Aunt Bea is very unhappy over the lack of interest in the UConn women

[DietCoke]

Why ask us to take on faith what would be easily verifiable?

Why must an opinion piece corroborate the obvious?

If it's so obvious, then there should be no shortage of concrete examples to help fortify the piece.

 

[cranberry]

 

[LongTimeListener]

I don't have a problem with the "here's what people are saying" device because, well, that is what people are saying. No reason to bog down in proving the obvious.

But I wonder if it has ever struck Ms. Brennan that newspapers cover baseball, basketball, football and the other things they cover not because those sports "deserve" coverage, but because readers wouldn't have bought the product if it didn't include that.

I also think, as pointed out previously, that nobody clamoring for more women's coverage wants actual coverage of the sport. There might be a story to be done on what the hell has happened to the women's game since 10 years ago when it seemed to be getting wide open. Now there aren't eight players in the entire country who can match UConn's top eight athletically. Why is that?

Downplaying Week 15 of the NFL season to highlight an achievement that approximately 1 percent of your readership cares about if you are not in Storrs or Hartford ... that'd be smart business, yeah.

 

[Stitch]

I don't have a problem with the "here's what people are saying" device because, well, that is what people are saying. No reason to bog down in proving the obvious.

But I wonder if it has ever struck Ms. Brennan that newspapers cover baseball, basketball, football and the other things they cover not because those sports "deserve" coverage, but because readers wouldn't have bought the product if it didn't include that.

I also think, as pointed out previously, that nobody clamoring for more women's coverage wants actual coverage of the sport. There might be a story to be done on what the hell has happened to the women's game since 10 years ago when it seemed to be getting wide open. Now there aren't eight players in the entire country who can match UConn's top eight athletically. Why is that?

Downplaying Week 15 of the NFL season to highlight an achievement that approximately 1 percent of your readership cares about if you are not in Storrs or Hartford ... that'd be smart business, yeah.

Does Brennan actually watch the horrible women's and girls basketball game taking place around the country?

 

[rtse11]

Sunday's UConn-Ohio State game (No. 1 vs. No. 10) is on ESPNU. That's U.

 

[Starman]

I am not sure if it is the job of ESPN and the rest of the mainstream media to engage in boosterism.

Unless you're talking about Brett Favre, Michael Vick, or Coach K, BAYBEE!!!

Back to the thread.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

One more thing. I am old enough to remember than the UCLA streak got its most coverage when they finally LOST to Notre Dame and the streak ended. When they set the record, it was kind of a footnote, as people expected them to keep winning. So if UConn loses this season, and THAT gets ignored, Brennan will have a beef. Not now.

 

[Starman]

I also think, as pointed out previously, that nobody clamoring for more women's coverage wants actual coverage of the sport. There might be a story to be done on what the hell has happened to the women's game since 10 years ago when it seemed to be getting wide open. Now there aren't eight players in the entire country who can match UConn's top eight athletically. Why is that?

The reason why is that the media coverage women's basketball HAS gotten, much of it from boosters like Brennan, has been overwhelmingly slanted toward none other than UConn.

When top recruits turn on the teevee, who is on?

UConn.

Where do the top recruits want to go?

UConn.

Who gets even better?

UConn.

Who gets EVEN MORE of the coverage?

UConn.

Same thing applies in men's hoops with Duke, where ESPN/Vitale's constant shameless shilling has produced similar self-perpetuating results, but UConn's dominance in the women's game is much more total than Duke's in the men's.

 

[poindexter]

One more thing. I am old enough to remember than the UCLA streak got its most coverage when they finally LOST to Notre Dame and the streak ended. When they set the record, it was kind of a footnote, as people expected them to keep winning. So if UConn loses this season, and THAT gets ignored, Brennan will have a beef. Not now.

It won't be a beef then, either.

Tom Brady's hair transplants will be a bigger story.

You can't make people care about uninteresting basketball.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Not to nitpick, but...Aunt BEE.

I think the end of the UConn-Tennessee series does cast a pall on the Huskies streak. Not playing Tennessee hurts the streak's legitimacy.

 

[playthrough]

ESPN.com has a lead story and various sidebar stuff on the streak posted today.

Could not agree more about UConn-Tennessee. Don't know who was more responsible for that series ending, Geno or Summitt, but you know Summitt would kill for a chance to end the streak. Too bad.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Pat Summitt won't play Geno. Hard feelings over the Maya Moore recruitment, supposedly, although there has always seemed to be much more under the surface. Another story that could be covered if anyone tried to cover women's basketball as a sport instead of writing it as "isn't this great that these girls play for the love of the game and are role models for other girls."

 

[Gutter]

When I was on the desk and knew I had a girls/women's basketball gamer coming in with art, I always knew to slot a two-column horizontal photo because 9 times out of 10 the photo would be two or three on the floor wrestling for a loose ball.

Carry on ...

 

[Dick Whitman]

Pat Summitt won't play Geno. Hard feelings over the Maya Moore recruitment, supposedly, although there has always seemed to be much more under the surface. Another story that could be covered if anyone tried to cover women's basketball as a sport instead of writing it as "isn't this great that these girls play for the love of the game and are role models for other girls."

Soccer (both genders) is the same way.

To me, you aren't legitimate until you're covered like you said - as a sport, not as a cause.

 

[playthrough]

Wasn't there also an undercurrent of "UConn-Tennessee is overshadowing the rest of the women's game?" Ludicrous. That's exactly what the sport needs, its two best and polarizing coaches facing off as much as possible.

 

[Stoney]

Don't tell me what to like or be interested in. Make me interested in it.

Exactly. You don't see much on great cross country champions either. No sport is entitled to coverage, the amount you get is determined by the level of fan interest in the sport.

Not many folks are interested in watching basketball played at around the same level as the 15 year old boys at the local JV game. If womens hoops doesn't like it, find a way to get people more interested. They tried switching to a gimmicky smaller ball to try to make the game look more like men's hoops, that didn't seem to work, so try something else. But don't blame the fans for not caring.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Y'all can say what you want about the level of competition, but 80-something consecutive victories in college basketball, be it men's, women's, Div II, III, NAIA, whatever, is still a mighty impressive accomplishment. Regardless of who you play, it's extremely difficult not to find a night where the shots just don't fall enough some time over a 3 year span.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I have no problem with Brennan using her column to tell people how great the UConn team is and how significant she thinks the record is.

I do have a problem when she's chastizing people for not covering it or caring about it the way that she thinks we should.

Give readers a reason to care about this team that goes beyond shaming everyone for overlooking it.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Y'all can say what you want about the level of competition, but 80-something consecutive victories in college basketball, be it men's, women's, Div II, III, NAIA, whatever, is still a mighty impressive accomplishment. Regardless of who you play, it's extremely difficult not to find a night where the shots just don't fall enough some time over a 3 year span.

They could shoot 20 percent and win 90 percent of their games because they are so ridiculously more athletic than other teams that they just rebound and put back, rebound and put back.

It's almost a joke to watch sometimes, especially live, if you ever have a chance. Women among girls.

 

[playthrough]

I have no problem with Brennan using her column to tell people how great the UConn team is and how significant she thinks the record is.

I do have a problem when she's chastizing people for not covering it or caring about it the way that she thinks we should.

Give readers a reason to care about this team that goes beyond shaming everyone for overlooking it.

Get some very important people in basketball to tell us why we should care. Avoid Lapchick.