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Message: [QUOTE="Pharos, post: 4291357, member: 9295"] The article and this conclusion suggest that the goal is more attention for more college women's basketball participants. I wonder if it quite gets at the question, "What makes people want to pay attention?" If it's marketing or buzz, then turn it into a reality show or, even worse, something like WWF. If it's about promoting a sort of hero-worship oriented "hey girls, you can play basketball, too," then make it all about personalities (and it's gone a ways in this direction) I'm 70, my dad was a high school basketball coach, and I like WBB for two reasons. I got watching UConn when DT was a freshman, and realized that the game was elegant, dependent on skill, and, I'll say, cerebral. I felt like I could almost see the Xs and Os on the court (Princeton). Back then the men's game, post Wooden (and others like Larry Brown) became less elegant (ok, Valvano kept it interesting) was all slash and dish and crash the boards. Shot clocks and eliminating the 4-corner offense, were losses that took away from the "on any given night" and clever coaching. The other reason I watch is that, at least at UConn, Geno stressed(es) team and de-emphasized(es) "individual" (Gabby's shoulder patches) in the sense that it wasn't about egos taking over a game. Players close to a double-double would get substituted for at the end of games when a couple more minutes might get them a milestone. Poor practicers don't play as much, even if they are stars. It's about playing "the right way." So are these things appealing anymore? If not, then it will be all about the drama of socio-cultural advancement. If it is, then use WBB to teach kids how to play basketball "the right way" (Cuomo's Court Vision? - more instructive clips on YouTube?) and how to learn from BB lessons that bear fruit in later life (Maria Conlon? Maya Moore?) The tricky bit: people are gonna watch what they want to watch... and money has a lot to say about how WBB will get promoted to influence that attention. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach