Women's Sports Blog

Blah Blah Blah UConn

Etc, etc.  We can all be glad there have only been four other seasons of this nonsense.  It's bad for the game.  The WNBA is going to gain some massively talented rookies, though. 

Sports News And Info Round-up!

So much going on, such a short blogger attention span. 

*C. Vivian Stringer has been inducted into the basketball hall of fame.  No one deserves it more as a professional and as a person.  She's the only coach ever to lead three different teams to the Final Four. 

*Speaking of halls of fame, last week the Hockey Hall of Fame finally voted to induct women.  The great Adam Proteau has some choice words for the haters:

First of all, if the HHOF is expecting laurel after laurel for its change in policy, they won’t get any from this corner. The fact is, they’re the last of the sport’s Halls of Fame to do so and basically had to be shamed into making the move.  Secondly, for those who’ve come out since the announcement and thrown against the wall whatever argument they could – i.e., that women can’t compete on the same level as men or that the lack of competition outside North America ought to preclude them from being honored – I have a simple retort. In its own “statement of purpose”, the HHOF makes the following point crystal clear (emphasis added by me):  “The Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1943 to establish a memorial to those who have developed Canada's great winter sport – ice hockey…(it) exists in order to honor and preserve the history of the game of ice hockey, and in particular, those who have made outstanding contributions and achievements in the development of the game.”  Got that, everybody? Being honored by the HHOF is all about contributions and achievements in the sport’s development. There’s not a word in there about playing at a certain level; nor is there a definition of how much development has to be made in any particular wing of the game.  It’s straightforward as can be. And it’s a shame it took so long to make some of the hard-heads at the HHOF realize it.

*Also on the hockey front, the US national team has a Facebook page (link fixed) on which they are blogging from the World Championships.  Oh, and Atlanta's rink has received LEED certification, meaning it reaches the highest level of environmental sustainability for a pre-existing building of its type. 

*The LPGA conducted its stealth major during the Final Four, which was won by young Brittany Lincicome and I'm sure the tour is extremely happy about that.  Nevertheless, The LPGA should think about moving the tournament away from March Madness.  Women's sports fans have their attention elsewhere and it's bad for golf, as Mechelle has suggested. 

*Kelly Clark captured the title of her snowboarding tour and a $50,000 check.  No word yet how much of that goes to Jesus. 

*Speaking of Jesus-loving athletes, a belated congrats to Jen Branam, who earned a WPS starting goalie spot with Sky Blue FC.  I had heard a few years ago she was diagnosed with cancer, which if true makes this a pretty remarkable story.  The WPS website also reports that the Freedom, who continued to hang together as a club even after the league folded the first time around, recently played their ninth consecutive yearly charity match for KICKS Against Breast Cancer. 

Geno Gets The Race Thing Backward

This was Auriemma's way of complimenting Stanford pre-game:

"White kids are always looked upon as being soft. So Stanford's got a tremendous amount of really good players who, for whatever reason, because they don't look like Tina Charles or Maya Moore, the perception out there is going to be, 'Well, they must be soft.'

"Well, I think that's a bunch of bull. I watched them play and nobody goes harder to the boards. Nobody takes more charges. Nobody runs the floor as hard. Those kids are as tough as any of the kids in the country. But people in the sports world like to make judgments on people by how they look. And it's grossly unfair."

You're confused, Geno.  The problem is not that white kids are thought of as soft, it's that black kids are thought of as thuggish.* The white stereotype, if such a thing is prevalent in the women's game which I doubt, has been created as the flipside of a more culturally pervasive, more damaging black stereotype.  On occasion Stanford's white kids are thought of as soft, and this is also, at base, an anti-black stereotype. High academic achievement and a certain kind of finesse play are associated with teams that have a high white concentration. 

*I point readers in the direction of an excellent post at After Atalanta, in which she identifies the phenomenon in soccer coverage. 

South Florida, Your NIT Champs

Jessica Lawson is jazzed (AP): 

CardinalS Will Play For National Title

The vulnerability exposed in Oklahoma during the Elite Eight was no fluke, as Louisville defeated the Big XII powerhouse to advance to its first national championship game.  Unfortunately for the scrappy midwestern...southern...whatever they are, they will be losing to the Huskies, whose systematic dismantling of Stanford was yet more evidence that they are a team of unbeatable completeness.  As per her preseason promise to Sooner fans, Courtney Paris will soon be thinking of ways to pay back her scholarship.  Perhaps the place to start will be her sizeable WNBA signing bonus. 

Six Points

I could kill myself, but I have a rent controlled apartment. 

Stud of the Week: Jayne Appel

For awhile last year WSB had a semi-regular correspondent who was a Stanford hoops fan (I don't wish them ill, you understand, but only because they play so far from the Boilermakers), and she was adamant that Tara was under- and misusing Appel, whom she characterized as "a stud."  It was difficult to tell given that everyone on the team except Wiggins was underutilized that year and it seemed to work out okay.  But that reader must be on cloud nine this season, and particularly this NCAA tournament, since Appel has played a huge role in Stanford's success and now her 46 points against Iowa State have put the Card back in the Final Four.  I'm surprised, though, that Stanford has not developed a superstition, NHL style, about touching the regional trophy.  Congrats also to Louisville who have flown under the radar all year and now have exploded onto the screen, making visible their women's program.  Meanwhile, over in the Trenton and OK City brackets, the two top seeds are kicking back in their armchairs with a Coke  as their coaches harangue them about 'not looking past any opponent.'  Secretly, they're planning late night night DDR parties the night before the game and drinking binges afterward.  Below, photos by AP/Paul Sakuma.

 

McCallie's Comeuppance

One of the game's great egos tipped her hand when she raved on for England about how her fleeing Michigan State for Duke and a fat contract was a great moment for women's basketball.  Her former team got their revenge last night, knocking weak top seed Duke out of the tournament.  

Indiana Basketball Lives!

Ball State over Tennessee, Purdue over North Carolina.  Take that, Southland. 

I Bet Coach G Wishes She Were Back At Duke

Why is it that the gap between top five and top ten programs is so great in the women's game?  As soon as we effectively identify who they are, which takes some time, they might as well be playing in different time zones.  Is the recruit pool really that differentiated, or is it that the lesser teams get only one or two top recruits and the best teams get five?