every year or so this subject comes up, and I tend to say the same thing every time. So if you've heard it before (and even less likely, remembered it), please forgive me.
The game of women's college basketball is played primarily below the rim. This is because most players cannot play above the rim and the few who can tend not to, for a variety of reasons. A major reason that I gravitated to WCBB about 20 years ago was precisely because it was played below the rim. I found that when the game was played well (as in UConn WCBB), it was much more enjoyable than the type of basketball played by the men, which I see as a marriage of Rollerball and the WWE.
Now, I have no illusions about my feelings about dunking. Dunking is a proxy for the many things I do not like about men's basketball: The chest-thumping "It's all about me" attitude of most players. The quick trip from freshman year in college to the pros, and the accompanying lack of basketball and educational experience that results (It is said that one of the top NBA players has asserted that the world is flat. I cannot prove that he said it, but iI absolutely believe he could have). The body-as-human-billboard tattooing. The fact that actual plays involving multiple players have been replaced with (as Johnny Most would say) fiddlin' and diddlin'.
If a fan wants to watch this stuff, fine. It's not for me. Fortunately, as I was making up my mind about all these things, I discovered UConn WCBB. When done correctly, having to play below the rim creates a game whose beauty is unsurpassed. An occasional dunk or two will not change that, but dunks as a regular part of the game will, IMHO, ruin the game. Once you get over the novelty of a woman dunking, the fact of a dunk is NOT, repeat NOT more exciting for the fans. It will reduce the team's reliance on those wonderful plays that cause us to "ooh" and "aah." It will fundamentally change the game in ways that will not be an improvement.
It is hard for me to believe, but I think there are people out there who are convinced that as many people would watch the women's game as the men's if only the women could be more like the men. If only they could dunk. If only they could be more athletic. I believe that those folks, and they include many WCBB coaches and officials, are wrong, because the more the women's game resembles the men's, the more the new fans will see it as a weak substitute for the men's game, and they will be right.,
WCBB needs to be a different game. It needs to preserve the things the fans love about it. I know I am in the minority here, but it would not bother me at all if the sport banned dunking. Let the Laeticia Amiheres of the world focus their energy on perfecting their basic skills and on teamwork. WCBB, played correctly, is smart. It needs to stay that way.
