What's your best thing about WCBB?

[RockyMTblue2]

For me the best thing is that $ has not ruined it like the men's game. That great kids get to play their hearts out for love of the game and stay with their program for 4 years and we watch them grow up into power, confident people. That they play hard and get elbow and knee burns diving for balls without regard to how many people are in the stands. That they are a band of sisters for the rest of their lives.




http://l.yimg.com/iu/api/res/1.2/En...e8e0d86779734877/ap-201203102128773053971.jpg

That it is for the love of the game that they play. Sorry I just keep forgetting how to get the picture in here!

 

[DobbsRover2]

Yep, 4 more years is a great thing whether it is pointing at WCBB or a presidential term. You can actually measure the progress of players as they advance year by year instead of trying to figure out which is the best one-and-done recruitment program, which leaves little room for coaching or fan allegiance to sink in. Plus, WCBB games are exciting.

 

[cardfan]

All that you said Rocky, and sisterhood.

http://photos.mercurynews.com/2012/03/stanford-women-beat-cal-in-pac-12-tournament-final/6276/#19

 

[alexrgct]

1. As had been said already, the fact that the girls play for four years. Someone like Maya would have been gone after one year in the men's game. Bria would be gone after this year. The excitement we have about the incoming class? Those are three one-and-dones in the men's game. Being able to formulate a narrative of a player happens all the time in WCBB. It's rare in MCBB. UConn MBB is more blessed than most (see Kemba Walker's journey at UConn for instance), but still.

2. Strong, capable, fiercely competitive women for my daughter to look up to. Not exactly horrible role models for my son, either.

3. Accessibility. Even at UConn, it doesn't cost THAT much to go to games. You can write to a coach and not be surprised that s/he'll write back. Geno will never admit it, but I'm positive he reads the BY. Reporters will respond to you. You can really feel like you're part of a community as a fan of a WCBB team.

4. Lack of parity. This is a controversial one for many, but you know what? I like watching great teams. I hate that a 9-7 Giants team won the Superbowl. It infuriates me that the NBA salary structure produces finals like the Spurs-Cavs of 2007 where you say, "These are really the two best teams in the NBA? Really?" And as awesome as it was that UConn won the NC last season, a UConn-Butler final was for most objective observers a miserable anticlimax. Was it really a problem in the 1980s when 20+ NBA teams sucked but the Lakers and Celtics were extraordinary? If you appreciate good basketball, you loved (or loved to hate) Showtime and the Cs, admired but despised the ascent of the Bad Boys Pistons, and wondered if Jordan could ever get a team around him good enough to win it all. You know what? I like that UConn kicks ass year in and year out. I enjoyed the Tennessee run of three straight decades being one of the top two programs. I like that Baylor emerged as a power, and even if they can't stay there consistently, when they're good they'll be really good. I respect what Tara's been able to do at Stanford despite the academic restrictions. In short, I like watching the best of the best teams play. "Everybody has a chance" is overrated.

5. The officiating is awesome.

6. A lot more team basketball and a lot less reliance on individual athleticism vis a vis the men's game.

7. Cute coaches in kick ass heels.

8. Comraderie among different fanbases. Yes, there's anomosity, but there's also a sense that WBB fans are relatively rare and we're all in this together.

9. Announcing teams composed of Beth Mowins and Brooke Weisbrod, two kick ass chicks.

10. I was kidding about #5.

 

[cardfan]

Good summary Alex. For #3, Stanford's Fast Break Club members have access to coaches for pre-game chalk talks and post game Q&A with coaches and players, which is very rare. I also sit very close to the bench for $25 per game without having an official point system requiring to donate money to buy season tickets. I'm an old time fan, which helps, but the access to seats and the program is very appealing, especially to the fans with young girls.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

. . . Geno will never admit it, but I'm positive he reads the BY . . .

If Geno hasn't got more important and better things to do than read a fan message
board, then he's getting paid way too much money.

I wouldn't be surprised, however, if he has one of the managers read the board and
provide him with items and/or summaries of topics that he has indicated may be
of interest to him.

 

[alexrgct]

If Geno hasn't got more important and better things to do than read a fan message
board, then he's getting paid way too much money.

I wouldn't be surprised, however, if he has one of the managers read the board and
provide him with items and/or summaries of topics that he has indicated may be
of interest to him.

He's said things on the Geno Show that were direct responses to discussions on here. I thought maybe he had someone monitoring the BY on his behalf, but one of the last shows of the year, he referenced a Dave Barry quote I posted on here a few days prior (about each decade of your life lasting half as long as the one previous). That had nothing to do with the WBB program (so underlings wouldnt be passing on Dave Barry quotes) and it was way too big a coincidence. I am positive he reads the board sometimes.

 

[DaddyChoc]

If Geno hasn't got more important and better things to do than read a fan message
board, then he's getting paid way too much money.

