I object to the term men's basketball ... discuss

You must be in a special pocket of the country, then. Women might do more set stuff, but in my experience, the execution of it is horribly sloppy nine times out of 11. The best backdoor trap in the world doesn't look good when the player with the ball misses the layup three times on the same possession.

Is it possible women run more set offenses and defense because they don't drive as effectively as guys? If they could dunk as easily as the guys, would they still stay with the "game the way it was meant to be played"?

 

I deplore Lady nicknames in our paper less because of political correctness (whatever the fuck that means these days), but because it's outmoded. Harkens back to a time when women's athletics were considered inferior. It sounds so 1950. Besides, in non-genderized nicknames, there's no reason for it.

As for the women's basketball, well, I've seen plenty of electrifying women's basketball games in my time.

Probably the best high school game I've ever seen in Indiana was a girls game -- a semistate double OT championship featuring future UT/UCSB player April McDivitt of Connersville and future UConn/Purdue/USI star Kennitra Johnson of New Albany ... Johnson scored 47 of her team's 66 points on a team that had at least one other Division I player on it.

Anyone who knee-jerks and says all women's/girls basketball sucks hasn't tried hard enough to find quality play on the women's side, or more likely, made up their minds before even watching the sport. (Or in Zag's case, fabricated a viewpoint to get his argumentative jollies off on a message board.)

And yeah, I've seen some brutal women's/girls basketball games. I've also seen some brutal men's/boys games too.

 

It is entirely possible you're watching/going to the wrong games.

 

I've watched quite a bit of high school girls basketball (small and big school) up to the state championship level. I've also covered D-I and D-II games, including the 1994 D-I national title game between North Carolina and Louisiana Tech that was threatening to be about the ugliest damn basketball game ever until Charlotte Smith hit that 3-pointer. I'm not the Dick Vitale of women's basketball (or of pterodactyl porn), but my experiences with the sport do not lead be to believe that they corner the market on the way basketball was meant to be played.

 

I've never figured out where people get the idea that women are better at fundamentals.

They may depend on them more, but I don't see where they are better. And where it can be measured objectively, such as free-throw shooting percentage, it doesn't seem to be there.

 

Political correctness is now why SI wastes half their College basketball issue on the girls game. On this years cover they now show the top 10 of both Mens and womens.

 

In our area, the high school girls outdraw the boys in terms of fans. People show up for the girls game at 6:30, then leave.

I mentioned earlier the big holiday high school girls tournament hosted here. It's a national invitational with a waiting list to get in. It's not unusual for the semifinals and championship to draw 3,000 fans.

 

I like to look at assists. I know that is a subjective stat, but if a team only has 1/3 of their field goals assisted, it's either due to one-on-one play or offensive rebounds.

Nothing wrong with an offensive rebound or a break away off of a steal, but one guy dribbling for 10 seconds trying to drive through three men is not the way I think the game should be played.

Last weekend I saw a 6-3 kid try to shoot a fade away on a 6-10 center with a 7-7 wingspan. Most logical people would yank the kid from the game, but since his dad was the coach...

I think he went 6-for-18 with eight turnovers. His team lost by 40.

 

Who cares who's better at what and which game is more enjoyable. Until men start playing with a square ball or using trampolines in actual NBA competition or play on ice, it's all still basketball. Basketball is basketball. If you're going to genderize one, you genderize both. Saying "women's basketball" but just "basketball" for men is stupid on every level.

 

Like lacrosse.

 

Right. If only one gender plays something, it's cool. Don't call it "men's football." Don't call it "women's softball" (unless you're talking a beer rec league).

 

men's beach volleyball?