Nothing demonstrates how fickle lady luck is quite like allowing three of my picks to make it to the men’s Final Four, only to deny every one of my picks a berth to the women’s Sweet 16.
More to the point, though, because I couldn’t care any less who won the men’s championship game on Monday, you’d think I would be even less interested in the outcome of the women’s last night. Except that I was riveted:
Doess anybody care that the UConn women’s team is about to complete a second-consecutive perfect season by winning another NCAA championship tonight? Now just imagine the media hoopla if North Carolina [or any men’s team] had won its championship in such convincing fashion.
(John Wooden … is dead, The iPINIONS Journal, June 14, 2010)
Actually, my antic interest in this game had everything to do with Baylor being poised to make history by surpassing UConn’s single-season feat of 39-0 … by going 40-0. Baylor played Notre Dame, but it looked like one of those staged games between the Harlem Globetrotters and the always-hapless Washington Generals.
The game was never close. Baylor dominated, leading by as many as 25 points with five minutes to go before capping its historic season with an 80-61 championship win.
That said, I could have done without the clips of NBA superstars like Kobe and LeBron fawning over the play of phenom Brittney Griner who led Baylor with 26 points, 13 rebounds, and five blocks. Not least because of their patronizing comments about her ability to dunk the basketball. After all, at a freakish 6-foot-8 she can practically do that standing up.
Conspicuously absent from the relentless comments about Griner’s dominance, however, was any query about her very masculine appearance and demeanor, to say nothing about her deep voice. Because I was so taken aback by it all that I could not help thinking about the gender controversy that dogged South African track star Caster Semenya after she dominated the women’s 800m at the World Championships in 2009. Tests later proved that she is an hermaphrodite. I’m just sayin’.
Of course it would not surprise me if the vast majority of you had no idea this women’s national championship game was even being played last night. Which compels me to end with this abiding lament:
Instead of commanding network coverage in prime time, like the men’s championship, the women’s was relegated to cable last night, which guaranteed only a fraction of the viewership. Yet the TV executives who are responsible for dissing women’s college Basketball in this fashion are the very ones who wonder why they can’t get better ratings for the fledgling women’s professional league – the WNBA.
Moreover, what does all of this say to female college athletes, as well as to young girls who we encourage to have the same interest in sports as young boys…? Frankly, it says that male chauvinism, sexism, and discrimination against women in sports not only still exist but are blithely tolerated.
Sorry girls….
(NCAA (Women’s) Championship, The iPINIONS Journal, April 8, 2009)
Thank God for ESPN.
Congratulations to the Lady Bears of Baylor!
Related commentaries:
John Wooden … is dead
Sweet 16 (the women)