I wouldn't be surprised, however, if he has one of the managers read the board and
provide him with items and/or summaries of topics that he has indicated may be
of interest to him.

totally agree...someone like Meghan Culmo may read it and throw "our" questions at him.

Geno would be an fool to read the Boneyard... he gains nothing from doing it!

 

[ed4ourgirls]

. . . I am positive he reads the board sometimes.

Then the AD should dock his pay. lol

 

[trb123]

1. You can buy pizza for Michala Johnson.

2. Next year you can buy pizza for Stewart.

These are not as easy as they sound. Phil bought pizza for Michala in Italy last year and lost his Sterdom.

3. I give my son the option of eating his veggies or reading the Summit. The veggies always win.

4. Under 5 mins to go. UCONN trailing by 6. Don't worry. Faris is warming up to score. Where else can you find a player on court 30 min+ without scoring?

5. Sheri Coale and Charlie Turner Throne are vavavoom.

 

[Icebear]

There is no doubt he reads the Boneyard. Doing so has produced his best coaching job in years. First he reads it and then does exactly the opposite. It's a fail proof system. ;-)

 

[RoyDodger]

If I had to pick one thing that makes women's bb great, I'd say it's that no one makes baskets by putting their hands over or on the rim or stuffing the basket. In the women's game you have to shoot or make layups.

 

[2ndCity]

One day, while walking down a busy street in Nashville, I was approached by a stranger from the opposite direction, who was wearing a cap sporting a very large, orange "T". He had obviously noticed my blue UCONN WBB cap.

"Go UCONN!" he smiled. Taken by surprise, I grinned, "Go Vols!" We both then laughed, and high-fived, before going on our way. Two grown men, who obviously didn't know anything else about each other, still pausing on a busy sidewalk, to celebrate and support the other's obvious love for women's basketball.

 

[Ozzie Nelson]

Makes for a Winter of Content.

 

[Sonny44]

All of the above!

 

[winlots]

One day, while walking down a busy street in Nashville, I was approached by a stranger from the opposite direction, who was wearing a cap sporting a very large, orange "T". He had obviously noticed my blue UCONN WBB cap.

"Go UCONN!" he smiled. Taken by surprise, I grinned, "Go Vols!" We both then laughed, and high-fived, before going on our way. Two grown men, who obviously didn't know anything else about each other, still pausing on a busy sidewalk, to celebrate and support the other's obvious love for women's basketball.

CITY - one nifty vignette. Glad you posted it.

Though I am still a huge fan of Our Girls, I was drawn to, and liked better, WCBB a few years back. I liked it for the emphases on team play, finesse, ball movement, playing by the rules of the game, and sportsmanship - in no particular order Saddened by what I perceive to be the continuing erosion of many of those emphases.............again, talking about the game overall, not our program specifically.

I continue to relish that which remains to be admired and enjoyed, from the recruiting thru the practices and the exhibitions to the season and the results as they unfold..........including interest in and appreciation of the personalities of our team as they unfold......and even an interest in and appreciation of many of you characters.

In that last vein, every since I was a liitte kid (and that was SOME time ago), I've been quite a record keeper and stats man. I have an old sheet here by the computer entitled BONEYARD, with five cryptic column headings ranging from "GREAT' thru "GOOD" to BAD." There is a system of arrows to incidate the movement of any given name from one column to another. There are even some inked in *'s which serve as laudatory " gold stars."

Before our dinner guests arrived last night, I was looking over the list for no particular reason.....and was grinning slightly and contentedly to myself, and am doing so again at this moment, as I noticed a couple of phenomena: 1. the "GREAT" list is huge. 2. The "BAD" list is small. 3. The overwhelming preponderance of arrows point from right to left (and on this sheet, that is a GOOD thing).

Being a curmudgeonly old bastard (who prefers to refer to himself on occasion as a "KINDLY curmudgeon"), I was kinda suprised as these substantial imbalances...........and thus the grins. A tip o' the cap to the Yarders. Stay well.

 

[rocky rococo]

(1) They really are student athletes, students first with every intention of graduating on time and in good standing.
(2) The fact that they can't do the athletic things the most physically gifted male athletes can do forces an overall heightening of below-the-rim basketball skills and team play.
(3) As others have mentioned, the four-year cycle of development has a comforting rhythm, both of individual players, but also classes and programs themselves.

 

[Wonkster]

If I had to pick one thing that makes women's bb great, I'd say it's that no one makes baskets by putting their hands over or on the rim or stuffing the basket. In the women's game you have to shoot or make layups.

Thank you, Roy! I hate what I refer to as "TrampolineBall."
.

 

[Wonkster]

9. Announcing teams composed of Beth Mowins and Brooke Weisbrod, two kick ass chicks.

10. I was kidding about #5.

I had hoped you were kidding about #9 as well. I'm afraid to hear what your opinion of Ann Meyers was when she was announcing wcbb on TV, as it could shatter my image of you forever.
.

 

[blackbird]

Geno. Geno's the best thing about Women's College basketball.