Women's Sports Blog

Race A Factor In Slumping UConn Ticket Sales?

I know someone on the WTS network has blogged this already, but wow.  Gutsy call from DiMauro, asserting that some UConn fans like their stars white.  Damn shame, because the team could go undefeated again this year and Maya Moore is a phenomenon, but who said prejudice is rational?   Another reason to be glad Della Donne chose Delaware and the true colors of some of these 'fans' were revealed. 

Ugly Basketball Contest Held At Maples

Remember the inaugural WNBA game?  This was worse.  Duke has a right to complain about getting called for fouls every time one of their players ran into a Stanford elbow, but they also couldn't sink a shot with both hands (23.7 percent in the first half).  Both teams dropped the ball like it was hot, with the crowning moment coming when Duke had cut the lead to eight and was headed back down the floor, when a pass hit the unprepared post player in the back of the head. It was typical of this game that the Duke player who performed best, Karima Christmas (what a great name), was also assessed an intentional foul. 

Fashion from the beginning and end of life was displayed among the Duke coaching staff, with Al Brown sporting a pastel sweater suitable for the bassinet while Joanne McCallie went with an all black ensemble.

It's worth mentioning  that McCallie gets to pose with with her family on the Duke website, a seemingly simple decision not afforded to many coaches in college basketball. 

Mizzou, Woods, And The Real World

Voepel on the Missouri allegations: 

We’re seeing this, of course, in the coverage of Tiger Woods’ troubles, and the allegations that his wife may have attacked him. When a man is physically violent toward a woman, we’re outraged and horrified. But when it’s a woman allegedly doing it to a man, too often it’s treated like it’s somehow “comical.” Which we all know is wrong … but look no further than the recent “Saturday Night Live” skit about Woods to see how pervasive that mindset is. Honestly, I have to remind myself about this all the time.

I only wish that she were right that we, as a culture, were always "outraged and horrified," about men's violence against women. But the truth is that for many, the first thought is 'what did she do to deserve it' or 'why didn't she leave' or some other victim-blaming.  The MRAs are also going to jump on these two stories to fabricate some nonsense about how female-on-male violence is the great issue of our time, leaving aside its relative rarity, as well as the deep roots of domestic violence against women as a tool for dominance.  Hitting people is wrong.  Women should not hit men, or anyone.  But the fact that the guest on that particular SNL was Rihanna shows how little we care about women as survivors, let alone as perpetrators, of violence. 

What's Up With Texas?

The balance of power continues to shift radically in the big state, and not just because Houston elected its first openly gay mayor (go Houston!).  A&M is having a great year but just got knocked off by a 7-3 TCU squad.  When you've got someone from Iceland, the only culture I know to use 'daughter' as a last-name suffix the way we use 'son,' good things are bound to follow.  Meanwhile the calls for Kristy Curry's replacement after a disastrous start in which Tech lost to a non-Div I team in preseason play and got embarrassed against Tennessee on national television have faded somewhat as the Raiders have run out to an 8-1 record.  A tough test awaits in UCLA on Friday.  But the major ongoing switcheroo is Texas, a middling 5-3 although with good RPI, and Kim Mulkey's Baylor squad, who are now clearly winning the recruiting and prestige battle to be the top program in the state.  The Big 12 could be mighty interesting again this year. I haven't even mentioned that a non-Texas tournament team, Nebraska, is unbeaten. 

Amnesia

As first linked by WHB, C. Vivian Stringer doesn't think her team is very strong defensively (or more likely she's playing mind games with Pat, whose team she will meet shortly).  The weird thing is...how do you forget man defense? 

That, My Friend, Is Some Ups

The AP photo depicts San Jose State basketball player Palagi Atoe lifting her teammate as another player rushes to join them in celebrating SJS's upset victory over Cal. 

Michelle Smith Wins The Internets

First, for the best headline yet about the embarrassing FSU basketball website, "All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go," and second for working Twilight into the lede. I am the first to admit that the books are made of crack, but I'm also a grownup who understands the difference between a real relationship and an abusive one, and can stop every so often and have an 'oh my God, I cannot believe the message of this book' session with my roommate.  If you set out on purpose to make a series that was damaging to teenage girls, you couldn't do better than Stephanie Meyer.  Here, read the lolcat version instead. 

As for FSU, I was one of the bloggers who received a personalized press release about the site, and I wrote back politely refusing to cover it.  I felt like they were thinking 'jeez, what a feminazi nutcase,' which I own proudly, but then the entire web turned out to agree with me. Vindication!

Losing Streak Fails To Phase Student Body

The Boilermakers have struggled to their worst start in years, but no one on the Purdue campus has noticed. "We have a women's team?" asked Jimmy Yoder, sophomore.  "Oh yeah, I think I have one of them in my communications class.  Or my dorm.  Whatever."  Yoder has been camped outside Mackey Arena for three days waiting for tickets for the men's game against Ball State, and told reporters he would be willing to stay for a week or more if necessary.  "I'll pay someone to take my trig final," he stated. 

It Sucked, And Then I Cried

The downside to the deep emotional investment that true fans put into their teams is the soul-crushing despair that can ensue when things go wrong.  In a second, you go from living for the team to not wanting to live anymore.*  I apologize in advance for the triggering effect this will have on readers' own unhappy sports memories.  The interesting thing is how many of the first ones that came to my mind involve men's teams, which I ostensibly care less about.  I haven't followed the Pacers for years, and the Mets have pretty well run their organization into the ground. 

7. The four point play by the Knicks against the Pacers in the 1999 conference finals.  My mother had just asked me 'is there any way they can come back?' and I told her there was almost no chance because they'd have to hit a three and get fouled. Thereafter followed the most bullshit continuation call in the history of basketball.

6. Kenny Rogers walks in the winning run in the '99 NLCS against the Most Hateful Team In the World, the Braves (bigots and wife-beaters welcome!).  Later Rogers turned out to be a totally unpleasant human being as well, so I don't feel bad for threatening to choke him whenever I hear his name mentioned. 

5. The pre-instant-replay, last-second touchdown thrown by Jim Harbaugh in the 1995 AFC championship game against the Steelers.  With review, I believe we would have been awarded the points and gone to the Superbowl.

4. Erika Valek misses open, game-tying layup in waning seconds of March Madness game '03 vs. Georgia.  This would have ranked higher, but I had left the room already because I couldn't bear to watch the final possession. 

3. The goddamn Steelers win the 2005 AFC championship after Peyton Manning fails to get the team close enough for a gimme field goal and Vanderjagt misses the one farther out.  Made ten times worse by the fact that I was watching the game with a good friend who is a huge Steelers fan, and we were both too polite to make it enjoyable.  I vow not to watch another Colts game until they make the Superbowl. 

2. 2009 soccer championship tying goal disallowed on offside, compounded by being forced to endure the obsequiousness sweepstakes that is media coverage of that creep Anson Dorrance and his insufferable, Yankees-like program.  Cat Whitehill inexplicably kissed enough UCLA butt that I knew to keep the sound off when she was actually commentating on her own team.  

1. 2001 NCAA basketball title game final shot.  Enough said about that. 

*This is excluding those frustrations that occur over time, such as the fact that the Patriots owe the Colts three AFC playoff rematches in which they are not allowed to cheat.

On A Positive Note

North Carolina's Jessica Breland is in remission.