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Women's College Hoops: Sweet 16.

#22
@Cassiodorus1 said in #19:
> Or maybe she'll be part of something else, something that pays a lot more.

I've read a lot of chatter online that says her going there, even w/the offer, is unlikely b/c she seems to want to go to the WNBA and Ice Cube's league's schedule conflicts with the WNBA schedule, etc.
#23
The most common "knock" on women's basketball, judging by this thread, is that women don't "dunk" as much as men.

Well, dunking is for donuts. There, I said it.

For a long time, the NBA seemed to fall into a "run and then dunk, run and then dunk" cycle that I personally found boring compared to college hoops. Things have improved since then, but "dunking" has never been my favorite part of the game.

Praising somebody well over 6 feet for dunking is like praising Abe Lincoln for being able to reach the top shelf. There are better things about Lincoln than his height. I don't get all that excited when somebody slams a rook down on the chessboard either. It's the moves, not the slams. It's the three-point shot / three move-combination, not the forcefully played mate in one.
#24
@Noflaps said in #23:
> The most common "knock" on women's basketball, judging by this thread, is that women don't "dunk" as much as men.
>
> Well, dunking is for donuts. There, I said it.
>
> For a long time, the NBA seemed to fall into a "run and then dunk, run and then dunk" cycle that I personally found boring compared to college hoops. Things have improved since then, but "dunking" has never been my favorite part of the game.
>
> Praising somebody well over 6 feet for dunking is like praising Abe Lincoln for being able to reach the top shelf. There are better things about Lincoln than his height. I don't get all that excited when somebody slams a rook down on the chessboard either. It's the moves, not the slams. It's the three-point shot / three move-combination, not the forcefully played mate in one.

Honestly, I don't consider that a knock (to clarify: lack of dunking in games generally as a knock to the sport collectively. I consider it a knock to say that's what makes it boring.) and I haven't seen many bring it up as much on this thread - when I touched on it, it was because that's generally what I've seen people online, broadly, say is what makes women's basketball "boring," though I don't think that's the case for everyone.

I've followed basketball my whole life and personally don't care that much about dunking. Might be because I grew up on Reggie Miller era Pacers, and Reggie was more known for three-pointers than anything els.e (and if you need an example look up clips of the Pacers vs Knicks games in the mid-1990s.)

Like - a dunk CAN be cool but there's more to basketball than that.

Edit to Add: I do think some of it is just that WNBA games aren't as easy to find/readily accessible - you typically can't just turn on a sports channel and stumble across a game or put a radio broadcast on (whether on an actual radio or via a radio station's website) and I'm not sure what streaming services even carry WNBA games if any. I happened to notice last season that the Indiana Fever were streaming their regular season games live on Facebook and would throw games on via FB live on my phone while working on a Legend of Zelda jigsaw puzzle I never did finish.

That, plus the relative newness of the WNBA - the league only formed in I believe the late '90s. Which, yeah, that's pushing 30 years now, but in the scheme of things you don't yet have generations who grew up watching it. I'm 31 and I can recall going to one Fever home game when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old in the early '00s.
#25
@Cassiodorus1 said in #16:
> There's something that's basically unexciting about the WNBA. I can't really name it -- maybe it's that they have too few teams, or their playoffs are too short. I would prefer to watch women's college ball over the WNBA. Commentators have put forth hopes that eventually Caitlin Clark will change the WNBA.

Maybe it's because college sports are just more entertaining than pros in general.

Not everyone is perfect at their jobs in college, and that makes it more fun.
#26
Regarding my distaste towards women's basketball shot-blocking, the mystery of why a strong preference would exist continues to haunt me.

My current theory is that it is because I grew up in the Calipari era of UK basketball. In a span of 2 years, UK had 3 of the greatest and most exciting shotblockers in college basketball history in Anthony Davis, Nerlens Noel, and Willie Cauley-Stein (also, Terrence Jones and MKG, but they weren't quite as prolific). All three of them were really freakin' tall, had great timing, and could jump like a pogo-stick. I feel like that is a rarer combination in women's than men's basketball.
#27
@clousems demonstrates his wisdom, yet again, by having formed his taste in basketball, at least in part, by following Kentucky basketball over the years (unless I misunderstand the implications of his preceding post).

Calipari has taken Kentucky to the Sweet 16 eight times, unless I am mistaken. And anybody in Kansas who responds, "yeah, but what has he done for them lately," should remember how competitive college hoops has become and should retain vast respect for John himself, who is obviously of legendary capability.

Kentucky: it produces more than just fine horses. Just as Liverpool produces more than great boy-bands.
#28
Just so nobody thinks I'm denigrating the Men's game by starting a thread on the Women's game, let me please:

congratulate both Alabama and Illinois for their play in two terrific games tonight (I'm writing about the Men's game in this post).

Lessons I think I learned from those games tonight: great offense is slightly better than great defense; and

one can overcome weak free throw shooting, if one is otherwise terrific (but it DOES add to the, uh, "excitement" to miss a bunch of free throws against a really good team).

Ah, making it into the Elite 8. How sweet it is.
#29
@Noflaps said in #28:

> Lessons I think I learned from those games tonight: great offense is slightly better than great defense; and

Every once in awhile you encounter these disciplined teams with few shooters -- in the men's game this could be seen in the New York Knicks of the Patrick Ewing era or the Detroit Pistons of the "Bad Boys" era. In the women's game you had West Virginia or maybe University of Central Florida two years ago. The result is this low-scoring basketball in which really, really good teams might win, but not by much. So, for instance, Iowa vs. West Virginia, in this year's Round of 32. Iowa was the best scoring team in NCAA women's basketball this year, and won the game, but only managed 55 points and a three-point lead with two minutes to go.
#30
To those who don't feel that women's hoops are sufficiently exciting, I say.....

Wait for it......

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ask Raven Johnson, if things are "exciting" enough......

No, don't ask her. She stays icy cool in a metaphorical tornado.

Ask the valiant Indiana team. They made it wildly exciting. They were warriors, in fact.

You don't think women's hoops are worth watching?

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.

Or words to that effect.

Congratulations to South Carolina. What a fine, fine team. Yeah, they're women. Fine ones.

I'm a routine feminist, merely because I'm logical. I'm not trying to gain attention for myself: I'm just trying to attract attention to truth. Women's basketball has become the real deal.

What a thrilling game.