So, I am a diehard UConn fan because my mother was a diehard UConn fan, part of a legion of older Italian-American women from CT who adored Geno Auriemma. Mom watched every UConn game throughout her life, no matter what else was going on, and she did not enjoy any of those games unless and until UConn was up by at least 20 pts.
Syracuse, BC, ND, Louisville, WV & Rutgers were all former BE teams with strong WBB programs that migrated to power conferences because of football. During the 2013 championship run, 3 BE teams made it to the FF: UConn, ND & Louisville.
If that’s what you like, then that’s what you like.
ESPN is not broadcasting WCBB games anymore.
lolDawn’s isn’t afraid to play Geno, she’s shown that especially in the early days of her time at South Carolina. Perhaps the reason the series was canceled is because they’ll have a new coach
Knicks Have Reportedly Reached Out To Dawn Staley Over Vacant Head Coaching Role
Dawn Staley has surprisingly emerged as a candidate to replace Tom Thibodeau as Knicks head coach.sports.yahoo.com
No, nothing can be done about it ; that ship has probably sailed. "If that's what I like"? I would think most people would prefer more competitive games.
Even if that were the case — which I doubt (see, for example: Thread 'Completely comfortable') — that’s on the “ship that has sailed”.
This is it in a nutshell. In the past 2 years the SEC has gone from a two team race (SC and LSU) to SC, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, LSU and Bama, Vandy and Ole Miss right below. Maybe in the coming years we will meet in an early season matchup or a holiday tournament.
I don’t think it was the humiliation in the NC game alone that caused her to cancel but it was certainly part of it. I believe she took a cold hard look at what is likely to happen for the next three years, saw that many in the SC fan base were OK with it as they felt the game helped UConn more than them, and she was incensed with Geno’s cutting remarks regarding her (and A’ja’s) statue so she pulled the plug. Was it a mistake? Well, I certainly think so because it hurts women’s basketball. I’m pretty sure it was an ego thing but in the end, I guess it doesn’t really matter why she did it, only that it is a shame for women’s basketball!
1) What's going to happen? UConn domination? This is just speculation by a homer fan. Real competitors like coaches and players never toss in the towel for 3 years in advance and run away. I don't understand why fans like to brag about championships that they had nothing to do with winning.
Completely agree. It APPEARS that SC doesn't want to most likely lose this game...but to NOT play it takes one of the marquee games off of the NCAAW schedule...a game seen and WATCHED by a National Audience every year. To NOT "Challenge" her Team with this game at some point during the regular season...to gauge where they are...seems like a bad strategy... BUT, who am I to question what Dawn decides to do. (I admit I could be wrong blaming this on Dawn and the SC leadership...Maybe there just weren't any convenient dates (??? Not likely) or Maybe Geno didn't want the regular season non-conference game (even MORE not likely)
Of course its speculation! What else could it be? I’m speculating on what I have observed from Dawn over quite a few years. Could I be wrong? Sure, but that is what I believe is going on and as for the homer thing, I’m not sure what your point is? Should I not have an opinion because I’m a UConn fan? I do not believe they (SC) will win against us for the next few years. I think most of the wins they had since 2020 were largely due to our inability to field a healthy team due to the unprecedented spate of injuries we experienced. I am aware they had very good teams as well and they may have won some of those games but I believe Geno’s style of play is simply better than hers and barring a big advantage, a dominant post, and/or half our team being injured, I think we win most of the time. I hate to be the one to point this out, but most of what you see here or in the wider world is speculation in one way or another. Believe what you want & I’ll do the same.
I think they'll be challenged enough playing teams like Texas, Tennessee, LSU, etc. 2-3 times every single year. It's not like Coach Staley has decided to just go play a bunch of high school teams 30 times a season. With how big these conferences are getting, they really don't need to go outside of conference for tough games when just playing their conference schedule gets them 10 games against ranked teams.
Take another look at your statement. You can speculate all you want about what YOU think would happen over the next 3 years. But here you're speculating about what SHE thinks and trying to tell us that Staley is afraid of losing games to UConn, that her ego is involved, and that she's running away from continuing the series. And that's ridiculous and presumptuous since you have no idea what she thinks about anything.
What does SC get out of playing UConn? Let's count the ways:
, much excitement and interest in the game of WCB overall.
And you know for certain that Dawn pulled the plug on the series?
Because of relative conference strength, or lack there of, it is fair to suggest that UConn has a much greater interest in keeping this game going than SC. Beyond that, we don’t know the specific discussion that may have taken place about renewing the series, or the reasons for ending it.